Coach's Corner With Justin and Ethan
Welcome to "Coach's Corner with Justin and Ethan," where your health and fitness journey gets a simplified makeover! Join Justin and Ethan, two seasoned coaches with a combined 30 years of experience, as they navigate the labyrinth of health and fitness, unraveling myths from facts to guide you towards success.
In each episode, we dive headfirst into the vast world of well-being, shedding light on weight loss, dissecting diet fads, exploring diverse workout styles, and fine-tuning the often overlooked aspect of mindset. Our mission is to demystify the complexities surrounding health, making your journey not only effective but enjoyable.
Get ready for a lively and informative conversation that feels like a chat with your favorite fitness buddies. Justin and Ethan draw upon their extensive experience, sharing real-life stories from working with thousands of clients. No stone is left unturned as they break down what really works and what's just another fitness fad.
Whether you're a fitness enthusiast or a beginner taking the first steps toward a healthier lifestyle, "Coache's Corner" is your go-to source for practical insights, debunking myths, and embracing the joy of the journey. Tune in for a fun and engaging exploration of the truth behind health and fitness, and let Justin and Ethan be your trusted guides to a healthier, happier you!
Coach's Corner With Justin and Ethan
Elevate Your Performance and Mind with Creatine
Curious about the secret weapon that can boost both your physical and mental performance? From personal stories to scientific insights, join us at Coach's Corner as we unpack the powerhouse supplement that is creatine. Dive into the world of sports performance and cognitive enhancement, as we share my two-decade journey with creatine and why it's a top-tier choice among supplements. We'll guide you through the intricacies of how creatine works within the body’s energy systems, such as ATP, glycolytic, and oxidative pathways, to amplify those short, intense bursts of energy that athletes crave.
This episode isn't just about muscles—it's about busting myths too. We address misconceptions surrounding water weight and explore creatine's fascinating benefits for brain health and cognitive function. Whether you're an athlete, an older adult seeking mental acuity, or following a plant-based diet, creatine's versatility might surprise you. Tune in to learn how this supplement not only supports your gym goals but also offers broader health benefits that could enhance your everyday life. It's time to see why creatine is more than just a gym staple; it's a cornerstone of effective supplementation.
welcome to coach's corner, episode 41, and this is going to be a special episode. Well, they're all special, but this one's going to be specifically talking about a very hot button topic called creatine. So everyone's I mean you cannot, at least I can, because my instagram feed is, just, you know, all full of fitness influencers that I see what they're doing just to make sure you know see what the competition's doing out there. But everybody's doing videos on creatine, right?
Speaker 2:now it's funny how the zeitgeist kind of bubble pops. I mean it's been around for so long, yeah, well known for so long. But yeah, well known for so long, but still, yeah, it's like somehow it just comes back into the froth.
Speaker 1:It's crazy, I mean, like we've been. I mean, I've been personally taking creatine for 23 years. That's that new stuff. And even when, even 23 years ago, it was like, yeah, you just got to take creatine.
Speaker 2:So matter of fact, when I went to school in the early 2000s, like 2003, it was definitely just like oh yeah, and the textbooks Many, many years, because it's the only over-the-counter supplement that you can buy right now that is clinically proven, scientifically proven, to increase performance and strength.
Speaker 1:All the other stuff is like you have A tier, B tier, C tier supplements. C tier is just unfounded, anecdotal hearsay. B tier could be beneficial, like maybe amino acids would be in that like, depending on the case, depending on the person maybe more research is needed.
Speaker 2:There are like A to Bs that make sense of like well, it does this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like, like, almost like sports specific or case specific, like, if you're, if you're this type of athlete, this, this B tier, might work for you. But in general, maybe more research is needed to be done. And there's like the A tier where it's like you just can't deny it. No, there's countless studies, yeah, and there's countless studies, yeah, and. And then creatine is a tier. I mean, it's just like the benefits and the more they study, the more they find that it's not just sports which we'll get into and like performance, but actually like a lot of other benefits in your health as well. Absolutely so we'll be doing our best to just kind of chat a little bit about it. Disclaimer we're not like experts, we're not, like you know, collegiate researchers here that are that are going to break down like the crazy, crazy nitty gritty science, but we'll just kind of give like our take on it. And yeah, I think we know enough to be dangerous, but yeah, 100 so so basically, why don't you start us out here, mr mr?
