The strength and explosiveness gains are obvious, but is it worth the weight gain? Perhaps if strength was retained when you stopped taking it and after the weight gain from water retention was lost. Your thoughts?
Also, without sounding like a dick, I'd prefer if posters didn't make claims without substantiating them by linking to a scientific, peer-reviewed article. I would encourage posters to ignore any post that makes a claim without backing it up.
I remember, reading The Biochemistry of Exercise 1999, it was the 1st study I believe, it wasnt good reading Im afraid. Like most things you lend, it never came back. But there are loads of information of it about, Im sure it will surface, great Thread :good
Massive NO. The added water weight will make you feel sluggish, adding to the fact that you're going to need to drink more water than you already do when you box. Just drink whey protein with low sugars, low carb and no creatine.
This is if you're on it when fighting. It's possible to take it, gain strength, then come off it and lose the water weight while maintaining the strength gains. Not that I disagree with it while fighting. If you're light for your division and can't cut to the division below it's useful to get bigger.
That's true, but when you're on it and hitting pads, sparring and doing a lot of boxing specific training and sweating crazy but with the creatine and the added water weight...? Nah, it's pure protein for me. But you're right though, I reckon you could get away with that... but doesn't it take a couple of weeks to load up and stuff?
Problem I have with it, Tests showed at the Time, it was Harmful to the reproduction organs, Liver and Kidneys because of overload. Its produced by the Body anyway naturally.
Many people gain little to no water weight. Creatine increases endurance so many would argue its benefical for padwork sparring etc. Loading is not necessary unless you are in a rush to make gains. Loading basically gets you up to maximal saturation straight away, which will happen quite soon anyway on a 5g a day dose. So loading is only desirable for those who want gains very fast. Scrap, no studies have shown creatine, when taken in adequate doses, to be damaging to the organs of healthy individuals. It is, however, contrainidicated in those with preexisting kidney disease. I'm sure however that creatine, just like anything else in excess, would be injurious to the body.
Well it was an independent study, and it Did. My thoughts at the time, there are better ways through Diet, to achieve what was required. If I remember correctly its hard to remove out of the system because of the reproduction organs wont accept it, Hence the Spots .
Link to the study? No study that is unpublished has any merit as it can't be trusted as to accuracy, sample sizes, methods etc. Creatine replenishes the body's ATP, providing energy for muscle contractions. It is very effective at doing this, food alone cannot emulate it's properties. If by "spots" you mean acne, then these are associated with steroids. Creatine is not a steroid. Perhaps creatine has caused acne in isolated cases (nothing has zero side effects, anything could cause acne in a random individual), in which situation this side-effect could be avoided by switching to a different type of creatine.
The "reproduction" organs are the *****, scrotum, and vagina so I'm not sure what you mean here. Creatine is not difficult to remove from the body. As it exists naturally in the body systems are in place already that are equipped to eliminate it. If the subject exercises it is used for ATP production. If the subject does not exercise, the body will convert the extra creatine into creatinine and excrete it through the urine in less than an hour.
I remember reading a study on creatine and how it appeared to reduce concussions in football athletes (American football). So another consideration to throw into the mix.
[url]http://www.sportsci.org/traintech/creatine/rbk.html[/url] The main thing is the water weight, if you have a couple of kgs to play with then I think it's a good idea, plus as the poster above me mentioned there is a little bit of research that indicates that it might help prevent concussion.
The last study I looked at showed acute water weight gains of 0.7kg or something, it's really not that much. People exaggerate it greatly. "Yo brah, don't take creatine, it made me hold like 10lbs of water and I lost my abs"
