Creatine is quite possibly the best natural supplement for bodybuilders, athletes, and powerlifters across the globe. But how do you use it? In this article, I’ll teach you how to cycle creatine so you can get steroid like effects from using it.
(Don’t worry), it’s completely safe. Creatine is one of the most researched supplements on the market, and it’s backed by tons of scientific studies.
Whether you’re new to lifting or a seasoned lifting veteran, using creatine and knowing how to cycle creatine will help you push through PR’s, gain muscle, and get jacked.
What Is Creatine?
Creatine is a naturally made substance found in your bodies cells. It’s an amino acid located in your muscles and brain.
Because creatine is located in your muscles and brain, it positively affects both those areas. Creatine is known to increase muscle mass, strength, endurance, and it even has some nootropic like qualities.
Creatine helps produce more ATP. If you took biology in high school or college, you should have a basic understanding of what ATP does, but if not, I’ve got you covered.
ATP is where your body gets its energy from. Think about it- if you produce more ATP, you’ll have more energy! When you have more ATP, your body performs better in training.
This energy goes mostly to the muscles and helps you build more muscle and get jacked. Knowing how to cycle creatine will make your gains go up an insane amount.
Creatine Benefits:
The most well known benefits of creatine are more muscle strength, muscle mass, endurance and higher energy levels.
This study shows that creatine increased strength and muscle mass.
Creatine supplementation enhanced fat-free mass, physical performance, and muscle morphology in response to heavy resistance training, presumably mediated via higher quality training sessions.
Creatine also makes you stronger. This one study showed that it can increase your bench press by 43%!
The average increase in weightlifting performance (maximal repetitions at a given percent of maximal strength) following creatine supplementation plus resistance training was 14% greater than the average increase in weightlifting performance following placebo ingestion during resistance training (26 vs. 12%). The increase in bench press 1RM ranged from 3 to 45%, and the improvement in weightlifting performance in the bench press ranged from 16 to 43%. Thus there is substantial evidence to indicate that creatine supplementation during resistance training is more effective at increasing muscle strength and weightlifting performance than resistance training alone, although the response is highly variable.
Aside from scientific benefits, here’s what the bro science says:
- Builds more muscle mass
- Increases strength
- Improves endurance
- Boosts testosterone
- Increases energy
- Helps you get jacked
There’s tons of anecdotal evidence on how to cycle creatine, and all you have to do is ask a gym rat. It’s not hard to find people boasting about the amazing effects of creatine.
How To Use Creatine
Now that we’ve established the benefits of creatine and how it works, it’s time to learn how to cycle creatine.
Tons of people say it’s best to “take 5 grams a day” consistently. While they’re not wrong about the great benefits from it, you can get even more benefits from cycling it.
Creatine Cycle
Alright, now we’re going to learn how to cycle creatine. Don’t say this is like cycling steroids cause it’s not.
Creatine Cycle:
| Week Number | How Much Creatine To Take |
| Repeat cycle | Repeat Cycle |
| Week 1: | 20g a day, take 10 pre and 10 post |
| Week 2: | 10g a day, take 5 pre and 5 post |
| Week 3: | 15g a day, take 5 pre and 10 post |
| Weeks 4-6: | 5g post workout |
The reason you take so much in the first week is to “load” your muscles to get ready for the creatine coming in. The idea behind it is to load your muscles with the maximum amount of creatine they can hold instead of slowly increasing it.
Both methods are safe, however I’ve found loading to be more effective.
Where To Buy Creatine
You can get creatine at most stores such as GNC, Walmart, and even Walgreens. The #1 place though to ensure you can get the type you want is Amazon.
I’ll be honest here, there’s tons of creatine brands out there and you can get the same results with most of them.
Don’t waste your money on the big brand expensive bs, you’ll just burn money.
Creatine is luckily super cheap and effective. You can get a years supply for around $50. This is really good price wise when compared to the best pre workouts and protein powders.
My favorite creatine brand is optimum nutrition. You can get the pill form of their creatine on amazon, but they don’t sell the powdered version anymore.
If you want powdered creatine, go with the 6 start powder. Another good option is the bulk supplements powder.
All in all, it’s pretty easy to find creatine. My only advice is to not waste money on creatine over $50 that won’t last you at least 6 months.
Creatine Cycle Safety
Ok, creatine gets a bad reputation sometimes because of fitness myths. Creatine is not a steroid, it will not cause you to go crazy, and it will not make you die.
Creatine is 100% safe and it will not hurt you. I know tons of people who take creatine and none of them get negative side effects.
If you’re worried that creatine uses more water in your body to produce more ATP, simply drink more water! You should be drinking at least a gallon of water a day anyways.
Safety study #1:
Results indicate that long-term creatine supplementation (up to 21-months) does not appear to adversely effect markers of health status in athletes undergoing intense training in comparison to athletes who do not take creatine.
Source
Safety study #2
Creatine monohydrate supplementation is not only safe, but possibly beneficial in regard to preventing injury and/or management of select medical conditions when taken within recommended guidelines.
Source
Safety Study #3
One study examined 52 health markers after participants took creatine supplements for 21 months. It found no adverse effects
Source
All in all, knowing how to cycle creatine is quite possibly the best way to get jacked fast if you’re a natty lifter.
Creatine is one of the best natural supplements on the market right now and will stay that way for a long time.
