Misuse of Creatine May be the Big Reason You Are Not Seeing Results.
Building strength, agility, and speed all require focus and energy. Maintaining them 24/7 is almost impossible to do naturally, which prevents the use of your full potential in your workout. Many men find the solution in anabolic steroids that get them pumped for the workout and build muscle fast.
If while you are that the gym you begin to wish you had steroids because you are not seeing results as quickly as you anticipated then it may be time to shake up your routine.
You are here because you want healthy gains, and creatine is not a steroid. Steroids deal directly with the anabolic process or protein synthesis, creatine is a compound of phosphates that help reduce muscle fatigue.
Implementing a creatine supplement into your daily routine will boost your workout to the next level. Our proven formula is the best in the industry, and you will notice the difference almost immediately.
How Does it Work?
Without getting too technical, creatine is a combination of a few different natural amino acids that are put together to help your body build muscle.
To achieve the same level of amino acids it would take copious amounts of differing fish and meats that are almost unrealistic to eat in one go.
In loading phase you need to pay attention to how your body is taking the supplement. If you are feeling sick, for example, it is safer to lower the dosage and take a longer loading phase. The results won’t come as quickly but it is better to be healthy rather than muscular.
If you are capable of ensuring that the effects of prescribed dosage won’t negatively affect you then you can expect results.
According to Jose Antonio and Victoria Ciccone for the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition in 2013:
“Chronic supplementation with creatine monohydrate has been shown to promote increases in:
-total intramuscular creatine
-phosphocreatine
-skeletal muscle mass
-lean body mass
-and muscle fiber size.
Furthermore, there is robust evidence that muscular strength and power will also increase after supplementing with creatine.”
What you can expect from this supplement is a visible growth in muscle tissue and a definitive decrease in recovery time.
How Do You Take It?
The loading phase is the beginning of any creatine use. It is intended to stockpile creatine in the body so when it is taken later on it can be taken at a lower dosage, this helps keep your body from building a resistance to it.
Shannon Clark wrote for BodyBuilding.com:
“Typically, you will use 20 grams of creatine for a five day period, which will be the quickest way to stock up the stores in the body and get yourself back onto maintenance. Due to the fact though that creatine can cause bloating in many people along with some gastric upset, some choose not to pursue the loading phase to quite this extent, preferring to sacrifice time over water retention.”
The maintenance phase is marked by your transition into taking the supplement as needed and at a lower dosage.
Our product Decacor was built with the intention of filling your loading and maintenance needs, each container holds 50 servings. An easy way to look at it would be to start with using 3-4 servings per day for the first week and then lower it to 1-2 servings daily for your maintenance period. Our bottles have a month’s worth of product which enables you to utilize it’s full value.
Antonio and Ciccone wrote:
“In order to keep the maximal saturation of body creatine, the loading phase must be followed by a maintenance period of 3-5 g CM/d or 0.03 g CM/kg/d. These strategies appear to be the most efficient way of saturating the muscles and benefitting from CM supplementation. However more recent research has shown CM supplementation at doses of 0.1 g/kg body weight combined with resistance training improves training adaptations at a cellular and sub-cellular level.”
At this point you should be seeing changes during your workout in overall physique, energy levels, and focus.
What you should be shooting for a push through plateaus and the ability to finish sets easier.
This is an area where you ought to be pushing limits you were unsure about before, do this safely, of course, but you may be surprised about the growth.
The study by Antonio and Ciccone shows that there may be something in taking post-workout rather than before:
“Chronic supplementation with creatine monohydrate has been shown to promote increases in total
- intramuscular creatine
- phosphocreatine
- skeletal muscle mass
- lean body mass
- and muscle fiber size.
Furthermore, there is robust evidence that muscular strength and power will also increase after supplementing with creatine.”
This is the most personal choice you can make when starting a creatine supplement, science has shown benefits of both times, and neither will show negative results. What this will mean is that it is worth it to try it at both times to see what changes are made and work your diet around whichever you choose.
What Will the Effects Be?
Creatine is one of the most widely supported supplements available on the market. The use of it has been proven countless times in many sports, it’s used for anything from running to weightlifting to football and soccer.
Robert Cooper, Fernando Naclerio, Judith Allgrove and Alfonso Jimenez wrote in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition:
“It is regularly reported that creatine supplementation, when combined with heavy resistance training leads to enhanced physical performance, fat free mass, and muscle morphology [18, 19, 20, 21, 22]. A 2003 meta analysis [8] showed individuals ingesting creatine, combined with resistance training, obtain on average +8% and +14% more performance on maximum (1RM) or endurance strength (maximal repetitions at a given percent of 1RM) respectively than the placebo groups.”
The catch with creatine? YOU have to work with it. Unlike other supplements, the only way it will work is by turning your effort into a finished product. You have to be dedicated and smart otherwise the only results you will see are a rise in blood pressure.
