Although i have seen some of the general posts in the past about creatine, I wonder if anyone has any first-hand experience using “runner’s creatine” in conjunction with their training.
For the sake of this particular thread, I am not looking for comments about the ethics of using creatine, perceptions on the relationship between that and various doping (somewhere many of these threads invariably go), etc. Rather, I am just looking for observations on the physical effects, advantages, and disadvantages of using this particular, low-dosage creatine product.
My 2 pesos. I havew used Creatine in early season swimming. I believe it helped, however I was totally dried up the rest of the day. Creatine takes water in your body and concentrates it in the muscles. I believe this would be bad if you used it for running. It may dehydrate you and cause cramping.
I am starting use of creatine in a few weeks for weight lifting.
I was using it in conjunction with my weight training and started putting it in my water bottles on the group ride, what i noticed is that my legs would pump up immediatley and it did feel uncomfortable while riding, it would take me about 20 miles or so to get over the pump before my legs would feel normal again, I didnt like that feeling so no more creatine for me.
I would strongly recommend you stay away from it. A couple of my running buddies last year saw the running ads for this stuff and were looking for the “magic pill” to make their 5K times faster. Both ended up with hamstring strains. One guy talked to a sports MD and dehydration is a very common side-effect when endurance athletes use this stuff – hence the tendency for muscle strains.
My 2 cents - stay away. Besides, why put ANYTHING in your body that isn’t 100% safe…and make no mistake, creatine is selling because of marketing, not universal scientific blessing of this product. The fact the running serum essentially plants the seed of doubt that the powder stuff may cause some liver/kidney issues should be a red flag.
i’ve yet to see either a study or a prof who knows of a study in which they’ve shown creatine to be beneficial to anyone but bodybuilders/sprinters/weightlifters/etc.
essentially, it increases the body’s ability to utilize the ATP-PC system for energy, which lasts less than 10 seconds.
There is NO SCIENTIFIC PROOF that it actually works. It is not FDA approved; the only backing is potentially biased short-term studies that can probably be tweaked for or against its effectiveness.
As far as I’ve read, it increases water retention in the muscles in your body (which is why a lot of lifters take it–they aren’t actually getting bigger, stronger muscles from it, they are just more swollen from the excess water retention in the muscles.
I don’t see why either of these reasons would suggest that it’s a good choice for endurance athletes.
Well, creatine does force more water into your muscles. In doing so it allows your muscles to store more ATP. It is not some magic pill that will make you a ton stronger. In reality it will get you one or two more reps at the current weight you lift for a given set. The idea is that over the course of a few months the extra one or reps start to add up and you increase the amount of weight you can lift.
I think creatine’s effect varies greatly from person to person. For some people it will result in a quick weight gain from the extra water retention. For myself, I find that I gain no weight and I actually get leaner while on it. I have also that found that my cycling workouts are much stronger when I am on creatine. I make a concerted effort to increase my water intake, but contrary to what most people experience, I cramp less when I’m on creatine than when I am not.
If you are a healthy person with no kidney issues, creatine may help you out. I find that I benefit from its use, even during endurance events.