Why cycle creatine

Depending on your workout, there are different ways to creatine cycle. Here is how to use creatine the right way for you. First of all, what is a creatine cycle? Simply put, it is a way to increase the effectiveness of your creatine supplement. It does this by preventing the possibility of your body getting used to the supplementation.

When you take it regularly, you run the risk of your body no longer responding to the supplement, and thus nullifying the results. However, creatine cycling may not be necessary for every individual. A single round of the creatine cycle should last weeks, with a pause of weeks or longer, if needed where you do not supplement with creatine at all.

Because of the benefits for building large muscles, creatine cycling is not typically employed by endurance athletes.

Some studies on PubMed have suggested benefits for bicyclists, but not so much for other sports such as long distance running or swimming. For road cyclists, creatine has shown to be most useful after injury, or just to build overall strength in your legs.

Our study participants were blind to treatment or placebo, and performed a continuous sprint to exhaustion at a constant power output, rather than variable power during intervals in the study by Engelhardt et al. In another cycling study demonstrating positive effects of creatine supplementation during timed intervals at maximal intensity, Vandeburie et al. Vandeburie et al.

Active recovery performed at 0. The intensity and intermittent nature of the alternate-intensity cycling performance measure to exhaustion, as well as the high-dose supplementation regime in the study by Rico-Sanz and Marco was clearly different from our low-dose supplementation study with a performance measure of timed sprint to exhaustion at a constant power output.

Muscle biopsy data, used to verify increases in muscle creatine phosphate content, are lacking in all of the studies described above, although blood analysis demonstrated a significantly higher plasma creatine and creatinine following supplementation in the study by Engelhardt et al.

The primary difference between the present study, demonstrating no improved performance, and past studies, demonstrating improved cycling performance, is likely the type of performance measure: sprint to exhaustion at a constant power output in the present study as compared to interval-type performance at self-paced intensity in other studies.

The lack of effect of creatine supplementation on performance in the present study is similar to the findings of Godly et al. Godly et al. Both groups were tested before and after the 5-day blinded supplementation period. The well-trained cyclists sprinted 15 seconds every four kilometers of a 25 km time trial performed in the laboratory on their own bikes [ 11 ]. Myburgh et al. Thirteen cyclists were tested before and after the supplementation period, with seven cyclists ingesting creatine and six ingesting placebo.

These data conflict with past reports of positive benefits of creatine ingestion on endurance performance, and indicate that there is no consensus as to the effect of creatine supplementation on endurance performance of continuous or variable-intensity cycling. The potential benefits of creatine supplementation include enhanced muscle creatine phosphate and muscle glycogen content, increased plasma volume, and alterations in substrate selection and oxygen consumption.

Although there were positive effects of this low-dose creatine compared to placebo supplementation with respect to resting muscle creatine phosphate and glycogen content, as well as increased plasma volume and reduced submaximal oxygen consumption during exercise, there was no greater improvement in sprint performance in the creatine than placebo group. There have been only two studies of creatine supplementation other than the present study reporting oxygen consumption during endurance exercise.

Differences in intensity and duration of the protocol may account for the discrepant findings of the current study and that of Rico-Sanz and Marco. Englehardt et al. No previous studies of creatine supplementation and endurance exercise have contained reports of respiratory exchange ratio. We found no effect of supplementation on respiratory exchange ratio, suggesting that creatine supplementation does not alter fuel selection.

There was also no difference between creatine and placebo groups in the change in muscle glycogen during the cycling bout. There was a higher muscle glycogen concentration five minutes prior to the end of exercise in the post-creatine cycling bout compared to the post-placebo cycling bout, but this was likely due to the slightly elevated muscle glycogen content prior to the post-supplementation exercise in the creatine group.

Hultman et al. The increases in muscle creatine phosphate and total creatine were of similar magnitude approx. These data, in combination with our performance data demonstrating an increased performance that was not dependent upon the type of supplementation creatine or placebo , highlight the importance of using a placebo group and a double-blind protocol. Although Hultman et al. The present data support the findings of Hultman et al.

The creatine supplementation was also associated with higher pre-exercise body weight as well as higher muscle glycogen concentration and plasma volume near the end of two hours of cycling after creatine supplementation compared to placebo. It can be concluded that 28 days of creatine supplementation increased resting muscle creatine phosphate, muscle glycogen content and plasma volume during exercise.

The creatine supplementation was not different from placebo in improving performance of a sprint to exhaustion at the end of a two-hour cycling bout interspersed with eight sets of three second sprints. Hultman E: Studies on muscle metabolism of glycogen and active phosphate in man with special reference to exercise and diet.

Scandinavian Journal of Clinical and Laboratory Investigation. Article Google Scholar. Edited by: Pernow B, Saltin B. Chapter Google Scholar. Its role in human performance. Clinics in Sports Medicine. J Appl Physiol. Am J Physiol.

Med Sci Sports Exerc. Int J Sports Med. Godly A: Effects of creatine supplementation on endurance cycling combined with short, high-intensity bouts. Acta Physiol Scand. Google Scholar. Wilmore JH: A simplified technique for determination of residual lung volumes. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. CAS Google Scholar. Ann NY Acad sci. J Histochem Cytochem. Methods and variance of values. Large maintenance doses beyond those cited in studies, are likely a large waste of money better spent on other supplements or equipment.

Possibly no need to fret unnecessarily if considering using creatine slightly longer than well documented cycles, if perhaps you are still in the midst of a high volume training protocol and still making good improvements, but consider periodising your training to keep the high volume and high intensity work, to when you are in your week creatine cycle, is probably a better idea in future.

The effect of 7 days of creatine supplementation on hour urinary creatine excretion. Journal of strength and conditioning research, Feb;15 1 Hile, A.

Creatine supplementation and anterior compartment pressure during exercise in the heat in dehydrated men. Journal of Athletic Training, ; 41 1 : 30— Studies on the safety of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids, May;40 5 Jeffrey R. Stout, Jose Antonio, Douglas Kalman, eds.

Essentials of Creatine in Sports and Health. Estimated reading time: 11mins For the purposes of this article, all the myriad forms of creatine available on the market have been discussed as merely creatine.

Before we can understand the importance of the creatine cycle it is firstly important to understand how much creatine you should be consuming. The recommended daily amount of creatine ranges from between 5 g to 20 g. This means you should not be exceeding 20 g of creatine, which many people using creatine do on a daily basis. Taking creatine post workout can help provide your muscles with energy, which can help you to workout harder, for longer.

Doing this will breakdown more muscle fibers and with sufficient recovery, lead to more growth. So you could take 5 g before your workout and 5 g after to help aid performance, recovery and growth. It really is up to you when you choose to take it providing you stay within the recommended daily dosage. When taking creatine there are some very important things to understand.

When you being your creatine cycle most people will undergo the loading phase. This means that you consume 20 g of creatine a day. The best way to do this is to take 10 g pre workout and 10 g post workout, normally added to your post workout protein shake. The loading phase lasts 1 week and the aim is to flow your body and muscles with creatine to promote a quicker response to see benefits and gains faster.