Creatine - anyone using it to enhance their meet performance?

yeah i've heard that about apples before...always have one on my way to morning practice!

Anything we put in our bodies has some effect....good or bad....on performance. Greasy cheeseburgers probably not helping much....at last in the long term...while chocolate milk is now touted as one of the hands down best recovery drinks you can take. I have recently started using chocolate milk as a recovery drink. Can't really say if it's doing anything for me physically, but it sure tastes yummy! As for performance enhancers, anything stronger than my prescribed asthma inhaler is not for me. Dana

Ice bath is tremendous for recovery. Sprinters will get in up to their waists after workouts. All NFL teams use them too. It is unpleaseant. Also good for recovery is doing the proper cooldown and maybe even an easy swim later in the day if feasable. It promotes blood flow to the muscles without taxing them. As far as the milk thing? Milk is excellent. You need some fat for muscle building and everyone needs calcium.

I'll definitely ask him about caffine and creatine the next time we speak. Rich I'll definitely be interested in this input.

I've never heard about apples, but Chocolate Yuhoo (sp?) is better than chocolate milk...same effects with zero fat. Add a un frosted fruit pop tart and you have a pre-race meal. Not being funny, a fountain coke and Cheez Nips are the perfect recovery food (for those who can't afford the designer stuff).

Speaking of this milk thing, and a potential counterpoint, I listened to a radio show recently (the People's Pharmacy on NPR) and they had a guest who said there is very little proven effectiveness of drinking milk in adults. He said humans are the only animals that drink milk beyond the age in which it is intended to benefit the body, that being birth to adolescence. I found this interesting and am neither endorsing nor denying, just passing along. Thanks for the info on the creatine cramping issue. That's the last thing I want in the pool. I've hear alot of negative about milk too.

I may be naive but I classify it as a borderline "drug", of which, my opinion is they don't belong in masters swimming.

I thought creatine was on the banned list for NCAA swimmers ... I can't quite grasp why a masters swimmer would want to put this "supplement" in his or her body. I'm not an expert on creatine, but I didn't think there were a lot of scientific studies lauding its efficacy in endurance sports. Swimming is, after all, an endurance sport and even sprinters have to put in some yardage. What about just weight lifting instead of drug ingestion? I think that would build muscle too. I guess some people supposedly take creatine to promote recovery/reduce fatigue/increase energy in addition to muscle building, but I don't think that's proven scientifically either. There are a lot of side effects and the quality control standards for the commercial marketing of this stuff are a little iffy. No thanks. The less unproven meds/supplements you stuff in your body, the better. To my knowledge, no one really knows the long term side effects of creatine. Besides, I already have a broad enough back. So I'll take my chances without it. But I guess some people think it works for them. But does it or do they just think that?

If it is legal or OTC it ain't helping much, more of a placebo effect. Only drugs that are accepted into mainline use are slightly beneficial. Here are the phonies and hippie (Esalem) and "natural" drugs and their efficient medical counterparts: For sleeping problems or anxiety take passion fruit flowers or leaves tea, or eat lettuce or take some green tea or a warm cup of milk...if you really want to sleep or get rid of anxiety take some Valium, or any other benzodiazepine of your choice. For impotence problems you may eat quail eggs, rhinoceros husks dried and powdered (may be hard to find), eat oysters, various herbal teas. If you really want to solve your problem, get some Viagra or Cialis. Creatine falls in the in between cathegory, the stuff that isn't really a drug, but might help out. Such as Ginseng (got to be good Korean stuff), brazilian Guaraná (powder or pills, similiar effect of ginseng and/or coffee), coffee (american roast has more caffeine than others). These stimulants are okay, but the good stuff is the illegal stuff, the diet pills, the amphetamines, the ephedrines and so forth. Will stimulants make you swim faster? No, they just give you confidence and that might help. Will coffee make you swim faster? Probably statistically not, but it does help you concentrate more. I take a cup of strong coffee before I leave for my 18:30 (6:30 P.M.) practice. I drink coffee at the swim meet, and in between swims if there is some available. I drink coffee and eat chocolate when driving long distances, might be placebo, might be caffeine, but it helps. As for milk, why are you drinking that which belongs to the calf? Want calcium, eat cheese. The BIGGEST hoax ever, is the milk hoax, over 100 years of indoctrination by the milk producers. But I do take Latte because it tastes good, and will take a double expresso with whipped cream on top, if I may, billy fanstone :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: This thread has certainly reinforced my hatred of milk for the last few decades. No residual guilt left whatsoever. I do love cheese. Not sure the mold is good for allergies though. Donna: What did you do? Cold shower or giantic ice tub? I don't think I could do it. I have stuck an ankle and shin in a large bucket of ice water and ice and it was almost unbearable. But effective. The risk of water retention and other nasty side effects outweighs any possible benefits of creatine any day for me. But I'm sure there are many that disagree.

I've used creatine off and on for over 10 yrs. now. When I first started, I got the initial 10lbs in 7-9 days weight gain, mostly from water. I took it to get stronger and gain muscle. I don't know if it helps in sprints or not, I believe that you'll get more of an advantage from perfecting your stroke. I had a friend who used it for a while, but had the cramping issue. So far I've been cramp-free, and feel fine. Doctor checkups are normal, etc. I think it's like the ephedra issue, bad and possible lethal for some folks, but others can take it without side effects. I also used to take ephedra while they were making a product called "Ultimate Orange", the original formula had it in it. Got some really good boosts from it. Also with that, I seemed fine with it, but it really affected my friend and he didn't use it. I think there are far worse things you can ingest. As a side note, I'm gradually loosing interest in the bulking-up stuff, so I'll probably be dropping the creatine soon. Now glutamine, that's a different story.