Creatine has been around longer than I have, but there are still many questions about its use. Today we’ll look at cyclists using creatine…

Hi Levi. Thank you for inspiring people like my self. I being bicycling an average of 150 miles per week. I would like to know if I would benefit from creatine? Please let me know, Thank You. Let me give you some info about myself. 5′-8″ 185 lbs. my goal is to bike an average of 200+ per week and to complete a century race.

Thank you,
Creatine Chris

Hi Chris,

The short answer to your question is no. As a recreational cyclist, looking to complete an endurance event like a century, you won’t have a whole lot of use for creatine supplementation.

You might see some benefits, so maybe you do want to try it out (it’s not expensive,) but you probably won’t see a huge performance in your cycling that could be attributed to creatine use. Here’s why:

Creatine is a natural substance found in your body. It is used to aid your body’s production of ATP, the energy used up during short anaerobic efforts. Examples of situations where you use lots of ATP at a fast rate would be weight lifting and sprinting. That means creatine supplementation can work very well for body builders, and also for Track & Field sprinters, but it doesn’t do much for endurance cyclists (who rely on aerobic energy production.)

Also, creatine isn’t a miracle as some people would have you believe. Some people think they can take creatine and then they’ll get ripped and be super strong. Mainly what it does, though, is allow you to work a little bit harder during your workout due to the increased energy. (But that’s only applicable once you are mentally capable of pushing yourself to extreme intensity, which most beginners aren’t ready for.)

As for building muscle without extra work, it’s true that an abundance of creatine phosphate in the muscles can allow them to store more water. That will make them appear bigger, but the muscle tissue is still the same size. Does that matter to an endurance cyclist? Nope.

Another thing is that your body contains quite a bit of creatine as is. If you eat meat (which naturally contains high levels of creatine,) you probably have enough of it in your body. If you’re a vegetarian, though, you may benefit from supplementing with creatine.

There is one aspect to creatine that you might like, though: faster recovery. The first thing I noticed when beginning creatine was that I recovered from my workouts faster than normal. I had never heard of this affect, but once I looked, I was able to find a study showing improved recovery times.

Unfortunately this improved recovery was only noticeable during my weight training workouts. And once I really began to increase my workout volume (thanks to the creatine,) I needed the improved recovery just to recover at my usual speed!

In the end, there are two main things to consider before making your final decision on creatine:

1. Creatine is considered safe.

While some people have reported minor side effects of less sweating and increased cramping (not good side effects for bike riders!,) it’s a pretty safe supplement. I’ve never had any problems with it.

It’s not like you’re taking steroids or HGH. Or blood doping. So don’t be scared to try creatine.

2. There’s not much value for an endurance athlete.

While creatine is pretty cool, as an endurance cyclist, your money is better spent elsewhere. For example, you’d probably get a more noticeable benefit from something like Endurolytes, especially if you’ll be doing a century in hot weather.

Or spend your creatine money on higher-quality fruits and vegetables. I bet you’d get more value that way.

While most cyclists and runners aren’t concerned with having big arms, arm strength comes in handy for XC skiing, swimming, kayaking, BMX, mountain biking, and even bike repair! So let’s look at building big arms…

A Question On Bicep Curls!?
Right. Im 14 and am naturally quite skinny in the arms. I have started doing bicep curls with a 3kg weight. Any ideas until i notice a difference and what can i do to make the process happen quicker. E.g. Should i eat more fatty foods etc. I want to stay complelty away from steroids.

Thanks!
-Skinny Steven

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but doing bicep curls with a 3kg (~6lb) dumbbell isn’t going to get you anywhere. You could curl all day but your arms will stay just as skinny as they are now.

So the first thing I would do is just forget the curls altogether. You could work your way up to heavier weights, but even then, you can lift more weight with other exercises. I’m not saying you can’t do curls later, but if you want to pack on some real size in a relatively short amount of time, look elsewhere!

There are four main exercises I suggest: pull ups, chin ups, dips, and shoulder presses. These exercises involve compound movements that work your entire arm, which allows you to move heavier weights, which leads to greater gains in size and strength.

Pull ups, chin ups, and dips can all be started with just your body weight. That will be a little safer than jumping into a big weight lifting program.

Shoulder presses will require a barbell and/or dumbbells, but you could start out with pike push ups (or handstand push ups) to work your shoulders before hitting the big weights.

How many sets and reps should you do for these bodyweight exercises? Read this: Determining Sets and Reps for Bodyweight Exercises.

More weight lifting and lots of eating wouldn’t hurt, either.

For example, you could add in a lift like the deadlift (maybe some squats too.) By working big muscles in your legs and back, your body will produce more of a testosterone response from your workouts. This could lead to better growth in your arm muscles for the same workout (studies are conflicting.) Regardless, it wouldn’t hurt to work out your entire body and not just your arms!

