Anyone here ever use Creatine? I was given a bottle of capsuls and I'm considering it.

Does it 'bulk' your body equally, or only the muscles you work out, or what? Like if I did upper body lifts only and didn't work my legs, would onlym y upper body gain mass?

I bought 300 grams of Creatine, used up 100, had no visible effect on strenght or appearance. Then my muscles started twitching, so I stopped using it.

Take my advice, don't use creatine. All the strongest people I know, never touched it. You don't need it. You would be much better off trying to work on your "neuro-vascular efficiencey"(sp?).

P.S. Supposedly the muscle turns to fat latter.

I doubt it turns to fat, but Creatine gathers water in the muscles, so
you get the pumped-up look, and supposedly adds up to 20% of strength,
but I haven't noticed it.

Most 'strong' people had considerable mass and size to work with from the beginning. I'm tall and lean, and no matter how much lifting and excersizing I do the results aren't up to par; metabolism is too fast.

EDIT: From what I understand, if you use any muscle building supplement (creatine, steroids, etc) if you stop working the muscle group it will lose it's definition and just get 'flabby'.

My husband said creatine will just make you feel bloated and improve muscle endurance.

If you want to bulk up, eat a lot more and have those bulk up protein shakes like N-Large to supplement.

Or better yet, just eat right and work out!
Stop paying ridiculous sums of money on the stupid 'supplement industry'... screw them.

I used creatine for a year while I was in the military. I would advise against it. I did notice gains in muscle mass but I also began to look and feel bloated even my fingers began to swell to a larger size(of course the fact I drank like I had a death wish while I was in the military prob'ly didn't help). I then read an article that creatine causes dehydration(because it does gather water in the muscles.) A doctor confirmed this for me and I immediately quit. I now work out naturally and am in the best shape of my life. There have been athletes who were using creatine who have died of heat exhaustion(granted they were taking too much and working out in extreme conditions) but doctors know too little about side effects. I would avoid the stuff.

http://www.wnho.net/aspartameandathletics.htm

I know its not a great feeling going into a gym and being the only skinny guy for a while but a lot of big guys started out that way. Just do some research to find out what kind of exercises to do for the specific gains you want achieve, if nothing happens after a 2-3 months switch to some new exercise routine. Eat lots of proteins and you don't need creatine.

I used creatine back when I was about 20 years old. I do believe that it made me stronger and helped me recover more quickly between heavy workouts. I never noticed any ill effects. Nevertheless, I would advise against using it -- it might be rough on the kidneys or other organs/systems of the body.

Here's a better idea: If you want to gain a lot of muscle, you must focus on large muscles. Don't try to get big arms by pumping away on concentration curls or other "isolation" exercises -- those only work if you're on steroids. The best exercises you can do to stimulate muscle growth are the squat and the bent-legged deadlift. Just make sure you do them right or you'll hurt yourself, possibly permanently. Build up to big weights slowly, and you'll grow all over. The most productive routine I ever did was nothing but the following every 5 days or so:

Squats: 1 set of 20 reps with as much weight as I could handle, taking "rests" between reps without taking the weight off my back. Doing squats like this is MURDER, but it makes you gain muscle all over your body, not just in your legs. For some people, bent-legged deadlifts or trap bar deadlifts work just as well or even better. Just remember to use perfect form.

Bench presses: 3-5 sets of however many reps, depending on the weight used.

One-arm rows: a couple of sets for both the left and right sides.

Apart from some running and some abdominal work, that was all I did, and it worked really, really well.

A final recommendation: Check out http://www.hardgainer.com/ and any books written by Stuart McRobert (one of the authors at that site). McRobert and the other people who write for Hardgainer are incredibly knowledgeable about this stuff. Good luck...