Speaker 1:kinesiology just in general. Yeah, what's your take on it?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, okay, it's, it's, it's fantastic, I think. Okay, moving on. So that's all I really have to say. Yeah, no, but basically I think it's understanding that there's three energy pathways for a muscle when it contracts and has to do work. You have kind of like your ATP phase. You have like your glycolytic or your carbohydrate use phase for using some common language and then you have your oxidative or maybe your fat burning phase, if totally want to use common language, and it's kind of degree. The gradient is there based on intensity or work. So the atp is like 10 seconds worth of readily available maximal contraction stored energy.
Speaker 1:So think like you have to sprint to catch the bus sprint to get the bus. You have to like jump as high as you can to try to touch a basketball yeah, like what one set of three or four of your max reps or something, yeah, so literally 10 seconds or less is all going to be ATP.
Speaker 2:Then you got up to two minutes in the glycolytic where you're kind of using glycogen, which is the stored carbohydrate in your muscle. That's going to be your kind of that burn, which is the lactic acid. You know you're kind of doing a set of push-ups and your muscles are burning and it's not sustainable by any means. But you're kind of in that range.
Speaker 2:That might be a minute of work, 45 seconds, that kind of thing and then you have the oxidative which is when you go on a walk or if you're, we're in our oxidative pathway as we speak. Yeah, exactly, it's basically just using oxygen to metabolize fat. For energy very low demand, long lasting. It's your endurance kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like if you're a trained, uh, endurance athlete, like if you're running a marathon, you're yeah, that would be. You can't burn through glycogen for five hours, so you got to start utilizing oxygen as your energy source. And so oxygen is pretty straightforward you breathe it in glycolytic. Just to just to highlight what you said, it's it's derived when you eat carbohydrate. Specifically you, if you train. Well, we all carry a degree of glycogen, but no, everybody has. But you know it's, it's like it's just the gas tank in your muscles, right?
Speaker 2:so if you walk up a flight of stairs and you get that burn in your leg. Yep, you started to tap into that and it's also one thing you know when I was in school. The the energy pathways are so distinct, and even in how we just explained them. But one of the things they mentioned is that there's technically like an influx of all three pathways at all. Right, you know, it's not like you're doing a set of push-ups and your oxidative pathway is just not working and your atps is not working.
Speaker 2:It's this kind of like smorgasbord that's happening all the time, like there might be a single contraction where you have to like bend down and pick up a box. That's not intense enough for all of your ATP but your oxidative pathway. So it's like you know there's this smorgasbord your ATP is constantly being replenished and used you know, certain contractions will kind of dip into your glycogen. It's not like you're just at low level, just purely burning fat and oxidative pathway Right, right, right.
Speaker 1:It's not so it's not so?
Speaker 2:And then?
Speaker 1:there's ATP, which is probably like the we refer to it as the energy currency in the body, yep, muscles, brain, like that's just kind of like our readily available energy source at any moment, at any time.
Speaker 2:Just ready to go. Yeah, it's just the hot gasoline, that's just ready.
Speaker 1:So what the hell does it have to do with creatine?
Speaker 2:Well, so basically ATP is adenosine tri triphosphate and when your body utilizes the molecule for energy, it turns into a diphosphate. So atp turns into adp or adenosine diphosphate, and basically what creatine does, which is it's already naturally stored in the body. I think it's like they said that the liver and the kidneys can produce up to a gram a day. You know, we store in our muscles, we get it from, you know, animal products generally, like red meat and that kind of thing. I think like a pound of red meat or something like that has five grams of creatine in it.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:So we do get it from animals. Our body can make it, obviously we need it. But basically what happens is that the presence of creatine in the muscles or in the cell basically replenishes the phosphate molecule quicker. So as you utilize ATP and it turns into ADP, you basically the creatine helps slap on a phosphate again and takes it from that dye or turns it back into a tri and turns it back into a tri, and so basically your body is just getting a higher uptick of readily available ATP.
