I like to read Conditioning Research.  I enjoy the selection of studies and outside material that Chris selects, as well as his analysis and his original content from interviews to his take on various aspects of conditioning.

Awhile back there was a post on creatine.   Creatine is not a supplement I regularly take.  I usually do an upper and lower body workout once every 7-10 days, that’s the goal in any case.  It doesn’t always happen that way.  Sometimes it’s once every 2-3 weeks.  12 hour work days and a whole lot of domestic obligations presently makes it difficult.  What I never am ceased to be amazed by is how well I’ve retained my strength and physique with such infrequent training (believe me, I’m not bragging, there’s a long journey that I’m on, where I’m at physically isn’t the end all be all).

Back to creatine.  I bought a big tub of creatine about a year ago.  My experience was that it made me way too wired, like a revved up engine, and it was a bit too much the next day at the office.  I wanted to go out and pick up a bus.  I felt like a hyped up wild animal having to sit in an office all day.  So, I set it aside.

Recently, about once after every other workout (meaning once every 14-20 days) I’ll take about 5 grams.  I try to workout on a Saturday morning after an intermittent fast that started from the day before around 2pm.  This doesn’t always happen, but I try.  If my workout doesn’t conform to that schedule, I don’t care.  So, what does the creatine do for me?  Pretty much the same thing that Chris says.  It makes my muscles feel fuller, and the recovery period seems shorter.

I take the creatine with my brunch meal.   As Professor De Vany has noted, I also feel like it helps with appetite suppression.  Usually after a workout my standard reaction is to want to eat like a horse for the next 3 days.  Usually, I am left feeling bloated from all of the eating, sore from the workout, and often feeling as if I whacked my insulin sensitivity a bit by binging on fruits, 90% chocolate and a few glasses of wine from the weekend.  With creatine just after the workout this subsides a bit (not completely!).  It still takes an enormous amount of will power to not go too far with the carbs after a workout, but this seems to help.

Again, I don’t do it every week, because not every week am I able to workout on a Saturday morning.  And basically, if I’m not able to take creatine after a workout on Saturday morning, I’m not going to take it.  It just leaves me too wired to go into work on a workday or the next business day.  I like a good 48 hour period after a creatine dose before I have to go back to neolithic wage earning mode.

This is how I do it.  Either I go into a workout in a fasted state or I don’t, either way, I try to wait about an hour before eating after the workout.  I have a meal usually pretty heavy with eggs and bacon.  Then, maybe after half an hour or so after the meal, I take creatine stirred in a glass of water with a few apple slices or some strawberries.

Do I think creatine is necessary?  No.

Would I take it every day?  No, it leaves me too hyped, and I don’t work out frequently as of lately.  Perhaps, I’ll do a split routine with 2-3 workouts a week, but I just don’t have the time right now.  And even if I worked out 2-3 times a week or more, I don’t think I would ever take creatine daily.  I don’t like feeling that amped.

So why am I taking creatine at all?  Well, at this point it’s about once every 7-21 days after a workout.  To put it bluntly, I think there’s a bit of vanity involved.  I think once a month or so a “creatine hit” after a good hard workout allows me to stay motivated with a feeling of increased strength, quicker recovery and a more “full appearance” as Chris described it.  I wouldn’t call myself a fan of creatine or an addict, I don’t mean to make light of a serious subject, but I’m more of a recreational user.  I could take it or leave it.  Since I bought a tub of it and only use a scoop on average once every 3 weeks (despite intentions to workout on Saturday mornings more often), I figure I’ll experiment with this approach until the tub is empty.

Will I buy another tub of this stuff?  Maybe.  Not really that important.  Real food, meaning meat, seafood, vegetables, and fruit, and not meaning HFCS, sugar-laden sweets, grains, legumes… that’s the real supplement of choice.  Vitamin D daily, as well, when I’m not in the sun.  Fish oil daily when I’m not eating fish nearly daily.  Some other stuff I’ll write about another time.  Some sprints thrown in once every 7-21 days.  A workout every 7-21 days.  As much play as I can get, and some good walks when I can.  All of this doesn’t happen like I plan or as often as I want, except eating real food, that happens daily with nearly no exceptions.

What does happen daily?  Living a real life.  I won’t comment more on that, I would ask anyone reading this to define what that means for themselves.  I would caution someone about using the word “perfect” and to be aware that disappointments  really are just from having to change your plan that simply had to conform to unfolding events, these disappointments are not from you not being “perfect.”  Other than that, living a real life daily, and that’s for you to decide what doses, or frequencies, or whatever of what you like and/or is possible on such and such a day.

You may find something in a tub, just a little something.  But you’re not going to find “it” all measured out in a dose with your scoop.