New creatine strategy

[ftotti10]

I recently read about a new creatine cycling strategy that "supposedly" increases creatines anabolic potential. It basically says to take three or four 5g servings a day, three days a week and then not to take any for the next four days.
The basic premise of this is to increase muscle creatine concentrations while preventing creatine receptor down regulation. Apparently this will maintain a high number of creatine transporters on muscle cells. Four days without creatine is apparently enough to re-sensitize these transporters and keep muscle creatine stores at their peak.


This new way would require me to increase my creatine intake so i wonder if it is just another scam to increase creatine sales.

[defcon]

Its creatine loading.. not really new, but its also not really useful. If you do a loading phase then you will see results a little faster, but they will level out at the same level they will if you only take 5g a day.

[zwarrior99]

Its creatine loading.. not really new, but its also not really useful. If you do a loading phase then you will see results a little faster, but they will level out at the same level they will if you only take 5g a day.

Not quite loading. Loading is non stop. This sounds interesting, but I rather, see studies, or a link to it.

[ftotti10]

Its creatine loading.. .

No its different to creatine loading. Creatine loading is loading at the beginning then leveling off with a maintenance level. THis is like loading for three days at the start of each week and not taking any creatine for the rest of the week.

I too find it interesting but would like to see some proper research done. It may be worth doing for a few months to see if there is any difference

[LuvDaPump]

Yes, After the 3 day load I wonder if your creatine levels really drop much in 4 days without. Would be interesting to find out and how much.

[the rev]

The way I see it is "if isnt broke then dont try to fix it" Creatine has been working great for me on a four day loading phase and a regular maintenance phase.

[pusher]

I recently read about a new creatine cycling strategy that "supposedly" increases creatines anabolic potential. It basically says to take three or four 5g servings a day, three days a week and then not to take any for the next four days.
The basic premise of this is to increase muscle creatine concentrations while preventing creatine receptor down regulation. Apparently this will maintain a high number of creatine transporters on muscle cells. Four days without creatine is apparently enough to re-sensitize these transporters and keep muscle creatine stores at their peak.


This new way would require me to increase my creatine intake so i wonder if it is just another scam to increase creatine sales.
I have my doubts. Primarily, even if receptors aren't down regulated - not sure to what extent they are in the first place - the intracelluar concentrations would still prevent increased uptake. Sounds like BS wih a BSc.