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Is creatine going to improve your training results?

Occasionally someone asks my personal trainers about supplements, specifically protein and creatine.

Today I write  about creatine. Research over the last couple of years has come to the conclusion that creatine is a supplement that can help you with your training performance, given that the training has a high intensity and short duration (15-30s). Especially people
who have a low baseline of phosphocreatine, like vegetarians seem to profit from the supplement but even in non-vegetarians the strength and performance increases have been significant.

 

Creatine Supplementation

Here are a couple of  effects of creatine supplementation:

  • significantly increased muscle mass after strength training regimen
  • significantly increased strength, although not with 1 RM activities.
  • a chronic supplementation of creatine seems to protect against traumatic brain injury (study was done on mice, so not sure how much that relates to humans)
  • it does not seem to have a positive effect on endurance sports with exception of the sprint/spurt phase of that particular sport
  • creatine-dextrose and protein-dextrose combinations create similar strength gains
  • potential decrease in mental fatigue
  • negative effects can be, diarrhea, cramping, increased water retention
  • in people with renal dysfunction creatine supplementation can progress the disease.
  • Creatine could potentially exacerbate allergic lung inflammation and airway remodeling in mice. Again the question is how far does that relate to humans but I am sure I would not recommend anyone with lung issues to take creatine.
  • there seem to be no long-term ill effects of creatine supplementation in healthy athletes

Administering creatine supplementation

The studies I have looked at seemed inconclusive but it seems that there is a loading phase of about 4x 4-5g/day for 2-4 days and then a consistent loading of 2.5-6 g/day from there on. Some articles recommend that the daily dose for recreational athletes should not exceed the natural phosphocreatine turnover of 2.5-3g/day. Healthy athletes that submit daily to high intensity strength- or sprint training should have a maximum dose of 5-6g/day for less than 2 weeks according to the article. Newer research suggests that taking 15.75g/day for 5 days and 5-10g/day thereafter has no negative effects on healthy athletes over the course of 21 months.

Conclusion

I am a personal trainer not a dietitian and as such not allowed to tell you what you should or should not do. But personally I feel that ta

 

king creatine is safe if you are healthy and I do not object to my clients taking it. Most athletes I would wager would benefit from cleaning up their diet first before going for supplements. Once that baseline is established I feel that protein and creatine supplementation can be useful tools for improving your performance and results. Endurance athletes, especially ultra-endurance athletes do not benefit from creatine supplementation since spurts and sprints are not that important and the additional water weight might be detrimental overall.

I personally would go with a loading phase of 15 g per day for 4 days and then a low dose of 4-5g/day. That is my personal opinion though.

Yours,

Michael Anders

Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting

Anomasiri et al. (2004). Low dose creatine supplementation enhances sprint phase of 400 meters swimming performance. Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand. Vol 87 (2), pp. 228-232.

Burke et al. (2003). Effect of creatine and weight training on muscle creatine and performance in vegetarians. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, Vol. 35 (11), pp. 1946-1955.

Benzi, Gianni (2000). Is there a rationale for the use of creatine either as nutritional supplementation or drug administration in humans participating a sport? Pharmacological Research, Vol 41 (3), pp. 255-264

Edmunds et al (2001). Creatine supplementation Increases Renal Disease Progression in Han:SPRD-cy Rats. American Journal of Kidney Diseases. Vol. 37 (1). pp. 73-78.

Engelhardt et al. (1998). Creatine supplementation in endurance sports. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol. 30 (7), pp. 1123-1129.

Francaux, M. & Poortmans, J.R. (1999). Effects of training and creatine supplement on muscle strength and body mass. European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology. Vol 80 (2). pp. 165-168.

Izquierdo et al (2002). Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle power, endurance and sprint performance. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol. 34 (2) pp. 332-343.

Kreider et al. (2003) Long-term creatine supplementation does not significantly affect clinical markers of health in athletes. Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry, Vol. 244 (1-2), pp. 95-104.

Lemkuhl et al (2003). The effects of 8 weeks of creatine monohydrate and glutamine supplementation on body composition and performance measures. Jouranl of Strength and Conditioning Research / National Strength & Conditioning Association. Vol. 17 (3), pp. 425-438.

Poortmans, J.R.  Francaux (1999). Long-term oral creatine supplementation does not impair renal function in healthy athletes. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. Vol. 31 (8), pp. 1108-1110.

Radolpho et al. (2007). Creatine supplementation Exacerbates Allergic Lung Inflammation and Airway Remodeling in Mice. American journal of respiratory cell and molecular biology. Vol. 37 (6), pp 660-667.

Sullivan et al (2000). Dietary supplement creatine protects against traumatic brain injury. Annals of Neurology. Vol. 48 (5) 723-729.

Tarnopolsky et al. (2001). Creatine-dextrose and protein-dextrose induce similar strength gains during training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. Vol 33 (12). pp. 2044-2052

Vandendberghe et al (1997). Long-term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training. Journal of Applied Physiology. Vol 83. (6), pp 2055-2063.

