Hello guys! Thanks for all the info you keep putting out there. My question is about creatine. Maybe I’m giving it too much tought but wouldn’t it be ideal to wait to use it when you hit a hard plateau? Or in the long term you would’ve made more progress by taking it in the first place?
Hope you got my question! Thanks
Bobby,
I think that supplementing with creatine has the potential to improve long-term training outcomes like strength performance and muscle hypertrophy in about 2/3 of all users. I wouldn’t wait 
-Jordan
Hi Jordan, just to piggyback on this post, do you recommend a ‘loading phase’ with creatine or would just taking it once daily at the prescribed dose be sufficient?
Thank you J!
You’ll know right away if creatine supplementation increased your creatine stores in your body by whether you gain some water weight. I am vegetarian so I don’t get creatine through my diet and within 10 days of double dosing I had put on about 6 pounds of water weight. If you don’t put on any weight that may mean your creatine stores didn’t increase and that you’ll be a non-responder (unless the you ran a calorie deficit that cancelled out the water weight). I assume most non-responders are non-responders because the creatine supplementation didn’t increase their creatine levels because their diet already created high creatine levels or their muscles genetically don’t have much capacity to store as much creatine as average.
I have a follow up question for Jordan…if creatine supplementation successfully increase somebody’s creatine stores, is there any significant risk that they will be a non-responder?
I don’t recommend that, no. I would just take 3-5g/day from the start.
That’s not necessarily true, unfortunately, as it would be a good way to know! That said, there’s a 66% chance someone is likely to respond
Yes, as there are multiple mechanisms of actions pertaining to training outcomes.