Anyone take Creatine, is it legal

mikesbytes

Creatine seems to be a popular suppliment in other disicplines, how about cyclists?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine

http://www.brianmac.demon.co.uk/creatine.htm

http://www.freedomfly.net/Articles/...upplements7.htm

http://www.roadcycling.com/training...rchreview.shtml

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/psych...gy/creatine.htm

http://wwwchem.csustan.edu/chem4400...00sangalang.htm

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Fastguppy

For a professional athlete to take this may be a bad choice. If something shows up as a steroid then you will be banned. In this case it probably wouldn't but there is a chance that it would because some of it might be contaminated.



So you must ask your self. Are you competing in any kind of national race or are you a professional.



If not you don't need to worry about if something is legal or not.

mikesbytes

Its not a steriod.

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garage sale GT

From Wiki:
There is scientific evidence that taking creatine supplements can marginally increase athletic performance in high-intensity anaerobic repetitive cycling sprints, but studies in swimmers and runners have been less than promising, possibly due to the weight gain. Ingesting creatine can increase the level of phosphocreatine in the muscles up to 20%. It must be noted creatine has no significant effect on aerobic exercise (Engelhardt et al, 1998).

Fastguppy

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikesbytes Its not a steriod.

It cans till make you show up as positive. Eating a piece of candy can make you show up as positive. There are really cases of it with professional cyclist.



It may not be a steroid but it can show up as one if it is contaminated.

Fastguppy

It probably wont have a significant effect in general. Many people waste money on these things.

In our university there was a test done to see how much of an advantage things gave you. Most of them did nothing as others did little good.

mikesbytes

Some of the articles talked about there being benifits for older people.

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garage sale GT

I can't think of a citation now, but I have read materials suggesting that companies which market legal weight lifting supplements often secretly add 'roids. The article implied that experienced lifters could tell or that there was a grapevine, and that the names of these products were thinly disguised, coded references to the fact that they contain steroids.

Fastguppy

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikesbytes Some of the articles talked about there being benifits for older people.

Well I know for sure a product that would make people go a lot faster would probably be banned. They banned doping because of this effect so why wouldn't they ban another substance that would make you go fast?



So we know pretty sure that we wont be seeing much of a increase. However it depends on how much money you want to spend.



I think it is safe to say you wont have to deal with much (if any) drug testing so you don't really need to worry about that. SO now what we have left to deal with is how much do you want this, How much money are you able to spend and what kind of a benefit will it give you. It definitely wont hurt you so if you had it you could try it but do you want to spend the money for it?



There’s other things to spend your money on. If I was old I would go to the store buy my self chocolate milk, raisins and get some real yogurt and frozen fruits and bend the fruits and the yogurt together.



As it is a proven statistic that chocolate milk is the best recovery drink for you.



Also note that other drinks and foods aren’t much better then Gatorade or power bars. A drink or some food can only be so healthy. Gatorade is not much worse then some of the drinks out there.



The reason why Pros drink stuff like that is because there looking for just a tiny benefit.

mikesbytes

I wasn't thinking that it would improve my cycling performance, I was checking that if I took it that I wouldn't be breaking any cycling rules.

Theres some useful links in this thread

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Rockslayer

Creatine occurs naturally in alot of meat.
As for improving performance, I used to take it in my weight training days certainly help with strength and increase volume in muscles. I am not sure if it helps when it comes to endurance or riding.

I know it helped give me more energy when consumed prior to training but then again a red bull could do the same thing.

If you drink alot of coffee or drink it about the same time as taking the creatine it supposed to neutralise the effect of creatine.

The effects also plateau so its not like steriods where more could be better.

I am sure it still has its uses, I think it could be helpful for older people as i think the body's ability to create it declines also the body's energy levels. I could be wrong havent really payed attention to it much in the last few years. There's always some new fancy research that says something entirely different.

Hmm I remember it used to retail for like $200 per KG it was the in thing in the mid 90's

mikesbytes

Just because you digest something thats already in your body, doesn't mean that the body uses it for that purpose. I must admit that I'm not 100% sure that digesting creatine is going to increase the levels in my body.

Its popular amongst body builders.

Can I cut down of coffee. Thats a tuff one.

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Fastguppy

Well USADA states "Take it at your own risk"

How many drugtest do you think you will be doing? Any national championships? If so How many?

mikesbytes

Its not a case of whether I'll be caught or not, I want to stick to the rules. If I can avoid accidently breaking a rule then I should.

I'll check with my power lifting mates, Aussie power lifting is very strict and even vet F graders like me need to declare their training session so they can turn up and do a ramdom drug test.

In 07 I'll be racing in club C grade and vet B grade, so you won't be seeing me on cycling news. But you might see me being lapped

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