Should I take creatine?

[dustinm]

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea if i should take creatine. I'm a 19 year old male who lifts dumbell weights and does push ups and sit ups every second day(nothing too serious). I play quite a bit of sports for fun in my off time and i've always been pretty skinny and never been able to put on weight no matter how often i used to go to the gym and what i eat. Since i'm not really a serious body builder or anything like that, is creatine a good idea for me or is it meant more for serious athletes and body builders.

Thanks

and one more quick question, if i was on creatine for lets say 6 months and then stopped using it all together, would i eventually go back to my former body type, would it stay the same, or would my body be worse then when i started taking creatine?

[pmcgough]

creatine doesnt have bad side affects really when you go off...you wouldnt lose what you gained, or at least not much of it...but, on a second note, creatine is generally for more serious bodybuilders

also, you seem to be overtraining.....what you should do if you only work out 3 times a week is a good training split...ie chest,triceps,shoulders on monday, biceps/forearms and back wednesday, and legs on friday.....that way, you would be giving each muscle group adequate recovery time

or, if you want to strengthen/get even better recovery, do chest and back monday, legs wednesday, and biceps,triceps,shoulders friday.....that way, you would get the most recovery time possible, as well as the most strength

if you do that, i would recomend protein first, such as 100% whey, nitro tech, etc, and creatine second, such as vitargo cgl, cell tech, trac creatine,etc

[Doc2029]

Originally Posted by dustinm

I'm wondering if it would be a good idea if i should take creatine. I'm a 19 year old male who lifts dumbell weights and does push ups and sit ups every second day(nothing too serious). I play quite a bit of sports for fun in my off time and i've always been pretty skinny and never been able to put on weight no matter how often i used to go to the gym and what i eat. Since i'm not really a serious body builder or anything like that, is creatine a good idea for me or is it meant more for serious athletes and body builders.

Thanks

and one more quick question, if i was on creatine for lets say 6 months and then stopped using it all together, would i eventually go back to my former body type, would it stay the same, or would my body be worse then when i started taking creatine?

I don't see where it would hurt you. However, maybe you should start by looking at your excersise program and then your diet.

If you are serious about putting on mass then you need to get the diet in to shape first. Before you supplement with anything start eating clean. If you need to loose fat first, then do that first then bulk.

Doing the workout is the easy part of building mass. The nutrition part is the hard part and 90% of your fitness battle!

If you took creatine then stopped you may loose some size and weight do to water retenetion caused by creatine.

[Tiestolive]

pmcgough first of all "also, you seem to be overtraining.....what you should do if you only work out 3 times a week is a good training split...ie chest,triceps,shoulders on monday, biceps/forearms and back wednesday, and legs on friday" now what u just said is overtraining. he will spend over an hour and a half in a gym each time he works out. thats way too long. workout should be abotu 45- 1 hour not more than an hour. Second of all why would u ever recommend whey protein that is made by Muscle Tech? that brand is a totally overpriced. Whey protein that i would recoomend is Optimum NUtrition (Vanilla Ice Cream Flavor) i love that protein and its soo much cheaper and prolly even a better protein. 23 grams of protein per scoop.... yea just my 2 cents

[dustinm]

it would be nice if i could get some more opinions on this, thanks

[gdawg0987]

Creatine probably wouldn't help you build much muscles just b/c of the fact that it sounds like you don't lift seriously. Not dissing you or nothing. I'm just saying most people that see benefits from it hit the weights pretty intensely, otherwise that is the reason why your not bigger or stronger. As far as your second question goes... as long as you keep lifting and eating properly you shouldn't really lose your gains once you stop taking creatine. Hope this helped.

[cursor]

Frankly, I wouldn't worry at all about creatine supplementation (I don'). There are SO many more components in a quality fitness program that'll substantially greater changes in your physique and wellness. Save your money.

[Gooseneck]

Doing the workout is the easy part of building mass. The nutrition part is the hard part and 90% of your fitness battle!

Take these words to heart, it is the decisive factor whether you make gains or not. Anyone can gulp down 10 grams of creatine a day, but that is not what makes muscle, food does. Creatine is just an aid to help you lift a little bit heavier weight which in turn will build more muscle, but only if you have the proper food intake and rest.
If you want to take creatine, that's fine, but dont expect much from it.