Ok, now on to the good stuff. Before I get into the Creatine part, let's look at the first few sentences in the article. First off, it says this.
"Before you started lifting, I bet you're muscles were Jell-O, right? Why do you think so? Because you never worked on them, contracted them. When you contract something, you pack it together. When you pack something together, you make it hard. That is where you build muscles."
Uh ok, first off, your muscles wouldn't be Jell-O. When a muscle is relaxed, like the bicep, and tricep, you can move them, and jiggle them around. If a muscle is flexed, it won't jiggle. Any one can flex their arm, and it can be somewhat solid, or even solid unless there is so much fat covering the muscle that in terms it may seem like Jell-O. Now most of us don't have that problem. I am not going to get into what he should have said, but this really isn't correct.
He then goes on to say they are like this because you never worked on them, contracted them. Sorry to burst your bubble, but do you know how many times you contract your arm a day, and for that matter every month, or year? Probably higher then I can count too. (Well not really).
And now on to the Creatine part. First off you go on to say Creatine is the main source of energy that lets you contract your muscles. Here is where you are wrong. Let's look at something a moment. When Creatine is introduced into the body, it forms what we call Creatine phosphate. by binding with a phosphor-ion. The new substance has the capability of binding this ion to left-over ADP and regenerate ATP. New ATP means new energy. Creatine phosphate is built up when the muscle is RESTING. Creatine phosphate cannot participate directly in muscle contraction. Instead it regenerates ATP:
ADP---> ATP Creatine phosphate----> creatine
For a contracting muscle, ATP is broken down to ADP+ P
I won't go any further here, but let's just say Creatine is not the main source of energy that lets you contract your muscles.
Ok, now what's the deal with this sentence? "Creatine can't be taken with anything with acid in it. No one says the effects, but obviously, they can't be good."Who told you that? It can be taken with OJ if you want, Sobe, or lemon juice. It's just not wise to leave it set forever. Next time you say it can't, explain why, and next time think of the gastric juices in your stomach. If you think Sobe or any other drink is worse then stomach acids, think again. And don't say, "obviously they can't be good" If you don't know why, don't mention it. I think the concern you have over acid and Creatine is it will turn into Creatinine the moment you dump it into an acidic drink.
Wow, this next part is truly amazing. "Creatine gives muscles energy. You can only use that energy with exercise. If you pack on the creatine so much, you can only use so much energy. What do your muscles do with that extra energy? Well, it probably distributes it throughout your body, messing up your entire system. This isn't like an O.D. on drugs, where you can kill yourself, but you can get sick and mess yourself up. That's when physicians come in."Hmm, since when does the body distribute extra energy throughout the body, and mess it up? I never knew you could mess yourself up by having extra energy. This is the some of the worst info I have heard by far. Are you talking about what do your muscle do, or should I say "body" do with that extra Creatine, or are you talking about what does the body do with extra energy? Uhh Helloâ€¦. If you didn't have energy period in the body you would be messed up. In my book, having a little more energy is great. Next time you want to make a fool out of yourself, go to the Dr, and yell, "Dr Dr, I have too much energy, and I think I am sick, and all of that extra energy is messing me up."
"Physicians, or any company that wants to be halfway respectable, are going to go to extremes with putting cautions on their products."Helloâ€¦. Any body home? Physicians don't make products numb nuts, the supplement companies, scientists, formulators, R&D, etc. make them. Physicians don't make any of it. Man, get a clue.
"One thing is, kids take creatine every day, not even measuring how much. Needless to say, I don't think kids exercise EVERY DAY, or at least enough to use up the energy the pack into themselves. So, that is how the buildup problems start. You pack on so much creatine, you get sick. Just stop! You should take it a few times a week. Or, here's another idea: Get a few more supplements! So many people just take creatine. Not healthy. You need to have some protein, glutamine, etc. That way you can take creatine one week, protein the next, Glutamine after that, Methoxy, etc. Don't just take creatine. Think a little."Ok, first off stop using the word kids. Either define kid, or use a different word. To me, you sound like a kid, and probably are. Most the time kids don't lift weights. Teens do, but not many "kids" are in the gym pumping iron. And know, people don't exercise EVERY DAY. And I sure hope they don't. What the heck does the sentence mean where you say " Needless to say, I don't think kids exercise EVERY DAY, or at least enough to use up the energy the pack into themselves. What, are you saying there is a certain time that Creatine won't work or that because you have so much energy from Creatine that you won't use it?? Give me a break this is a bunch of nonsense information. You want people to take Creatine only a few times a week? So what if you feel like you are going to workout really really hard take it, and if a day you still train, but not as hard as the day before, you should not take it? Oh, and now you say, "You need to have some protein, glutamine, etc. That way you can take creatine one week, protein the next, Glutamine after that, Methoxy, etc. Don't just take creatine. Think a little."
