- supervision (and even then it is a risky business)—is potentially dangerous.
Just look at the havoc that steroids and growth hormone cause!Creatine
. Creatine and its numerous forms has become perhaps the most popular
bodybuilding supplement of the nineties (together with whey protein). For
many users creatine does produce a fast gain in bodyweight over the first
week or two of consumption, during the “loading” phase. But when they go
off it, they experience a loss of bodyweight. So what sort of weight did they
add? Certainly not “solid” lasting muscle. To keep that water-weight people
have to keep taking creatine.. Creatine does not work for all users, even the genuine creatine, and even
when used exactly as directed by the manufacturer. Creatine has greatly
distracted many people from the priorities of proper training and food-
nutrition. Rather than learning about and then applying proven strategies
of how to add – pounds of solid muscle yearly, for consecutive years,
many people have got caught up in the excitement of the possibility of gain-
ing – pounds of water over just – weeks. But then there is the down-
side—the impossibility of holding all that weight while going off creatine
for a long period, and the impossibility of repeating the – pounds gain
experience on a cumulative basis. And of greatest importance is the fact that
long-term creatine supplementation has not been proven as safe.Closing words on food supplements
. Never see food supplements as panaceas. Never get distracted from satisfy-
ing the fundamentals of sound training, and sound nutrition through ordi-
nary food. Never look at supplement displays for answers to your training
woes. e answers lay elsewhere, though prudent and rational use of quality
supplements from reputable companies may help you on your way once you
have a productive combination of training, food-nutrition and rest happen-
ing.You should not be anti food supplements, but you should be anti
anything that distracts you from a focus on the fundamentals
of basic training, basic rest, and basic nutrition through regular
food.