Watanabe et al. (2002) Efects of creatine on mental fatigue and cerebra hemoglobin oxygenation. Neuroscience Research. Vol 42 (4). pp. 279-285

What you should pay attention to when training with shoulder pain!

We have a lot of personal training clients that come in the first time, telling us they have had a shoulder injury in the past. Most of them have a typical impingement problem, others might have a partially or completely torn rotator cuff muscle. As a personal trainer that is definitely something we need to pay attention to and work closely with our clients health care professionals. If you are older than thirty chances are you have had some sort of injury or problem that seems like it is taking the fun out of your training. you might still become your best though. Shoulder Pain

Today the topic will be focused on shoulder injuries. There are too many different diagnoses out there with different treatment options. For that reason here are a couple of common sense tips that can help you maximize the training impacting your shoulders without getting hurt:

  1. NO PAIN: this is the biggest rule, if you have any sort of pain you have to either correct your form or choose an alternative exercise.
  2. Only work till technical failure. Muscle failure can lead to evasive movements and injury. Once your form is gone, you are done!
  3. In our cubicle dominant world I would suggest increasing the ratio from pulling : pushing exercises from 1:1 to 2-3:1
  4. Do vertical as well as horizontal pulling exercises!
  5. Work on thoracic spine mobility and anterior shoulder mobility (pecs)
  6. Supplement your training with rotator cuff exercises
  7. Only do overhead exercises  if you have full range of motion without straining or pain (see rule no. 1)

I hope this helps you with your training. As usual please shoot me an email if you have any questions!

 

Sincerely,

 

Michael Anders

Are overhead exercises are bad for you?

They are in almost every workout routine it seems: shoulder presses, incline bench presses and more. Our clients sometimes feel very strongly about them, one way or the the other. But are they bad for you or should everyone include them in their routine? 

No one answer is really the correct one. As a general precaution I would say they are not necessary for the average person in their routine but they are great exercises. It boils down to the individual. If you are having shoulder problems to begin with then it might be wise to have it properly assessed and addressed and avoid overhead work until the issues are resolved. Not so obvious at first would be our cubicle warrior. Being in a hunched over position for most of the day she might not be able to stand straight. She might have an increased kyphosis in her upper back that prohibits her to lift her arms over her head without really putting wear and tear on tendons in her joint and causing damage that could have been avoided.

It is always best to have a professional look at you but go to a mirror and look at your profile. If you have rounded shoulders even when standing straight there is a good chance you might want want to avoid overhead lifts.

Instead foam roll, stretch and see if your thoracic spine mobility increases. Strengthen your upper back muscles, do rows and chin ups, reverse flys and rotator cuff exercises  to counter the imbalance that you have compared to the chest, and anterior shoulder muscles.

 

Michael Anders

Head Trainer Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting

How to finally lose the weight successfully forever!

So many people come to us wanting to lose weight. The ones who do what is necessary have an awesome success and being part of changing their life is just amazing. We want to help you transform your life regardless of you being a client of ours or not.

This approach is slower and might not appeal at first to everyone, because most people want to have instant success. Sometimes though, we are overwhelmed with what needs to be done. For some people a slower approach works better. Consider this the 12 Step program of losing weight and being fitter than ever. Each month you are adding a little bit to it and by the end of the year you will not recognize the person in the mirror.

 

12 Steps to a healthier you!

 

  1. Month: Schedule 8 hours of sleep: This is crucial to balance your hormone levels and establishes a baseline that allows you to lose weight and become fitter.
  2. Month: Nutrition: Have 1 Meal a day that is as unprocessed as possible with lots of veggies, fruits, organic meat/poultry/fish
  3. Month: Start exercising if you have not been doing that already. Biggest bang for your buck: lift weights 3 days a week. The extra lean muscle mass helps burning fat even sitting at work.
  4. Month: Start being more active: Take a 15-20 min walk every day before or after work.
  5. Month: Replace a second meal a day with mostly unprocessed food and prepare it at home
  6. Month: Start doing some High Intensity Interval Training 2-3 days a week for about 20-30 min/session.
  7. Month: Cut out sodas and replace it with unsweetened tea or tea with a little bit of raw honey
  8. Month: start replacing highly processed snacks (chocolate, crackers, cookies, chips, etc.) with fruits and nuts
  9. Month: Allow yourself 1 cheat meal out of ten good ones.
  10. Month: Log your training regularly and take note of  your progress
  11. Month: Intensify your training start a more serious weight lifting regimen. If you are a woman, don’t be afraid, you won’t look like a guy!
  12. Month: Celebrate  your success by treating yourself to a spa day or a day with your buddies out. Please don’t treat yourself with food.

These steps can be done in weekly or monthly segments whichever you choose. They will  bring you to a whole new fitness level!

If you need help with your training, feel free to contact us!

 

Michael Anders

Head Trainer at Shape Up Fitness & Wellness Consulting

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