Speaker 2:You replenish it faster and there's more of it because your body can just assign the phosphates to ADP. That's kind of lying around anyway.
Speaker 1:And so how that translates to performance is that like, well, like we just talked about, like, if you have this 10 second sort of window to utilize your ATP pathway, your first pathway, like explosive stuff, quick sprints, etc, heavy pressing or heavy, heavy lifts of any kind, right explosive movement for 10 seconds or less, well, it stands to reason. Then, if you have more atp available in your muscle, your muscles are more saturated with this, with these atp molecules. Well then, you know, maybe you can, instead of 10 seconds, you might be able to push for 12 or 13, which might translate to one or two extra reps, and instead of, you know um, your max effort being 100 pounds, maybe it's now 110 pounds.
Speaker 2:Right, you may be able to maintain a maximum like speed on a sprint. Yeah, seven seconds. You can maintain a maximum speed for 10. And yeah, because it's like one of the things to think about is that like if there was ATP readily available for longer, your body would just keep using that. And so I think one of the ideas is again that idea of like these energy pathways are overlapping is that as you exit the 10 second window, your body starts to utilize the stored carbohydrate or the glycogen, because it needs to keep contracting.
Speaker 1:But at the same time.
Speaker 2:Your ATP system is constantly regenerating yeah it just can't regenerate fast enough for the demands you're putting on it. But now that we're regenerating that ATP even faster, as your body dips out of that 10 seconds and starts to utilize that secondary pathway, the ATPs get turning over and it's much more efficient than the glycolytic pathway. So it's almost like you're able to throw on more wood on the fire quicker, and there's this higher turnover of the preferred rate.
Speaker 1:Right, right, the preferred energy source so to speak.
Speaker 2:It's almost like you're here like a little nitro boost, yeah, like micro nitro, and then it lets you get the 10 second uh nitro boost, like in mario cuts or something like that. I was thinking exactly over there. And then, like, you go back to like like us nba jam with the turbo bar.
Speaker 1:Oh right, yeah, yeah, your turbo bar just gets replenished quicker, totally, and so then, so you got let's say, you're taking a supplement creatine monohydrate. You have now saturated your muscles in creatine, so not only do you have more ATP molecules available, which does all the things we just said, but then you also replenish those dyes back into tris faster.
Speaker 1:Because remember the creatine phosphate is what turns the dye back into the tri, which then converts back into your power booster of ATP, turbo bar, turbo bar of ATP. So that's why it's so powerful from an athletic standpoint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just physiologically sound. That's why science backs it up there's no like oh, it increases your mood or helps you sleep, it's just factually an energy pathway of the body.
Speaker 1:So you could see how like we're not talking like anabolic steroid level improvements, but like for the average person, I mean this could be a, you know, five to ten percent increase in performance and strength over the course of a year, which might mean like, let's say, you're a guy trying to put on muscle, that might look like, instead of you putting on 10 pounds of muscle in that year and naturally without anything.
Speaker 2:Maybe it's more like 13, 15 I mean, I'm trying to remember, I have some statistics in my mind about some studies that show the amount of lean mass gain comparatively, um, you know, from people that took me into not, and it was pretty substantial. I mean we're talking, yeah, like in the study, I think the creatine people gained like two to three more pounds of lean mass and it was well under a year probably just like a mesocycle of some sort, probably like 12 weeks yeah, so it there it's.
Speaker 2:It's substantial. I wish I had some factual numbers. I'm not gonna spit out anything without knowing for a fact, but it's there.
Speaker 1:It is fairly substantial, the improvements that you can make and I I will say it's noticeable too, and how much of that is psychosomatic.
Speaker 2:Ah, who knows, it's factual. But hey, placebo is as good as anything right.
