In a previous article, I detailed the extraordinary benefits of increasing the concentration of leucine in the diet. A leucine-rich diet minimizes muscle protein breakdown, stimulates muscle growth and promotes healthy glucose metabolism for better fat loss. These benefits of leucine are now acknowledged by even the most conservative authorities on human protein metabolism.1
Powerful Muscle-Building Markers
In this article, I’m going to show you how you can increase your strength in the gym by up to 16% and prime your muscles for better growth and performance even before you’ve touched a weight.
This information is real exciting stuff for anyone that wants to improve their physique. There are no gimmicks or weird diets that you have to follow. In fact, it’s a very simple strategy that has been forgotten about by most bodybuilders. However, this strategy is shown consistently in research to increase your best bench press or leg press anywhere from 8 to 16%, without training! When performed in conjunction with weight training, this strategy consistently provides strength gains that are up to 45% greater than training alone.
I know I’m starting to sound like a late-night TV-infomercial, but wait, there’s more!
This simple but highly effective strategy is also shown to boost IGF-1 production within muscle by as much as 30%.4 Most bodybuilders and athletes have heard of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and its importance for muscle growth. What most don’t realize is that their muscles produce a specific form of IGF in response to heavy weight training. This highly specific form of IGF (known as mechano-IGF) is intimately involved in the mechanisms that underline increases in muscle size.5
As I said, this simple procedure that I’m about to discuss is shown in research to increase muscle strength by around 16% and the production of IGF within muscle by up to 30% without training and boost strength gains and workout performance by up to 45% during training.
Sounds too good to be true?
This is one of those truly rare occasions in life where this isn’t the case.
However, when I tell you about it, you’ll kick yourself for not doing it more often than you’ve probably done before. Yes, that’s right! If you’re an avid lifter, chances are you’ve most likely performed this procedure, and it probably worked very well for you.
The problem is, physique-conscious people are constantly on the lookout for that next big thing that’s going to speed muscle gains and make fat loss easier. Quite often, the one thing that produced awesome results is quickly forgotten about in the mad rush to find the next big thing that’s going to take their physiques to the next level. The end-result; a lot of time, money and effort is wasted in the process.
Okay, do you want me to let you in on this little ‘secret’ that is shown in research to provide all the benefits I’ve described?
Okay, I’ll tell you (drum roll please…..)
It’s called, loading with creatine monohydrate. That’s right! Loading with creatine monohydrate. This simple strategy consistently creates a high concentration of creatine within the muscle that is shown in research to provide the following benefits.[spacer height=”20px”]
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Increase production of muscle mRNA IGF-1 up to 30%!4
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Increase bench press and leg press strength up to 16%, without training!2
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Consistently shown to increase your bench press during training by as much as 45%!3
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Increase workout performance (more reps with a given maximal weight) by as much as 43%!3
Just imagine how excited you’d get if you heard of a ‘new’ product that provided all of these benefits verified by rigorously controlled, scientific research. You could also add; this supplement is shown in research to be safe, not toxic, is allowed for use in any drug-tested event and a three-month supply is less than one-tenth the cost of your average anabolic drug stack. Can you imagine it? Bodybuilders and strength athletes everywhere would be knocking each other over to lay down their cash for this ‘incredible,’ ‘new’ supplement.
Sometimes we can’t find the forest because of all those trees that are in our way. Sometimes the answer to the biggest question is right under our nose. Sometimes, when we choose not to blindly follow the masses from supplement fad to supplement fad, the answers become clear.
As a leader in this industry for over 25 years, I believe Micronized Creatine monohydrate is probably the single, most effective natural performance-enhancing, muscle-building supplement that we will ever see in our lifetimes. And, as I reported quite a while back, I also truly believe that we have only just begun to scratch the surface regarding the benefits this supplement is capable of providing.
Stop Chasing the Carrot
In the world of sports supplements, slick marketing, seven or eight-page advertisements in the magazines, big-dollar endorsement deals (by athletes who never took the products), and sneaky social media photoshopping are used to capture the attention of supplement users. While athletes are always looking for something that will give them that extra edge, common sense must prevail. Rather than waste time and money on supplements that have no scientific evidence of their effectiveness, most athletes would make much faster progress by learning how to get the most from supplements that are proven to be safe and highly effective in the research literature.
Creatine Loading
The traditional way of loading with creatine monohydrate involves taking 20 to 25 grams a day (in four or five 5-gram doses) for up to 5 days. This loading phase increases muscle creatine stores by 25mmol/kg of dry mass (which is a 15 to 40% increase in muscle creatine stores). This approach might get the job done but probably destroys 70-80% of the potential gains that could be obtained (more on that later). Nonetheless, let me show you how powerful creatine monohydrate can be for improving your performance in the gym.
One study,2 compared 1RM (single-rep max strength) after 28 days of supplementation (a loading phase followed by 10grams/day) with or without training. In the group given creatine monohydrate for 28 days without exercise, bench press and leg press 1RM increased by 16%. When the scientists compared the 1RM strength gains demonstrated by the group that took the creatine during training (18% for bench press and 42% for leg press), the results revealed that creatine monohydrate alone was responsible for 40% of the strength gains observed in this study.2 That’s amazing, but that’s what creatine monohydrate can do.
Loading appears to be a big aspect of the phenomenal gains. A review of over 22 weight training studies reported that loading with creatine monohydrate consistently resulted in (at least) a 14% improvement in workout performance, and 1RM strength gains up to 45% better than placebo-treated groups. If loading provides these sorts of benefits, shouldn’t athletes utilize this strategy more often? Definitely! The bottom line is, the more often a bodybuilder or athlete loads with creatine monohydrate, the more likely they are to experience the awesome benefits this supplement is capable of providing.
However, loading and re-loading may require some degree of precision. Research suggests that once a muscle cell is full of creatine, further supplementation may cause saturation outside the cell that degrades cell transporters and prevents further uptake for weeks or even months!6 Therefore, athletes need to be able to load and re-load in a way that increases muscle stores but does not cause saturation and possible degradation of cell transporters.
A while back we examined all the research on creatine monohydrate; its absorption kinetics, cell transportation, and metabolism as well as all the results on athletic performance. Based on this research, I devised what I believe to be the best way to obtain the greatest possible anabolic effect from this supplement. It involves short but frequent, repeated loading with Micronized Creatine monohydrate. The aim of this strategy is to create and maintain ultra-high muscle creatine stores that boost workout performance and accelerate gains in strength and muscle growth. It’s called Creatine Cycling.
It’s a simple but incredibly effective approach and the results from athletes that have used the Creatine Cycling strategy has been incredible.
References
1. Rennie MJ. J Physiol 569.2 pp 357, 2005.
2. Arciero PJ, et al. Metabolism 50:1429–1434. 2001.
3. Rawson & Volek J Strength Cond Res 17:822-31, 2003.
4. Deldicque L, et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc 37; 731-6, 2005.
5. Goldspink G. J Physiol 20:232-8, 2005.
6. Guerrero-Ontivers, ML and Wallimann T. Mol Cell Biochem 184: 427-437, 1998.
