Mistakes to Avoid in the Creatine Loading Phase
Your muscles contain the chemical creatine. In addition to what your body makes on its own, creatine can be found in meals such as fish and meat. Even if the average omnivore consumes 1–2 g of creatine per day, their muscular creatine reserves are only 60%–80% filled.
Maximizing your muscle storage may be possible with the use of creatine pills. When beginning a creatine supplement program, several fitness instructors advise a "loading phase" first. Quickly saturating your muscles requires consuming a reasonably large amount of creatine over a short period during this phase.
Taking 20–25 g of creatine loading dose every day for 5–7 days is a typical strategy. Four- or five-gram portions spread out throughout the day constitute the usual dosage. If you want to know about the mistakes to avoid during the creatine loading phase, keep reading!
1. Relying on Your Pre-Workout
Supplements like pre-workouts now include creatine due to the mountain of good data on its efficacy. On the other hand, you won't get the recommended amount of creatine from your pre-workout supplement during the creatine-loading phase. Even though creatine is in most pre-workouts, the substance is often underdiagnosed.
The recommended dosage by experts of creatine is 5 grams; thus, including only 1–2 grams in your pre-workout during the loading phase is highly unlikely to have any noticeable effects. You increase your risk of missing out on increases by not taking your pre-workout supplement every day.
Buying creatine packets in gummy form is the simplest solution. You need to fill your cells with the substrate for creatine for it to work its magic. Two approaches are available for this:
- After a week or two of a loading protocol in which you take 20 grams of creatine daily split evenly into four doses, you'll enter a maintenance phase in which you take 5 grams every day at a reduced dose.
- Follow a lower creatine loading dose regimen of 5 grams per day to prevent any temporary increase in weight or gastrointestinal distress. You won't likely have bloating or weight gain, but it will take approximately four weeks to maximize your creatine storage.
2. Getting Distracted by Different Creatine Forms
Everyone knows creatine has benefits, but how can you tell which kind is best? Creatine nitrate and creatine HCL cost a bit more, but are they worth it considering the claims of "no bloating, no loading" that they make? And what if the time-tested creatine monohydrate doesn't work during the creatine-loading phase?
Take only one or the other. It is recommended not to complicate things. Avoid attempting to juggle too many things! All too often, people fall into the trap of taking suboptimal dosages and fail to get the benefits of loading.
Using creatine monohydrate, the dosing procedure is as easy as pie, and hundreds of studies have shown that creatine increases muscle size, strength, and power. Is it possible to find success with different variants? Of course. But keep taking it regularly, at the recommended doses for the loading phase of creatine monohydrate, for an adequate amount of time to give it a fair go!
3. Relying Solely on Diet for Creatine
Protein supplements are commonly used by most of us for one of two reasons: either we don't eat enough protein-rich foods throughout the day, or we find protein supplements to be a more convenient (and occasionally less expensive) approach to meet our daily macro goal.
No such thing exists for creatine. Even though your body can make creatine on its own, it also gets rid of around 2 grams of it every day. Optimal creatine storage can be achieved through dietary changes and supplementation.
You could fulfill your creatine needs by eating raw meat or fish, but it would take two to three pounds to get the same amount during the loading phase of creatine monohydrate. The cost and hassle of supplementation are substantially lower. Do not worry if you happen to miss a dosage occasionally. However, your creatine stocks will drop, and your gym performance will probably take a hit if you take a long hiatus from creatine.
4. Not Matching Creatine to Your Workout Goals
Creatine's most well-known characteristic is its capacity to enhance speed and strength. However, if you’re training during the loading phase of creatine monohydrate primarily involves endurance exercises or steady-state cardio, you might not get any results. Three pathways in your body convert chemical energy into a usable form known as ATP. Resistance training and other activities with short durations, such as sprinting, rely on the ATP-PCr system for energy.
Here, your cells can quickly generate ATP from the easily accessible creatine phosphate. Despite the system's impressive power output, the energy supply is limited by the creatine phosphate stores, which can be replenished in as little as three to five minutes.
Taking a creatine supplement can help you maintain short bursts of high-intensity activity for longer by raising your resting concentrations of creatine phosphate. Eventually, this can lead to completing a few more sets or intervals before you start to feel tired. You shouldn't expect to notice a major improvement in performance during the creatine loading phase when supplementing for moderate-intensity endurance workouts since they don't depend on the ATP-PCr system.
Workouts that incorporate resistance training with a rep range of 3–12 or other forms of anaerobic training with working intervals of 10-15 seconds in length are ideal for utilizing creatine.
Bottom Line
Avoiding typical pitfalls during the creatine loading phase is key to getting the most out of creatine. To start, your pre-workout supplement might not contain enough creatine for your needs. If you want the worst results possible, think about taking a creatine supplement. Secondly, it is recommended to use only one type of creatine. Moreover, supplementing is the most efficient way to meet your creatine needs; diet alone won't cut it.
Give Bear Balanced Creatine Gummies a go if you want to perform at your best and get more out of your workouts during the loading phase. To help you stick to your fitness routine and get your daily dosage, try these delicious gummies. Maximize your gains by getting yours today!
Bear Balanced® | World's First Creatine Gummies®
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