Speaker 1:And so it's true because, like so much of our, you know not to go too far off on like a philosophical tangent, but like so much of our strength and ability is our own perception and our own belief in that 100% our strength and ability is our own perception, our own belief in our, in that 100 and so like, even by just thinking that you are going to be stronger because you're taking a supplement, is probably going to make you unlock another layer of performance that maybe you wouldn't have. Regardless of whether there's any actual effect it could be a sugar pill, for all you know, but you just think it is you think you can pull out two or three more reps at the end of a set and all of a sudden, instead of it.
Speaker 2:You're willing to be more uncomfortable a little deeper.
Speaker 1:So much of that shit happens. But that's not the case with creatine. Like creatine, for sure, is clinically proven it really does. But I think there's also, for sure, a psychosomatic component of it as well, just knowing that you're on it. But I will say it is noticeable, like when you, if you're not on it for a long period of time and you start taking it yeah you within a week.
Speaker 1:You're like oh yeah, I'm pushing for a few more reps here, like I'm, I'm throwing an extra 10 on each side, like I can feel the difference here wow yeah, so the creatine in and of itself doesn't necessarily make your muscles any stronger or bigger, but what it does is increases your capacity to train and the volume of training now improves, which that is what makes your muscles bigger and stronger.
Speaker 2:Exactly yeah, intensity and volume increases. So, yeah, if you were to just take creatine and do nothing, nothing would happen. Fundamentally, in terms of your musculature and development, yeah, but if you are already exercising, it's a goldmine.
Speaker 1:Some of the big complaints is that people are like well. Creatine makes people gain water weight.
Speaker 2:Right, and there is some truth to that. It does, it does, but it's also fairly minimal. I mean, it's like I think people hear that and they think they're going to be like a walking fishbowl all of a sudden.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, just like face round and baby faced. But it's also the same person will go and drink a bottle of red wine and eat a piece of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or just eat like a ramen or something that has a day's worth of salt in it. I mean, you know.
Speaker 1:But there's a difference between subcutaneous water weight retention and intramuscular water weight retention, and so you know, think of it like this. Okay, think of it like this, yeah, yep, yeah, think about like this. All right, let's say you had like a ziploc bag which is just like your skin. Think of like the bag is just like your skin and it's full of water. And let's say you take like a bottle of water and put it inside the bag. Creatine doesn't pull water between your muscle and your skin. Creatine pulls water into the actual muscle. So making the bottle of water bigger because it has more hydration, more water in it, but the subcutaneous water weight that makes you look puffy. It's not that, if anything is going to make you look more, uh, leaned out, because it's increasing the, the volume of your muscle also pushing against the fat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, thinning the fat, out thinning yeah, thinning it out of your muscle and also like pulling water into your muscle is a good thing. That just means your cells gonna be more hydrated, functioning better, recovering faster, performing better, you know I think a lot of time.
Speaker 2:It's more like maybe the scale goes up. People are concerned about gaining a pound or two and they're just like, oh no, but again, it's just understanding that that's not coming from fat, it's coming from your little plump muscles.
Speaker 1:I mean, if you put on a few pounds of muscle, you probably look to have the same effect. Yeah right, yeah, but uh, but yeah, other than that, like other than just like water weight retention, the side effects are super minimal. The only thing I could really find is just some gi track.
Speaker 2:That's what I found, but that's also extremely high dosing, yeah, very, very high dosing, which, uh, you know, anecdotally, I've never done it, so I've always been curious, but I I met a guy who was that I don't actually want to cross, crossfit competition.
Speaker 1:This guy yeah, I was gonna say yeah, I remember he was all about creatine and cholesterol man 20.
Speaker 2:He would take like 20 grams a day. So just just on a. We'll talk about it more in detail, but five grams a day is on the average recommended dose yeah that's just what it is through and through, no way around it. And so he was taking 20 to 30 a day. He swore by it.
Speaker 1:He swore by it, and this was before steroids was as prevalent as it is now. This is probably 10 years ago, at least at least in like the normal world pro bodybuilders obviously been doing roids for generations, but like normal gym people it wasn't.
