54 year old male moderately active...I lift 2 days a week, ride 3 days a week, walk/yoga another day each week...Been reading some things on Creatine. Anyone have experience with it?

I tried creatine in the past, but I never saw a significant benefit. Supposedly it helps you extend your near-anaerobic envelope a bit. OK for sprinters, I suppose. '02_nrs is talking about creatinine, which is a waste product, not the same as creatine.

junk, do not waste money

That depends on why one is taking it. In my case, it is for muscle mass maintenance. When you are old enough to qualify for membership in this forum, muscles no longer grow in response to exercise alone. I take very little of it.

Just started taking creatine, like first day was Sunday 09-22-24. Trying it for 3 reasons. 1 - broke my left femur last year in a crash and I'm finding my hips, pelvic muscles and abdomen (core) all got damaged in the crash. The broken femur was nothing compared to the rehab for my damaged core muscles; 2 - muscle mass maintenance; 3 - recovery time from rides. I have a 100km ride coming up I'm training for and want to make sure I can handle the ride and have an effective recovery. I ride 15-25km daily during the weekdays and 40-50km on one weekend day with the other off. just stretched the weekend ride to 75km. For the 100km I'll back off the weekday and just do the 100km. I'm averaging 24km/hr across the rides with elevation between 100-300m .depending on the route. Took 10g creatine in a shake before the 75km ride, another 10g shake after the ride. Taking 10g daily for this first week (kind of a pre-load) and will settle into 5g per morning shake thereafter. I'll let you know how it goes! So far it's good. My legs feel pretty good 2 days later but way to early to say for sure the value.

Just taking it wont by itself help you gain muscle mass. Preloading does cause you to store more of it in your muscles. It is used in that brief interval when you're running out of oxygen and you're going anaerobic, where it lets you extend your effort a bit more. If that's the way you're taking advantage of it, it should help.

It does have an additional effect; it causes your muscles to retain a bit more water, giving the illusion of more muscle mass. When you stop taking it, though, the extra bulk goes away.

Hey BlazingPedals , I'm not concerned with muscle mass anymore (I'm 64) but maintaining, a bit more energy and most importantly recovery are my main concerns. I've got a couple of bigger rides coming up so I'm curious to see the result. Any advice/observations is much appreciated!!

My wife is the nutrition expert (runner) and we've both been taking it daily for about 6 mos. after she noticed a fractured knee was taking its time healing. There is no downside. The water retention thing is likely real but you can get rid of that if it is a concern of your coach before the big climbing races

Thanks for sharing Classtime ! Have you found taking Creatine helpful? Upside?

don’t know about the current group - but going back around 10 years a number of kids in our football program were using creatine - especially the lineman … to the point where they were nicknamed the ‘creatine kids’

two of the linemen (brothers) father was an NFL coach - another kid father was NFL head trainer - but don’t know if this is where the creatine push originated (?)

they were successful though: 45-2 over 3 years, three time region champs, two time PA state champs / USA Today #12 / Max Preps #7

Hi. I was in the Army and used creatine with a higher protein and carb intake, to get bigger. Creatine, to see the reaction, must be used with lots of water. Together with a workout….3-4 times a week, will result in bigger mass, that is seen. I did not find any other great result, but larger and rounder muscles. That is what I was looking for. I am 60, and will start a bulking process in November for a couple of months, to go from 180-200lbs. I will look good and then stop the Creatine. The mass will subside and I will level out at 183-185 of muscle. That is success.

Go slow, eat balanced meals, and talk with your doctor first. Good luck.

When considering supplements, it's always worthwhile to look at science, and there is at least one study that tested the effect of creatine on us olds doing strength training:

Strategic creatine supplementation and resistance training in healthy older adults

Highlights:

• Creatine supplementation before exercise increased leg press strength by average of 31 kg vs. placebo
• Creating supplementation after exercise increased leg press strength by average of 35 kg vs. placebo

Summary:

"Compared with resistance training alone, creatine supplementation improves muscle strength, with greater gains in lean tissue mass resulting from post-exercise creatine supplementation."

Not too shabby.

terrymorse Good to know!! Feeling better about my decision more and more!

What did the guy on the left take to get taller? I need that.

Long time Philly artist.

That's weird, never heard it before. R.I.P. Manute.

Increased height's going to mess up your CdA tho.

I generally avoid pills whenever possible, other than an occasional aspirin. I’ve tried a number of vitamins and supplements over the years, and have noticed no improvements. I’ve seen too many products marketed and widely sold which were later taken off the market because they were deemed ineffective.

In my experience, I find that getting good nutrition from a proper diet is far more effective than using supplements. If your body requires supplements to run well, then something is wrong with your diet.

In this case, there is a suggestion that vegetarians (and others who don't eat meat) don't get creatine in the diet, and the implication is that what the body synthesizes (and phosphorylates) is inadequate. I went so far as to buy a bottle once, but I never tried it. The water retention thing put me off. Now that I am getting weaker by the day, I am starting to wonder...

I've had a bag of it lying around for months, but I'm not ready for yet another fitness ritual and I can still make gains in the gym when I put in the time.

Unfortunately your body metabolism is declining and your diet will not make up the slack. Losing muscle mass, longer recovery times, calorie burn rate, nutrient absorption, etc. Welcome to the first day of the rest of your life. Using creatine is a great way to aid your body as it adjusts to the decline. Your diet is just not going to cut it. Sucks but "c'est la vie"

I lift 3 times a week, typically. Bike mileage weekly varies with life, weather, etc. I do the creatine/hmb combo. I started more for the recovery benefits, because my goal is strength and weight loss. It definitely seems to have helped me with that. And the total combination has me faster on my bike in all types of riding.

exercion NOW you've really messed things up!!! Now I've gone down another rabbit hole!!
What product are you using?? I may have to add the HMB into my mix. I found this study - certainly seems to have some value!!

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7019716/
Here is the conclusion of the study "In summary, oral supplementation with a combination of 0.04 g/kg/day (≈3g/day) of CrM plus 3 g/day of HMB over 10 weeks of training showed a synergistic effect on aerobic power"

Congrats on the gain in strength. I ride a bike and no car for five months from May til October…or a bus or plane. But everything in Fort Lauderdale on a bike. Honestly I would not even consider Creatine with the fluid loss from the biking.

I bet that, if you bike and lift, you may not need Creatine at this point. Trial and error brother. Creatine means you need a larger intake of fluid to see the strengthening results. Biking will drain that water.

Or stop biking all together and use the Creatine with your lifting regimen. It is hard, for me at least, to build and cut at the same time.