Hey, you are correct on that last part, maybe you SHOULD think a little. Take Creatine one week, and protein the next, glutamine the next week, and then methoxy etc. What are you doing man? This is pure rubbish. You don't take Creatine one week, stop, and then take protein. You need PROTEIN ALL THE TIME. Go ahead and switch back and forth like you claim, but you will be doing nothing more then burning a hole in your wallet.
Take Creatine fuel by Twin Labs huh? How many of those stupid things do you want to pop in a day? And don't say you get enough. You don't even know what enough is, or for that matter, what too much is. People, capsule form are a WASTE. I will tell you know, they are NOT the cheapest, and NOT the most effective.
Don't take it on the days you workout. You'll just be adding things you'll never use. Don't take it on the days you DON'T work out you mean? Well, you didn't catch this in your paper, but you would still be wrong even if you put the right way. You DO need to take it on days you don't work out.
"On the days you do workout, take it according to how hard you do work out. If you just sort of half-heartedly did a few presses, take less, if you beat the snot out of yourself for two hours straight, take a tad more. Just don't overdue it."Take it according to how hard you work out huh? Where did you pull this from? The same place you pulled the rest of your info? You don't even know what the right amounts are, so don't talk. If you workout for 2hrs, you are pretty dumb. What, did you come up with some scientific BS on how much you should take according to how hard you workout, and how long?
- 1g if you work out 10% of your normal 100%, and only 10min in the gym.
- 2g if you work out 20% of your normal 100%, and only 20min in the gym.
- 3g if you work out 30% of your normal 100%, and 30min in the gym.
Sweet, I think I will try it.
"And most important, MEASURE! If you still want to take the powder, measure it. If they by any chance don't give you a scoop, use a tablespoon to measure them. Look at the supplement facts and find the serving size. Just don't plop a load of it in any old drink and guzzle it down."Yes Ryan, most important, MEASURE. But how would you know what the right amount is? Well, I guess you will have to adjust accordingly to how hard you work out huh? DON'T tell people to use a tablespoon to measure with. This is the most idiotic thing I have ever heard except the rest of your article. A tablespoon is NOT the standard measure for every Creatine powder on the market. If you were to take 1 Tablespoon of Ultrapure or Creapure Creatine, do you know how much Creatine you would be getting? 15g is what it would be.
Well, to end my peer review article, I would just like to say before you people get too carried away; know what you are talking about. Don't just write to be writing. Nothing is worse then someone telling people they don't know what is going on, when the person telling people this also doesn't know what is going on. I have not gone through new articles in a while, but it seems as if terrible information is being written again. I can't stress this enough: DON'T WRITE AN ARTICLE IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT.
I have no problem with articles being written like this as long as they contain the CORRECT information. If you are going to write an article for this site, you may want to read the ones that are already written on the subject you are writing about. Read them all if you have too. It's better to find out something before you go and write an article, and then have it torn apart by a fellow bb.com writer who is concerned for people who are reading these things. If I had no clue as to what was going on, and this was the first article I ever read on Creatine, I might just believe it all. There are certain things in life we can argue about, or debate over, but the article I did a review on doesn't need a debate to know whether it is right, or wrong. It's plain and simple; it's wrong, and bad advice.
I am not picking on Ryan as an individual, but his approach, and attempt to the article he wrote. This is the first article I have read in a while, and since it was the first one that caught my attention, it is the first one I did a review on. Me, nor any of the other fellow writers who do peer reviews are doing this to piss people off, or anything like that. Our main goal is to really tell them how we feel, and why. We may sound harsh, but we don't get too happy when we see stuff like this being read by people who might end up taking the advice. None of us are perfect, and are ever 100% correct all of the time, but there are things we can do to make sure we have a good solid article BEFORE we send it in, and have it posted.
I hope this clears some things up, and lets people know why these reviews get written. Any one can write a peer review, but on one final note, and this applies to mostly the teen writers. Don't do a peer review article on another teen bodybuilder unless you are sure you know you can back every word you say. If you can't, expect a peer review of your peer review. And yes it happens.
If any one has any questions about this, please feel free to let me know. I sure hope we don't have to spend 3hrs in the middle of the night writing a peer review every so many weeks to get the point across.