Being a beginner, I’d suggest following a pre-made plan from an expert. A book that would probably work for you (that you might enjoy reading as well) is Nate Green’s Built For Show.

And you need to eat extra calories if you want to build muscle. As in, LOTS of food!

As for your diet, stay away from junk food. Make sure you eat healthy foods like lean meats, whole grains, and lots of fruits and vegetables. You can eat fatty foods to get more calories, but stick with fatty foods like almonds, avocados, and olive oil. No junk food!!

Basically, if you do a good amount of weight lifting and eat lots of natural, unprocessed foods, you should see some results! It won’t happen overnight, but stick with it for a couple months, and I think you’ll be pleased.

Ever since I started working out seriously in high school, I have always been a firm believer in working out in the morning. I just thought it was the best way to start the day.

Eventually, I read some articles that said it’s good to workout early. There were all sorts of benefits like burning calories off your body and not just what you’ve eaten during the day. So I kept doing what I was doing.

In later years, it turned into a big debate focused on the best way to burn calories. Some said morning workouts were great for burning body fat, while afternoon workouts did nothing more than burn off some of the food you just had for breakfast and lunch. To decide what I should do, I started to think logically.

So take this for example:

Let’s say Jack works out for an hour starting at 6 AM and burns 600 calories. Then goes to work, eats a few meals, etc, and consumes 2,100 calories. So Jack’s net caloric intake (2100-600) would be 1,500 calories.

Then there’s Jill who slept in, barely made it to work on time, but ate her meals for a total of 2,000 calories consumed. But in the evening she was feeling energetic, so she went for a nice jog and burnt off 500 calories. So in the end, Jill’s net caloric intake (2000-500) was 1,500 calories.

Somehow, both Jack and Jill had the same net caloric intake, even though Jack worked out first thing in the morning and Jill exercised in the evening.

Think of it like this: Jack burnt calories then ate some food to refuel. Jill ate to get fueled, then she did her workout. Whichever way you do it, it works out the same.

But these days, studies are more advanced, and there is a lot more to choosing a time to exercise than simple talk about caloric intake.

Today’s topics include hormone levels and body chemistry. From the NY Times early 2009:

“In various studies, scientists have found that subjects tend to do slightly better on measures of physical performance — including endurance, strength output, reaction time and aerobic capacity — between 4 and 7 p.m. The explanations are numerous: the body’s temperature and hormone levels peak in late afternoon, making muscles more flexible and producing the best ratio of testosterone (the muscle-building hormone) to cortisol (the hormone that does the reverse).”

It sounds awesome, but how much of a difference will it make in your results? If I had to guess, probably not even a noticeable difference! (I don’t know of any studies actually displaying worthwhile results based on changing exercise time, let alone for elite athletes.)

Another NY Times article from late 2009 gets back on this topic, and it makes some interesting arguments, but doesn’t do a whole lot to sway me one way or the other. It’s just another article saying there may be benefits to exercising in the late afternoon or evening, but it’s still not a perfect solution for everyone.

However, I know there are certain benefits to working out in the morning:

First, it makes sure that you do work out. It’s much easier to get your workout out of the way than to schedule it into a busy day where plans can change by the minute. And once you get used to waking up, it will be simple to form your daily routine around these morning workouts.

Second, it will wake you up and clear your mind, so you start the day fresh. There’s a good chance you’ll be more productive with 1 hour of exercise and 8 hours of work than if you just work for 9 hours instead. (That’s because exercise gets your blood flowing, which gets oxygen to your brain, and you can think more clearly as a result!)

Third, logistics. The majority of bicycle races, marathons, and triathlons start fairly early in the morning. It would make sense for you to train in the morning as well.

Think if you always exercise in the late afternoon and never in the morning. Then you have to start a bike race or marathon at 9AM, or heck, a triathlon at 7AM! What will your body think?! Will you know how much to warm up? What can you eat at that hour of the day? Will you even be able to get out of bed?

And don’t forget about daylight if you plan to be cycling outdoors. At this time of year, you could ride in daylight at 7AM, but you’ll be in the dark at 5PM!

Then there are little things like your workouts being compatible with your meal plan. I like how the food in your stomach is more standard in the morning – i.e. an empty stomach. It’s easier to plan your diet for the day when you don’t have a critical workout or event in the middle of the day (fewer meals beforehand means fewer chances to screw them up.)

So you can see that morning workouts are a great idea. They’re easy to schedule, they get you ready for the day, and you will be more prepared for your events.

In the end, sure, the best time to workout is whatever time you can fit a workout into your schedule. But I still vote for morning exercise!

Photo credit: sovett

It’s always good to start off the new year on a positive note, so to make sure you are motivated to train and race this year, I’d like to share some of my favorite quotes from some extraordinary athletes.

Model your training and racing like these guys and you’ll be off to a great start!

