Creatine Loading - Unnecessary or Counterproductive? No Significant Difference, but Slight Advantage for Low Dose, No-Loading Protocol in 10-Week Study W/ Elite Footballers
Not just for women who are always afraid of an increase in water retention, loading protocols may not exactly be the best way of taking creatine monohydrate. Let's be clear, here: I do not doubt that using 20g of creatine per day for 1-2 weeks aka "creatine loading" is the fastest way to supercompensate one's intra-muscular phosphocreatine and thus short-term energy stores. What I seriously doubt, though, is that more than 0.1% of the SuppVersity readers have a good reason to make sure that they achieve maximal creatine levels in the shortest period of time. Rather than that, most of you are probably interested in augmenting their size and strength gains in the long(er) run and that's exactly where an older 10-week study shows that increased creatine dosages and / or loading are neither necessary nor beneficial for well-trained athletes. You can learn more about creatine at the SuppVersity Creatine Doubles 'Ur GainZ! Creatine, DHT & Bros...