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usg543 said:
you know creatine fills your muscles with water

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Helixx said:

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usg543 said:
you know creatine fills your muscles with water

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That's creatine monohydrate.  Some of the others like kre-alkalyn don't have the same effect, and build dense muscle.

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Helixx said:
I'll look into it more.  What supplements do you use, if any?

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        Just so you know, V02 max is the maximum volume of oxygen the body can consume during intense,
whole-body exercise, while breathing air at sea level. This volume is expressed as a rate, either liters per
minute (L/min) or milliliters per kg body weight per minute (ml/kg/min). Because oxygen consumption is
linearly related to energy expenditure, when we measure oxygen consumption, we are indirectly measuring an
individual's maximal capacity to do work aerobically. A high maximal oxygen consumption is one of the
hallmark characteristics of great endurance athletes in running, cycling, rowing and cross-country skiing, etc.
        In a nutshell, both standard creatine and Kre-Alkalyn were shown to actually improve V02 max, with
Kre-Alkalyn showing the greater improvement of the two. Anyway you look at it, this is exciting information.

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Creatine ethyl ester rapidly degrades to creatinine in stomach acid

Child R1 and Tallon MJ2

1Department of Life Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Rd, Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom. 2University of Northumbria, Sport Sciences, Northumbria University, Northumberland Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, DrChild@CR-Technologies.net

Creatine ethyl ester (CEE) is a commercially available synthetic creatine that is now widely used in dietary supplements. It comprises of creatine with an ethyl group attached and this molecular configuration is reported to provide several advantages over creatine monohydrate (CM). The Medical Research Institute (CA, USA) claim that the CEE in their product (CE2) provides greater solubility in lipids, leading to improved absorption. Similarly San (San Corporation, CA, USA) claim that the CEE in their product (San CM2 Alpha) avoids the breakdown of creatine to creatinine in stomach acids. Ultimately it is claimed that CEE products provide greater absorption and efficacy than CM. To date, none of these claims have been evaluated by an independent, or university laboratory and no comparative data are available on CEE and CM.

This study assessed the availability of creatine from three commercial creatine products during degradation in acidic conditions similar to those that occur in the stomach. They comprised of two products containing CEE (San CM2 Alpha and CE2) and commercially available CM (Creapure?). An independent laboratory, using testing guidelines recommended by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), performed the analysis. Each product was incubated in 900ml of pH 1 HCL at 37? 1oC and samples where drawn at 5, 30 and 120 minutes. Creatine availability was assessed by immediately assaying for free creatine, CEE and the creatine breakdown product creatinine, using HPLC (UV)

After 30 minutes incubation only 73% of the initial CEE present was available from CE2, while the amount of CEE available from San CM2 Alpha was even lower at only 62%. In contrast, more than 99% of the creatine remained available from the CM product. These reductions in CEE availability were accompanied by substantial creatinine formation, without the appearance of free creatine. After 120minutes incubation 72% of the CEE was available from CE2 with only 11% available from San CM2 Alpha, while more than 99% of the creatine remained available from CM.

CEE is claimed to provide several advantages over CM because of increased solubility and stability. In practice, the addition of the ethyl group to creatine actually reduces acid stability and accelerates its breakdown to creatinine. This substantially reduces creatine availability in its esterified form and as a consequence creatines such as San CM2 and CE2 are inferior to CM as a source of free creatine.

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Kre-alkalyn? supplementation has no beneficial effect on creatine-to-creatinine conversion rates.

Tallon MJ1 and Child R2

1University of Northumbria, Sport Sciences, Northumbria University, Northumberland Building, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, 2Department of Life Sciences, Kingston University, Penrhyn Rd, Kingston-upon-Thames, United Kingdom. DrTallon@CR-Technologies.net

All American Pharmaceutical and Natural Foods Corp. (Billings, MT, USA) claim that Kre-alkalyn? (KA) a ?Buffered? creatine, is 100% stable in stomach acid and does not convert to creatinine. In contrast, they also claim that creatine monohydrate (CM) is highly pH labile with more than 90% of the creatine converting to the degradation product creatinine in stomach acids. To date, no independent or university laboratory has evaluated the stability of KA in stomach acids, assessed its possible conversion to creatinine, or made direct comparisons of acid stability with CM.

This study examined whether KA supplementation reduced the rate of creatine conversion to creatinine, relative to commercially available CM (Creapure?). Creatine products were analyzed by an independent commercial laboratory using testing guidelines recommended by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP). Each product was incubated in 900ml of pH 1 HCL at 37? 1oC and samples where drawn at 5, 30 and 120 minutes and immediately analyzed by HPLC (UV) for creatine and creatinine.

In contrast to the claims of All American Pharmaceutical and Natural Foods Corp., the rate of creatinine formation from CM was found to be less than 1% of the initial dose, demonstrating that CM is extremely stable under acidic conditions that replicate those of the stomach. This study also showed that KA supplementation actually resulted in 35% greater conversion of creatine to creatinine than CM. In conclusion the conversion of creatine to creatinine is not a limitation in the delivery of creatine from CM and KA is less stable than CM in the acid conditions of the stomach.

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ohmatic said:
do you SQUAT, DEADLIFT, POWER CLEAN, PUSH PRESS, (weighted) DIP, (weighted) CHINUP ?

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blackout said:

You have to start eating more, most skinny guys THINK they eat a lot, and most fat guys THINK they do not. The only way is to get a digital scale and calculate your calories.

Check out www.exrx.net

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XUL said:
Here is my workout. You may not know what some of it is because of name variations... but you get the jist of it.


Chest
1. flat bench,
2. pushups,
dumbell press, 
3. flies,


bicept
1. bicept curls 
sitting curls,
2. big J burnouts

tricept
1. skull crushers
2. tri pushups

etc..
1. lawn mower pulls

3. hand sqeezes
4.chicken wings

shoulders
1. arnolds
chicken wings
2. front and side raises
3. traps
4. millitary press

forearm
1. one
2. two
3. three
jogs
hand squeez

core
1. clean sweeps
2. dead lifts
4. dragon fly pushups
hand elbow pushups,

abs
1. leg levers
6 inch weighted lift
2. up down in outs

legs
1. lunges

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nilla said:
Dont waist your money on glutamine.

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Horrible advise. Glutamine and Creatine are some of the only supplements you can trust will WORK. I love them and I can't imagine life with out them.

To gain wait, you have to take in excess calories. I suggest you do some searching on proper bulking eating habits. You should eat 3500 clean calories and up a day. When you take in more calories than your body needs according to your metabolism, then your body stores it as either muscle or fat. So, eat a clean diet, and always be in excess calories. I can't remember what your height and body weight was, but if you are having trouble putting weight on, then 3500 plus calories will almost always do the trick, unless you're fucking huge.

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usg543 said:
you know creatine fills your muscles with water, making you weigh more. if you still weigh the same as when you were on it, you probably have been actually gaining weight while losing water weight.

just keep at it. eat more!

if you want to, you can do a test boost or eat some steroids. i wouldn't suggest it though.

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