I’m going to have to play the devils advocate to the creatine suggestions. Most people will realize little to no benefit from supplementing creatine because they are not pushing their muscles to their anaerobic limit every workout. Nor should they as this is advanced training that most professional athletes only use sparingly by cycling their workouts.
Going to temporary muscular failure on every set is a good way to hurt oneself and the efficacy of this training as a best practice is mixed at best. If someone finds it works best for them then stick with it, but advocating it as a routine practice to others without caveat is dangerous.
Grunt,
I’ve been in this game for a long time…. at least 25 years. While I understand where you are coming from with your post full of words of caution, others who read them may not understand where you are coming from. You sound like an attorney or a doctor who has been in court before to me.
When I recommend creatine, it is under the assumption that folks will also follow my work out advice and that they will in fact put forth the effort and discipline that I do, and have done these past two and half decades. In other words, if you are just going to go through the motions, creatine will do you no good whatsoever. However, if a person pushes their body as hard as I do, creatine not only works, but it’s absolutely essential. When I don’t take the stuff, I notice a dramatic effect. I can not lift as much, run as fast and my recovery is much slower. I have done extensive experiments with the stuff over the years and speak from personal experience. Out of the tens of thousands that I have spent on different supplements over the years, creatine is the ONLY supplement I take religiously. No other supplement has worked for me with undeniable benefits.
You also caution against going to failure on each set. I’m not sure if you are cautioning against what I have wrote earlier, but if you are, I do not, nor did I make that recommendation. Complete failure would require a spotter who assists with the last rep or reps in a set. To go that far is silly and destructive without using steroids (which is also silly). A natural body builder can not do this. I do however stand by what I wrote earlier, and that is…..the last rep should be at, or as close to as possible, to 100% max effort as possible. To further explain what that means, it means that the last rep is all you can physically complete without the aid of a spotter. It takes time and experience to gauge what you can do and if you should go for one more rep or not. Obviously, working out with some nearby to catch the bar is advisable if you are just starting out. Not only does it hurt like hell to get pinned under a bar with several hundred pounds on it, but it’s down right embarrassing…. You have to know your body and your limitations and work out with caution if you work out alone and work out hard. Keep a log so you can smartly gauge what you do next workout, and most importantly, be careful. Torn muscles and ligaments take a long time to heal and most never heal completely (speaking from experience). I dislocated my shoulder after eating dirt on my dirt bike ten years ago and it’s never been the same.