Speaker 1:It seems like now it's kind of everyone's doing some form of it on trt but, 10, 12 years ago when, like 2014, when we were having, when we're doing these like local little crossfit competitions like this guy I know you're talking about yeah, he was pretty, he was hard as nails and fucking was dead, lifting like 700 pounds yeah, yeah, he felt like a rock, like he really, like he just was built like a boulder. He was impressive as a human and he said he had a dozen rye eggs a day and 20 grams of creatine Sometimes.
Speaker 2:You know Well the creatine is something that's like outside of the GI tract. I know it wouldn't be harmful, yeah, and so it'd be an interesting thing to experiment with and see if it really had like an extra, extra benefit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just I say, why not try? Maybe 10 or something let's go start with 10 and just see, and then maybe just go like up five gram increments, see what happened? There's a point, I think right around then I was like fuck it, I'll see what 10 feels like yeah again, I don't remember it's psychosomatic, but like I was like yeah, I couldn't tell you if I was actually starting out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but also like if five grams for me at 200 pounds is different than five grams for somebody at 150 pounds you know that's exactly true, right, but then what if you're 300 pounds?
Speaker 2:this?
Speaker 1:guy was probably like 220 230 jacked so maybe his 20 would be like a normal person's 10. You know, right, right, right. But uh, it's really hard to find any reason to not do it. And one other, one other thing that the more it's being researched because it is so popular now they're finding like it's got tremendous benefits for cognitive function and brain health, focus and acuity. So cool, and especially for older populations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the elderly Absolutely. Which makes sense, cause obviously, just like our bodies degenerate, our brains degenerate you know, and so all of a sudden you're just given cause. Basically, your brain uses ATP and glucose as the two primary energy sources and so, via the process we were just talking about, just getting the brain more readily available.
Speaker 1:Atp just means increased cognitive function so I was just getting ready for this episode. I wrote an interesting article and it was like 95 of it is allocated towards musculature, but five 5% is basically going to your brain. But your brain uses ATP just like your muscles do. Atp passes up the blood-brain barrier Under mental stress and fatigue, just like your muscles.
Speaker 1:your brain is basically getting drained of its energy your brain is basically getting drained of its energy, and so what they found is that, like dosing another five grams of creatine within a three-hour window, actually helps boost brain function back up, so intravenous, like if you do like an IV drip within 15 minutes, it can improve cognitive ability. That's so cool. If you just drink it though about three hours is the latency between yeah, before it can get cognitive ability. So cool if you just drink it though about three hours?
Speaker 2:is the? Is the? Is the latency between yeah, before I can get into your brain interesting so.
Speaker 1:So it's really interesting. So it's like they found that like especially like if you have a really shitty night's sleep or you're just systemically fatigued you're just drained acute high doses of it can actually just help you get back up to a cognitive function. That was similar to like if you had a full night's sleep, I wonder.
Speaker 2:I mean, that makes sense. I mean like amanda's in grad school right now she's working on papers and like I bet you even for things of that nature yeah, I mean it's like what I think we talked about once of like, uh, like a grandmaster chess player will burn like 2 000 calories and brain is no joke just from thinking, because you're thinking so hard so the brain's just churning through all this fuel.
Speaker 2:So it's like in these kind of high mental stress situations, even if you're just thinking a lot, dose on that creatine. That's so cool. Do you sip in creatine? Sip in creatine yeah, and it doesn't work with everything. It doesn't affect Parkinson's and other degenerative brain diseases or brain stuff.
Speaker 1:It doesn't. You're saying it doesn't, you're saying it doesn't. Yeah. But I wonder though if you're already diagnosed, maybe it's a little bit too late. But I wonder, like does it help stave it off if you're?
Speaker 2:taking it up until then. I don't know. I mean, the next time I get a poor night's sleep I'm definitely going to try a creatine blast.
Speaker 1:Sure, I was thinking the same thing. But yeah, I mean they're saying like around it right now, because now that like it's becoming so popular they're all these researchers now are trying to like see, well, what else can it do?
