masterstrack.com

I am familiar with creatine since I cycled on and off of it when I was a semi-serious bodybuilder.

I read an article stating that masters sprinters should take creatine since it will increase muscle power and contributes to the maintenance of lean muscle mass. There has also been studies that show it is effective in increasing stride frequency.

My experience from the heavy lifting days is that it does increase strength. It also made me feel bloated and gain weight. Although that may be good for gaining muscle mass, I'm not sure if that's a good thing for reducing sprint times.

A couple of questions:

1. Is creatine a good supplement to take for a master sprinter?

2. Is it a banned substance? I know it's a natural substance, but I know very little about what is on the list of illegal substances.

Doglips - I am not familiar with the data but my personal experience is similar to yours. I did a couple of cycles with creatine about 6 or 7 yrs ago. What I remember is a marked increase in strength (e.g. from doing reps on incline bench with 200# to 275# and shoulders press with 70# dumbells to 90# in a couple of months) and a marked increase in mass and weight (e.g. from about 212# to 230# in that same 2 months). I felt BIG, strong, but a little bloated too. Strength is good for sprinting, mass and weight are not, of course. Hopefully others will "weigh in". I have stayed away from it since then and am now a svelte 6'2" and 184#.

Well I can tell you that Creatine does increase your strength levels. But it also shorten the muscles in the body which is not good for spiriting. The muscle fibers become less elastic which a recipe for hamstring strains. As mentioned in the comment above it does make you feel big and bloated. If you do not drink enough water you will begin to have cramps while running intervals. I would recommend not using it if you are a sprinter unless you have a nutritionist that can help you plan out your meals and you actual Creatine needs.

As a high school coach, I have had an athlete (on his own, in opposition to my requests) use Creatine each of the past two years and he experienced 5 instances of a hamstring pull (of varying degrees). I do not feel it is worth the risk and the benefits are questionable.

BLL, I do find your logic a bit hard to follow. Creatine weakens the legs, then?

Of course, you don't mean that, and of course it doesn't.

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance, and there are many who'd say that we get enough of it via a balanced diet. I've taken it for several years, following generally accepted cycles for loading, maintenance doses and breaks from taking it. Lately, I've been pretty convinced of the benefits, but, like the degree of improvement I'm realistically going to make as a 53 year old sprinter, these are marginal. IMO, real, but marginal.

At the end of the day, many supplements work on the basis that, if you think they help, they probably do. If there's no sign that they do, stop buying them, and spend the money on a better pair of shoes.

Creatine may help you train marginally harder. That might hurt your hamstrings, but I'd suggest the training is to blame, not the creatine!

Water retention and muscle imbalances are the most likely culprits for the pulls - which creatine is known to lead to. If a placebo affect is all it does, buy yourself some tic-tacs and call them steriods, then wait for the PRs to roll in!! End results, supplements aren't the magic cure - that's the logic I was alluding to.

I wrote about creatine 11 years ago on this site:
http://www.masterstrack.com/treats/creatine.html

Bottom line: It can help, yeah. But watch out for cramping!

im glad I.am.not.the only.one who can. see that extra creatine can cause cramps and mucscle balancing issue

I tried creatine for the first time 10 years ago before the Nationals in Orano. I made the mistake of bringing along an old girlfriend whom I met at Club Med a few years before. It turned out that she had a serious problem with alcohol.

I threw at the meet and then trained with Carl Wallen at Dartmouth for a few days. We drove back to Boston for the airplane trip back to California. We sat in the middle seats of a 747 (8 seats across). I developed two massive hamstring cramps but was hemmed in by other passengers. By this time my girlfriend was three sheets to the wind (I think she drank a liter of vodka). She started screaming, "He's having a heart attack. I'm a nurse and he's dying." I tried to get her to shut up and finally stood up and stretched until the cramps relaxed.

I'm not sure if the creatine caused the cramps (I trained pretty hard at Dartmouth). I learned one thing: don't take old girl friends who drink to track meets.

I had probs with cramps too when I was on it, more than normal.

biggest mistake is people take too much, as they don't base it on Lean Body Mass:

http://speedendurance.com/2007/01/22/cr ... g-program/

Also, there are several types of creatine and mixtrues:

http://speedendurance.com/2007/07/19/cr ... -recovery/

Can't get that second link to work. can you check it out, please.

Thanks.

The last two years I was on it and enjoyed being huge..but after the fiasco at Penn this year (11.71 100m) I decided that being a bodybuilder and sprinting are two different deals....I was 207 at Penn relays, got off all the creatine supplements the moment I got back and today I am 183 and healthy (knock on wood)..my hams could not handle full speed over 40m...I ran the past two seasons hurt and tiptoeing around the hams...my turnover is much better and my upperbody strength is still there, I'm just more cut now and not bloated...I will be back on it when Nationals are over and will get off when April rolls around...it does provide a definite strength base..

sounds like you introduced the drunkened winch to the mile high club, tight quarters can make you sieze up when you least expect it!

The Major League Baseball investigation
has something to say on creatine as well.
The Mitchell Report (Dec. 13/14, 2007)
at http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf

Be careful!

-Jeff Davison