“If you try to win, you might lose, but if you don’t try to win, you lose for sure!”
– Jens Voigt

I like to keep that in mind during very competitive races where the odds are stacked against me. It would be easy not to try to win, but what would the point of that be?

“You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”
– Wayne Gretzky

Similarly, I like to think of this quote whenever I’m debating whether or not to do something.

“Pain is temporary, quitting lasts forever.”
– Lance Armstrong

I repeat this over and over during hard training and racing!

“There’s only one rule: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period. Because you won’t die. Even though you feel like you’ll die, you don’t actually die. Like when you’re training, you can always do one more. Always. As tired as you might think you are, you can always, always do one more… If you overtrained, it means that you didn’t train hard enough to handle that level of training, so you weren’t overtrained; you were actually undertrained to begin with. So there’s the rule again: The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins.”
– Floyd Landis

That’s a great one anytime I’m tired and don’t feel like putting in the required effort to accomplish a goal.

“There is a great advantage in training under unfavorable conditions. It is better to train under bad conditions, for the difference is then a tremendous relief in a race.”
– Emil Zatopek

I have found that training in adverse conditions builds invaluable mental toughness. Keep that one in mind for all rainy days!

While those five quotes are my favorites, there are other great quotes out there. Here are seven honorable mentions that you may enjoy:

“Suffer the pain of discipline or suffer the pain of regret!”
– Unknown

“There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.”
– Beverly Sills

“Fall seven times, stand up eight.”
– Chinese proverb

“Pain is only weakness leaving the body.”
– Unknown

“The harder you work, the harder it is to surrender.”
– Vince Lombardi

“It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.”
– Magic Johnson, NBA Star

“Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.”
– Marilyn vos Savant, Columnist

Time to get going!

If you’re already skinny and start weight lifting, you probably want to gain muscle mass, not lose weight…

Since I started working out, I’m losing weight instead of gaining it. Shouldn’t I be gaining muscle mass?

Since I started two months ago, I went from 156 to 147. I am getting more toned, but I’m not gaining muscle mass for some reason. Is that supposed to happen, or am I doing something wrong?

By the way, I eat a lot. It’s not like I don’t eat either.

Thanks,
Hardgainer Harvey

Hi Harvey,

Since I don’t know the exact details of your diet and training, I can’t say exactly what’s going on, but I can point out a couple main issues here when it comes to weight loss, diet, and muscle gain.

First, the initial weight loss and “toned” look.

As weird as it seems, this isn’t uncommon. Most people out there, especially if they’re new to working out, have high enough body fat that they will end up noticing the fat loss more than the muscle gain. And in most cases, you can lose fat faster than you can gain muscle.

From the information given, I would guess that you may have gained a little muscle mass, but lost a lot of fat along the way. That’s what leads to the “toned” look.

If you think about it, what is “toning” anyway? Getting toned is all about losing fat so that your muscles become more visible.

The toned look comes from a combination of losing fat and gaining muscle. Many people think they are “toning” their muscles when they workout, but that’s kind of a misleading statement. You can’t really change the look of the muscle. Getting “toned” is simply making the muscle bigger so it stands out more, or losing fat so that the muscle is less hidden.

Now, that is all just speculation. It’s entirely possible that you’re just losing weight (fat) and not gaining any muscle. That happens with beginners, because it takes years to really learn and understand your body and how it responds to food intake and workload in the gym.

Second, are you really eating enough?

I would bet that you aren’t eating enough to gain muscle (even if you think you are.) Think about it – you need to consume more calories than you burn in order to gain weight. If you are working out, you are burning more calories, so you have to eat more than normal to get that calorie surplus.

If you have lost nine pounds in two months, that’s a good sign that you will have to eat more in order to build muscle.

Third, are you working hard enough to gain muscle?

I like the saying, “building muscle is simple, but not easy.” What that means is that building muscle is a simple concept, but it takes a lot of hard work to actually accomplish it.

You may have a great program and work ethic, but it’s worth pointing out, gaining a lot of muscle takes seriously hard work in the gym. Not to mention the discipline to do every single workout in the first place!

Lastly, how do you know what to do?

The final step is constantly learning and striving for improvement (i.e. muscle gain.)

You should be keeping a training log and food journal to chart your progress. With a food journal, you can see what caloric intake you need in order to gain weight. (Basically you would slightly increase your food intake each week until you hit the point where you gain weight.)

With a training journal, you can chart your progress as well as analyze what types of training yield the best results.

As you improve at weight lifting and want to learn more about nutrition, you can look into more advanced topics such as intense training programs, nutrition plans, nutrient timing, intermittent fasting, and many others.

Here are a few resources that would be good for your current situation:

• “Build Muscle and Lose Fat Simultaneously?”
• BUILT FOR SHOW by Nate Green
• “How to Build Muscle”
• “How to Maintain Muscle While Losing Weight”

Good luck with your muscle gain!