Speaker 2:well, yeah, I saw a thing that helps with anxiety and depression, especially in like teens and youth. You know, and the mechanisms aren't 100 clear, but it just seems like when the brain struggles. You know the brain struggles and yeah, but just giving it better function in general, you can stave off these kind of emotional things that can be related to chemical imbalances and all the kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I mean you gotta imagine that like the body's so intricate. So like what if your liver gets less creatine put out? You know it's supposed to produce like a gram a day. What if it, just as you get older, it produces less?
Speaker 1:it's only spending like half a gram because and then maybe you don't eat a lot of animal products, so you're just not really getting any.
Speaker 2:And then all of a sudden you know this accessible resource for your brain and all the things is just kind of lagging, especially as you get older. Maybe it just makes total sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, I think, especially because, like, if you are more plant-based and you're a lifter, you train. I think it's even more important because you can get it naturally through, just like fish and meat and stuff. But if you're not eating a lot of that but you're still training hard and like taking a lot of protein from, like you know, plant sources, which is great, this could be a really, really important addition to your routine if you are more plant-based, for sure.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so it's hard to find any reasons not to do it, I mean there's pretty much none.
Speaker 2:I mean it's yeah, I mean, especially even now, if you don't exercise, it's the brain function is gonna be the next piece, and so it's like, yeah, it's interesting it's very cool. Very few, very few supplements or substances that oh yeah, someone crashed in the party here uh, that that kind of have that just sound reasoning like that.
Speaker 1:For sure, and I mean I don't think I've not taken it, for I mean I've been on creatine personally for at least solid 15 years.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been off for a while it's probably been. I just fell out of pattern in like six months. I thought I didn't have any, just didn't reorder it. And then, because of this episode, I was rummaging around and I found like a bag that I had purchased but I totally had forgotten about. So now I'm going to get to see the the contrast yeah I'm unsaturated. That'd be good.
Speaker 1:Now I'm going to definitely see you should just go to 10 grams, right, I'm just going to do 10, I'm just just gonna do 10 indefinitely yeah, and then just see, because I mean that might just be like whoa game changer for you right, but so yeah, so I just talked about saturated, yeah, so what's the dosing?
Speaker 2:what's?
Speaker 1:going on. It's interesting because, like I think, that depends on you. Talk to um. I think when I first started taking it 20 years ago, it was like this saturation phase where you should do 15 grams a day for a few days and then just once you're saturated, your muscles are saturated after a few days and you just go to like the standard five, yep. But then now everybody's just like just take the five, it's fine, it just takes longer, yeah to saturate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the idea here is that one thing about the supplement is you have to take it every day. I mean, maybe in terms of the brain function and getting a boost on a poor night's sleep, that might, I don't know. That would make sense to me that you could get an acute benefit from just supplying your brain with something in most, but for the muscular performance aspects, your muscle has to be saturated, and that only happens from consistent use, and so it's something you have to take every day.
Speaker 1:If you just work out twice a week and take it twice a week when you work, yeah, don't just turn to one of those things Like people who have protein shakes like, ah, I just do a shake when I work out. I'm like well, better than nothing, but like, just do it every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a macronutrient for total numbers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like this isn't like a training session contingent supplement here, it's just like every day needs to be consistent. So when you do go and train, you're ready to roll, you're not like already starting to dwindle down.
Speaker 2:So the muscles have to be saturated. As long as you take it consistently, it'll happen at one point. If you took 15 or 20 grams for a few days, you'll saturate quicker. But fundamentally, if you just took 5 grams every day consistently, you will eventually reach saturation. It just might take like 10 days, but I think this is where people get mixed up.
Speaker 1:I think this is, I think this is how it causes gi issues, because you're like, oh, I gotta saturate. You've never taken it before, you really gotta saturate, so you start taking 15 grams a day and you're just gassy and your stomach's upset. You're like oh, I tried, creatine doesn't work for me.
