creatine and stiff muscles

I think your close. My guess is that you legs are just getting bigger and you will have to stretch more.

vio765 said:

Is there any relationship between creatine use and stiffer muscles. i used to be limber, and ever since loading and maintaining creatine, i can feel more stiffness throughout my normal stretching routine. my educated guess is that the extra water that may be associated with creatine use may be causing my problem. any other theories? am i right or wrong? help

I either read a scientific article or heard it from someone (can't remember it was a reputable source or not) that creatine caused water retention. I just can't remember the specifics. If I can find that article again, I'll pass it along.

vio765 said:

Is there any relationship between creatine use and stiffer muscles. i used to be limber, and ever since loading and maintaining creatine, i can feel more stiffness throughout my normal stretching routine. my educated guess is that the extra water that may be associated with creatine use may be causing my problem. any other theories? am i right or wrong? help

You are right. Creatine is said to increase muscle water volume related to improved glycogen storage. Do not attempt to minimize this by cutting back on hydration. Warm up some BEFORE stretching .
For the lecture portion, wouldn't you be curious enough to bone up on the actions and side effects involved in the consumption of a supplement BEFORE (again) taking it ??

All are correct. Creatine causes an increase of intracellular water (or to get into the weeds.... the amount of cytoplasma in the cell increases) making each muscle cell bigger....hence the over all muscle bigger. You will lose a small amout of flexability at first but you can regain that with more stretching. Also do not cut back on your H2O. You have to drink more while on creatine. If you don't drink more first it will not work and your wasting your money and second it can cause stomach upset.

bladegeek said:

All are correct. Creatine causes an increase of intracellular water (or to get into the weeds.... the amount of cytoplasma in the cell increases) making each muscle cell bigger....hence the over all muscle bigger. You will lose a small amout of flexability at first but you can regain that with more stretching. Also do not cut back on your H2O. You have to drink more while on creatine. If you don't drink more first it will not work and your wasting your money and second it can cause stomach upset.

And as a result you gain weight. So depending on what your objectives are, the benefits may not outweigh the costs.

Alex Simmons said:

And as a result you gain weight. So depending on what your objectives are, the benefits may not outweigh the costs.

Damn the cost man, chicks dig engorged muscles...

9.8mps2 said:

Damn the cost man, chicks dig engorged muscles...

Apologies, I thought this was a cycling training forum🙄

Just curious, but how would creatine help an endurance athlete? It causes a lot of weight gain, and while I can see it being helpful for short anaerobic efforts, I don't see how it would effect more important things like lactate threshold or VO2 max.

I_paint said:

Just curious, but how would creatine help an endurance athlete? It causes a lot of weight gain, and while I can see it being helpful for short anaerobic efforts, I don't see how it would effect more important things like lactate threshold or VO2 max.

Good point......it probably does not help. However if you trying to maintain your weight and lose too much.....yes some have that problem....it will help you.

I've noticed that while use'n creatine my riding work outs suffer! I notice more leg pain and dehydration. I don't think it was designed for aerobic athleates

My .02, if your race is longer than 1k, its not going to help you and is a waste of money and not worth the abuse of you kidneys. If you are cycling as part of a bodybuilding lifestyle where you are trying to keep some muscle size , then make sure you are carefull with hydration.

vio765 said:

Is there any relationship between creatine use and stiffer muscles. i used to be limber, and ever since loading and maintaining creatine, i can feel more stiffness throughout my normal stretching routine. my educated guess is that the extra water that may be associated with creatine use may be causing my problem. any other theories? am i right or wrong? help

The water retention is in part to the choice of creatine that you are using. If you are using basic creatine monohydrate, then I would say move toward a creatine ethyl ester, which will bring down the water retention inside the muscles.

Billsworld said:

My .02, if your race is longer than 1k, its not going to help you and is a waste of money and not worth the abuse of you kidneys. If you are cycling as part of a bodybuilding lifestyle where you are trying to keep some muscle size , then make sure you are carefull with hydration.

+1
😎

Meek One said:

+1
😎

long time no hear from. 1525 seated.1100 30 sec

Billsworld said:

long time no hear from. 1525 seated.1100 30 sec

Sounding good.

Been off in my own little world for a while, but ready to hit it HARD. I'll shoot you some new numbers in a few weeks. 😉

pre-cycling I did alot of serious weightlifting, and used creatine for nearly 5 years. here what I think:
1. creatine does increase muscle volume via water
2. i had to buy micronized creatine, because the regular went through me like....
3. the muscle volume increase literally drains out of your muscles within a couple of weeks
4. muscle cells swelled with water will not under any circumstances allow you to look lean or cut
5. i do believe that during a creatine cycle strength may increase, and some may be retained long term, but much will be lost when use is discontinued
6. If you are trying to max bench press, I understand creatine, for bike racing...I have no idea why you would use it

My cyclists also suffered the same fate of stiff muscles and more frequent cramps with creatine. I believe it may be the fault of poor knowledge of the product use. Unfortunately, sometimes it's being dispensed to every athletes with the same instructions!

I'm also concerned about Doping Control Prohibited substances which may be found in some lesser known brands.

I looked at creatine and concluded that it would;
- be a benifit to my powerlifting provided it didn't flick me to another weight category
- be a disavantage to my cycling

Life has choices