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TylerJay comments on Testing my cognition - Less Wrong
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Creatine's beneficial effects seem to come from having higher systemic levels of creatine which takes a while to build. I have used it as a supplement many times for weight lifting and the effects (water retention, extra "pump" after a lift, ability to squeak out one more rep, etc.) are not noticeable until you've been taking it for about a week.
Blinding would not work here unless you made a ton of real caps and a ton of placebo caps and separated them. Then, pick one whole batch and take it for 2-3 weeks. This increases the length of time of the experiment dramatically to get any useful data.
Out of curiosity, does creatine change the way the muscles you build look? E.g. my impression is that people who use steroids will develop very vascular/veinous muscles.
No, not long-term. The vascular/veiny musculature that you see on fitness-mag body builders come from a few things: Taking vasodilators (short acting supplements and drugs that cause dilation of blood vessels) is one. The amino acid Arginine causes an increase in Nitirc Oxide in the blood which is a vasodilator. There are other supplements and drugs that do this as well. Also, having low body fat causes this naturally, as well as just having worked out. The vein-bulging look is not something that these people have all day every day.
Steroids DO actually change the shape of your muscles a bit.
Creatine is believed to work through 2 pathways:
Increasing the rate at which ADP is recycled back to ATP, allowing you to "squeak out one more rep" and hopefully stimulate a better training adaptation when your body recovers.
Increasing water retention in your muscles. Some people believe that the presence of additional water is what helps you perform better and recover more quickly.
While you're supplementing with creatine, it may make your muscles look a little bit bigger because of the additional water retention, but if you let it "wash out" by stopping for a week or two, you will notice no difference in the appearance of your muscles. Creatine is not believed to have an anabolic effect on its own. It's just an aid to training and considered extremely safe.
Cool, thanks for the info!
Creatine will make you retain water in the muscles, which will make them look bulkier than they otherwise would.