Speaker 2:But had you actually just done five grams a day and you would have been just totally fine, you might have just dosed too hard and since this is something that you're going to take every day indefinitely, seemingly anyway, the five extra days to get saturated isn't going to really matter. You're not going to do this for just a month or two weeks. It's like, no, this is like. You just take this. I mean, maybe you wax and wane a little bit, maybe you go on vacation for two weeks. It naturally happens, or something.
Speaker 2:But fundamentally you just take it every day and you know there's a lot of questions about timing and there's a little bit of research that might again might support, particularly in athletes, that taking the creatine directly after exercise has a more beneficial effect. But really it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Because it is a saturation thing. It is a saturation, you just depleted a bunch of it. It's not like proteins, where you got like a spike and then a drop in your bloodstream.
Speaker 2:It's like I think your muscles are yeah, they're just it it's just in there, yeah, so the most important thing is this consistency is to just build it into a habit that you'll guarantee to take it every day. So if you mix it, you do a protein shake, mix it in there or if you do something in the morning, but just the. What matters is that you just do it every day, so whatever time of the day will allow that.
Speaker 1:I also think that like you know, it's like assimilation is important, so like if it's just five grams, which isn't much, and so like if you have like a huge meal and then you have your five grams, like it probably wouldn't reach, you wouldn't assimilate as as great of a percentage if you were to drink it like, let's say, on an empty stomach you know that's a good question.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's still getting in, you.
Speaker 1:Yeah but there's just a lot of other stuff your body has to sift through. There's got to be some Efficiency. Yeah, Efficiency loss you know in the whole thing.
Speaker 2:It's interesting too. I also read that apparently taking it with caffeine can reduce its efficacy of a potion a little bit. Yeah, which would be probably what I would do in the morning. But, not enough to deter you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to do in the morning, but, yeah, not enough to deter you. Yeah, we're getting a little caught up in the weeds here. I think the big takeaway, though, is like there's really no reason to not do it. Um, it only looks like green lights, there's. The only side effect maybe is some upset stomach, but again, that's usually correlated with higher doses. So for most folks, it's like there's just really no reason to not do, especially if you train. Yeah, uh, it's a natural chemical your body produces on its own, no matter what it's in the foods you're eating already. All you're doing is just giving a little extra, a couple of grams extra than you would produce on your own, to just kind of like maximize your, your potential without having to do drugs. You know 100 and so, yeah, there's really no reason to not do it. A couple takeaways monohydrates on when you need, yeah protein, mon.
Speaker 2:That's it, yep. All the other bullshit is just bullshit. All marketing. People will sell you all types of other forms and higher absorption, longer release rates, pills and not as much. Charge you 17 times more money I get.
Speaker 1:it's like $16, $17 for a pound.
Speaker 2:Go to bulksupplementscom or from Amazon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you get a giant sack. So if you're paying more than that, you're just you're. You're buying the packaging, you're buying the best parts.
Speaker 2:It's dirt cheap, I mean, as a supplement goes. It is like dirt cheap. It is a commodity, yeah, it's just. It's crazy. It is a for the what you get out of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah so so there you go. So hopefully that will help you guys make a more informed decision. But you know, you know, as far as supplementation goes, less is more. Just don't get caught up in the stuff. That's like. You know, some of these stacks I see people have, it's like insane. They're taking like 10, 15 different supplements a day and I'm like all right, be surprised how far. Just a solid meal plan, some protein, creatine, stay hydrated, go to bed.
Speaker 2:Be consistent. Some protein creatine stay hydrated, go to bed. Be consistent like that's three, that is, lucene, b5 and 12 nitric oxide yeah, it's just like whoa bro, you're taking like a fucking well, those are actually things I take every day yeah, but you're talking about vitamins.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about, like no, like the neurotropic, like lucene, like, like no, it's like this is my stack, my pre-workout stack, my intro workout stack, my post-workout stack. Oh yeah, and I did. That's way too complicated, like, keep it simple. Um, most important thing is nutrition, but anyway, so yeah. So there you go. So that was it, episode 41 on our take on creatine. We'll catch you guys next time, episode 42 coming up, peace.