ntroduced to this miracle drug called "creatine." Many of the guys on the football team were taking this, and soon did I. I did not really know what this white powdery substance was, but all I know is that it seemed to jump my weight up 10 pounds within about three weeks. My weightlifting max's seemed to be increasing and I was full of energy. Some of us would "load" just before a football game to give us that extra boost of energy. To us, it seemed like legal steroids with no side effects. Creatine seemed to improve performance for short-duration activities like our 40 times, bursting off the snap of the ball, and our weightlifting max's. What I found was in order to make creatine effective, you must work out at least three times a week consistently. Most people do not notice any difference until about three weeks into the cycle. A recent study followed 19 men who lifted weights regularly over 12 weeks. Those taking creatine registered an average 6.3 percent gain in fat-free body mass, compared with a 3.1 percent gain in those not taking the supplement(Timberline 1). In 1981, an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr. l. Silila. Reported that supplementation with Creatine in a group of patients suffering from a condition called Gyrate Atrophy (a genetic ailment of the eyes caused by a metabolic inability to efficiently metabolize ornithine and synthesize Creatine). Improved the test subject's strength, increased their bodyweight by ten percent, and partially reversed the Type II muscle fiber atrophy associated with this disease(Silila 867). One athlete in this group of test subjects improved his best time in the 100-meter sprint by two seconds. In 1993, a study peer reviewed and published in Scandinavian Journal of Medicine, Science and sports (Balsom 143) demonstrated that Creatine supplementation could significantly increase body mass (in only one week) and that it was responsible for improved performance in h...
