Advanced Creatine Cycling Schedule

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Author: Allen Martin

Article source: http://www.alpha-supplements.com/. Used with author's permission.

Many people find that after a few weeks, the gains they make on creatine monohydrate begin to taper off or even disappear altogether. There's an increasing belief among hardcore trainers that cycling creatine intake may help one experience continued progress with this proven supplement.

Here's a typical creatine cycle you might try adding to your supplement program:

week 1: load (20 g / day)
week 2-4 : maintenance (10 g / day)
week 5: load (20 g / day)
week 6-8: OFF
Repeat Cycle.

You're basically "on" for 5 weeks (higher than average doses), then "off" completely for 3 weeks. This seems to work well and can help give you continual progress with creatine supplementation.

Of course, another important factor is what type of creatine you're using. I never made great gains with creatine until I switched to a creatine formula as opposed to just mixing the powder up myself.

In particular, AST's Creatine HSC has really worked well for me. Other people see good results with EAS's Phosphagen HP and MET-Rx's Micronized Creatine. And at 10 grams creatine per dose, MuscleTech's Cell-Tech is very popular.

With creatine it's best to avoid generic powders (the cheap stuff), as its purity is often in question and it doesn't seem to work nearly as well as the quality formulas on the market.