Creatine For Muscle Building

The most you can expect from creatine is a slight water weight gain, but here’s the downside:

• You will not maintain creatine water weight gain without continued use of the supplement.
• Consistent creatine use will not lead to additional water weight retention above what you achieve in the first 1-2 months.
• The weight and size gain achieved through creatine supplementation is water retention, and not lean muscle mass (which is why it quickly disappears if you discontinue the supplement).
• Long term side effects of creatine supplementation is possible, with potential kidney dysfunction (and you will need to maintain long term use if you wish to retain the minuscule benefits).

If you are not convinced of the potential health risks associated with creatine and other bodybuilding supplements, please read the following that was posted in the MuscleNOW Member Area by one of my MuscleNOW clients who decided to experiment with creatine:

I’ve had a really horrible month, health wise…and some of it (well, all of it, really) was my fault. About 3-4 weeks ago, I woke up one morning to find I couldn’t get out of bed. I was having such severe muscle pain that I literally couldn’t move. The pain was on the outside of both my legs, as well as the inner parts of my arms. I also had zero grip strength, and when I did try to grab something, my hands would shake. Scared, my wife called our doctor, and he told me to come in immediately. It took about 2 hours for me to get out of bed, get dressed and get to the doctor. My doctor is 5 minutes from my house. When I got there, he was very grave looking. He feared some type of sudden onset neurological muscular disorder. Now, I was really panicked. I saw my life flash b/4 my eyes…my 2 year old son being 16 and seeing a father who couldn’t walk anymore. I was thinking horrible, horrible thoughts. So anyway, as I’m getting ready to leave the room, the doctor asks, almost as an afterthought, “Do you take creatine, by any chance?” I told him yes, that I’d been taking a maintenance dose for several months now, about a teaspoon a day or so. He told me to cut out the creatine…immediately…and see if symptoms don’t improve in a couple days. Sure enough, in 24 hours the pain was cut by half, and by the following week, it had dissipated completely. Turns out, I was suffering from creatine toxicity. This is one of those lessons I only need to learn one time…my supplement days are over. Creatine is one of the most studied and “considered safe” supplements out there (which is why I chose to take it)…and yet, look what happened to me.

Creatine is available in certain foods, but, as bodybuilding supplement companies are quick to claim, not in sufficient quantities to offer muscle building benefits. Yet, aside from the fact that creatine, even in large doses, does not offer any significant change in terms of strength or size, by removing creatine from its naturally regulated state (in food) and offering a supplement form where far larger doses can be consumed, the body is receiving an unnaturally high quantity of a substance that was by nature limited to far smaller levels in food [for a reason], and this is where substantial damage to health can occur. Vitamins and minerals are sold for those who have deficiencies, and are recommended in certain cases by doctors to bring the body back to a healthy state, but when one indiscriminately begins to supplement with a vitamin or mineral when their body is perfectly normal, they create imbalances which can lead to medical ailments, and this is no different from what occurs when using a substance such as creatine for reasons other than to treat a medical deficiency.

Only some retain extra water weight while using creatine, and even the best cases will be slight. Is creatine worth the cost? Not on my life! Remember, muscle mass gains result from proper weight training and bodybuilding diet techniques, and no supposed band-aid (such as creatine) is a valid substitute. I have achieved tremendous success (over 60 pounds of added muscle mass), and have helped men and women around the world to produce dramatic muscle building results through my MuscleNOW natural bodybuilding program, without any supplements or steroids.

Will you be next?