Creatine?

"what shall we get mat on next? answers below..."
EPO! I'd love to know the difference it would make to a club level rider.

he's like a human guinea pig! and all because you asked

what shall we get mat on next? answers below...

Creatine made a huge amount of difference to me when I was looking to gain lean body mass for rowing in a former life. There's no question about that, but I'm a vegetarian so get very little creatine in my diet. Meat eaters are getting creatine anyway so the benefits are generally going to be lower.

Most studies say that it is beneficial for developing explosive strength/power, but you'll also gain mass. The cons outweigh the pros in endurance sports.

That said, I've just started my own little experiment. I've not used creatine in 10 years but I'm now using it for four weeks just to see what (if anything) happens. I'm interested in resting heart rate, weight, power, recovery, and so on. As it's the off-season, I'm not particularly bothered if I gain a few pounds temporarily in the process.

There is a nice Wikipedia page on creatine supplements. Bottom line seems to be that it may help repeated anaerobic sprint efforts (like a points race on the track), but is no help for sustained aerobic exercise (which is what most cyclists do).

In the States all the Major League Baseball players were using it (along with steroids). At the time, popular thinking suggested Creatine was good for building muscle mass and strength, HOWEVER when it came to endurance in a sport (running/cycling) it was found to cause cramping of muscles.

Good luck and let us know how it works out. I think I will stay with whey protein drinks though.

Not used it at all, have body builder mates who are always using it, but to be honest i don't know the benefits

I'd just my money and get some motivational music you'll enjoy while on the bike or something like that

But if you wanted to go down the supplements route, there are many other things that would help far more then creatine in my eyes

Perhaps road.cc forumites are either unaware of the claims or not interested.

I have seen it discussed elsewhere but I'm not into taking expensive supplements so haven't taken much notice. Spend your money on something that you know will work.

Agree with SideBurn. Would love to hear more - anecdotal evidence or scientific.

The latter....

IMHO

(and I've yet to see any evidence to the contrary, certainly for endurance based sports)