Creatine Loading, Cycling and Side Effects
How to Use Creatine to Safely Build Muscle Mass
Nov 3, 2009
Creatine loading has long been used by the athletic fraternity as a proven way of increasing strength gains in power athletes. It is also used successfully by body builders to help increase muscle mass. To use it successfully the dose is important, as is the loading and cycling of Creatine. There are few side effects but the ones that do exist are outlined below.
Creatine Loading
Loading should be done for the first five days at a rate of 20 – 30 grams per day. This should be worked out at a rate of 0.3 grams per kilo of body weight. Thus a 70 kilogram person would ingest 21grams per day. This should be done in no more that five gram servings through out the day. After the loading phase, a maintenance dose of five grams per day is enough to continue for the rest of the cycle.
Creatine Cycling
There is contention as to whether long term Creatine use is harmful. Some studies have been done involving use for over 12 months with no harmful effects. At a dose of five grams per day or less it is thought not to be harmful but most athletes do some form of cycling to fit with their training.
A loading phase of one week followed by a maintenance phase of four to six weeks followed by a three week break is normal, although many different ways of cycling are used depending on the sport. Other cycling has suggested that as a five day loading phase is enough to saturate the muscles and levels reduce slowly, a maintenance phase is not necessary, just periodic loading once a month or up to once every two weeks.
Side Effects of Creatine Supplementation
Creatine has very few direct side effects and is shown to be safe even in long term supplementation in small doses. There are some anecdotal side effects which are listed below:
- Dehydration can occur due to the fact that Creatine encourages water into the skeletal muscles, meaning that there may be less for other essential systems.
- Increased muscle and tendon injury may occur due to the increase in training intensity which usually follows Creatine supplementation. This should be avoided as long as a progressive training program is in place that controls the rate of load increase to allow the muscles and tendons to sufficiently strengthen.
- Gastrointestinal complaints are common, especially in the loading phase. This may be due to the large amounts of Creatine in the gut attracting excess water and causing loose bowels. There are now some liquid forms that may reduce this, also Creatine supplementation without the loading phase may help.
You should not start a Creatine supplementation program without consulting your GP if you have any existing medical conditions, especially renal, respiratory or cardiac issues.
Sources:
Bardot, D. ( 2006) Advanced Sports Nutrition. Human Kinetics Books. US.
Vierck, J. L. et al. (2003) The effects of ergogenic compounds on myogenic satellite cells. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, Volume 35 (5), pages 769-776.
'Gyrate Atrophy of the Choroid and Retina: A Five-Year Follow-Up of Creatine Supplementation, Opthalmology, vol. 92, pp. 1719-1727, 1985).http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0164.htm
 |
