I just did my first tri today and finished second in my age group by a couple of minutes. I was chatting with the guy who beat me and he revealed he was using creatine. Is this legal?
I just did my first tri today and finished second in my age group by a couple of minutes. I was chatting with the guy who beat me and he revealed he was using creatine. Is this legal?
yes. why not ?
of course it is legal
Creatine is just a energy booster and it helps with recovery, its perfectly legal its not like its a preformance enhancing drug
actually.... the performance enhancement for a triathlete is min. at best. unless the triathlon is 100 yards long , lol
I agree that creatine isn't going to do much for a triathlon unless it is a VERY short race especially when weighed against the disadvantage of being more likely to get cramps!
If the guy was using EPO then you might feel a little cheated but I wouldn't give much thought to creatine.
Creatine totally accepted and legal....now, here at the forums there a few guys who say is good for a triathlete...I still have my doubts...
I think on a very basic level, creatine helps you retain water by directing it to your muscles. I used to take it once in a while when I worked out in a gym regularly, but I don't see it's benefit in endurance racing...
.........and I don´t think that make your race mate faster either.
Here's my 2 cents on creatine...I took it 6 years ago when I was working out somewhat regularly. About a month later I was in the hospital having a kidney stone the size of a pencil eraser surgically removed. During my time with the surgeon he could not figure out why I had it. I didn't eat or drink anything associated with kidney stones and have no family history of them. When I mentioned the creatine he stated that was 100% the cause of it (it was a large soft stone, he said formed quickly). Then, when telling my tale to a friend who is a physical therapist, he said the same thing. He had heard tales of numerous people getting stones and felt it was strongly associated with creatine, especially when you load up with the stuff at teh beginning like they tell you to.
Finally, I agree that it would in my opinion do little to help in a distance event! You can try it if you'd like, but I would never go near the stuff again!
Most individuals i knew who used creatine were using it to bulk up. They also drank [U]a lot[/U] of water while on it.
When I was seriously into body-building I took creatine on a regular basis.
It worked quite well to help me increase my strength, muscle mass and recovery time.
When I started triathlons (not knowing any better) I thought I would try using creatine as a part of my supplementation strategy. I quickly found out that it was a detriment to my training. Creatine causes me to gain extra body weight (whether it is all water or not…who knows…probably a little of both). If you want to run or ride long and fast, then extra body weight is worthless. When I was doing bike hill-training intervals, my legs would get super pumped…only problem was I couldn’t flush them out during the recovery interval, so it was great for the first few hills, but then you’re basically toast.
I never really noticed any difference on the swim (+/-), but I am a pretty slow swimmer anyway. So IMO stay away from the stuff. There may be some benefit during the winter off-season if you really want to add some muscle mass…but you would really need to “up� your weight lifting during that time period and expect some speed loss.
Dr. Rios…Are there any medical studies out there that show creatine as a benefit for endurance athletes?
-T
Good question T:
I have been looking for a piece in the literature that might support some evidence of benefits for endurance athletes under creatine, but nothing so far. But I'll keep looking and I will check with another colleages if maybe there is something.