I have been taking creatine in various forms and during various periods of my training since I was fifteen years old. I have never had any negative side effects, and any positive results I noticed from it have ranged from negligible to significant. Allow me to clarify.
When I first started taking creatine I knew very little to nothing about what it was and how it worked. All I knew was that it was some hot supplement that was supposed to make me big and strong and that a lot of my friends were doing it. At that age I also did not know nor understand the intricacies of training. I would simply go to my practices or workout sessions every day and do what the coaches told me to do without giving it much thought. The only difference between me and many of my peers was that I probably put much more effort into the training than most of them. Throughout this period, which was most of high school, the gains I received from creatine were minimal. It wasn't until I was in college that I realized how to make creatine supplementation work to produce significant gains. What I am referring to is the technique of association.
By association, I mean the paying of attention to every aspect and insignificant detail of ones training. In the strength and conditioning world, the concept of association vs. disassociation are thought of as such. Imagine two marathon runners. One runner has set a goal and a pace for himself and checks his watch every quarter mile to make sure he is on that pace. The other runner has a goal and a pace he knows he needs to keep track of as well, but all he can think about is the pain in his side, the shortness of breath, and his tired legs. The first runner is practicing association. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of his long run, he is concentrating on the required effort and detailed movements necessary to achieve his goals, thereby associating himself with what is necessary for success. By doing this, he will not only achieve his goals, but he sets himself up to surpass his own expectations. On the other hand, the other runner is practicing disassociation by not focusing on what the necessities of his sport are, and only feeling sorry for himself by focusing on the negatives. He has set himself up for failure because his mental state is not what it needs to be.
Returning to the subject of creatine supplementation, I had discovered I only achieved significant, lasting gains once I had trained myself to practice association. In all aspects of my training, I paid attention to every detail and I pushed myself further when I didn't think I could go anymore. Eventually, the gains started to show, and then I could continue to push myself even further, thus achieveing further gains, and the cycle continued. In the end, I realized that the majority of my physical growth and development was mental. Everything originated from my mental state and outlook on my training. Everyday that I walked into the weight room or stepped onto the track, I had to decide wether my mental state was going to be positive or negative concerning the task at hand. I eventually trained myself to such a state that I not only had a positive outlook on my training, I obsessed about it. I would sometimes sit around all day at work unable to get out of my head that day's upcoming workout because I was so excited about it. Now some people may view this obsession as unhealthy, and for the average person it probably is over the top, but for me, it was exactly what was necessary in order to transform myself into a succesful elite level athlete.
It was only after achieving this mental state and the understanding of what it really meant to train, did I feel that the creatine that I was putting into my body was actually worth the money I was spending on it. At this point I could go into detail about how creatine works on a cellular level, but thankfully many others have already done this for me. Browse around the links below for details on this process.
For those who are wondering, the manner in which I take my creatine is as such. First of all, I only used creatine in the summer time. This was the only time of year that I could actually train hard enough to achieve the gains I was looking for. The rest of the year I was involved in one sport season or another, and with all of the sport specific practices I did, I rarely had time or energy to workout like is necessary to achieve significant gains from creatine supplementation. Secondly, forget about the loading phase. I see a couple reasons why this aspect of creatine supplementation is unneccesary. One, the amount of creatine that a person puts into his or her body each day during the loading phase is way more than can actually be used in a 24 hour period. Of course, some of the creatine is used, some can also be stored in skeletal muscle to be used over night or the next day, but there is still some left over that cannot be used or stored. This excess creatine is turned into creatinine and excreted in the urine. In effect, by doing the loading phase you are literally pissing away your money. Building on the previous point, in theory, if you are in the loading phase of creatine supplementation, then you should also be in the beginning stages of a training program, and if that training program is designed correctly, then you should not be training with enough volume and intensity such that you can actually exhaust the vast amounts of creatine which have been introduce into your system. Finally, it is my opinion, as well as that of many others, that the loading phase is simply a money making ploy by the creatine manufacturer. They try to claim that by doing a loading phase you will saturate your muscles with creatine and therby establish a higher base level of creatine availability in the skeletal muscles. While this may be true to a certain extent, I believe that by simply starting with a normal days serving that you will manage to build up to that base level without wasting your creatine. What the manufacturer is trying to do is to get you to use more of the product more quickly so that you have to come back more often and purchase more.
Anyways, back to how I take my creatine, other than doing away with the loading phase, I always drink it immediately following my workout. I have never tried any other form of creatine other than a shake or liquid beverage. Many other forms do exist though, such as serums and pills. I can't vouch for them seeing as I have no personal experience, but I would venture to guess they will provide some benefit assuming the previously discussed mental aspect of training is present. My creatine brand of choice is Cell-Tech which is made by the Muscle-Tech Company. In the past I have also used Phosphagen, Phosphagain2, and straight creatine monohydrate.
There are many people that feel that creatine is bad for you for various reasons or are skeptical because not enough long term testing has been done on it. Fortunately, that is changing as more recent studies are producing results that were gathered over longer periods of data collection. People's greatest concerns deal with the possibilities that the excess creatine can strain the liver and kidneys as they attempt to deal with higher than normal levels of the substrate. Taking this fear into consideration, I made sure to facilitate my liver and kidneys in their functions in a few ways. I ate healthy meals and cut down on junk food. I drank plenty of water, probably anywhere from 2-4 times the recommended daily amount. I also abstained from drinking any carbonated or alcoholic beverages. As I stated before, I never had any problems from my creatine use.
*The statements above are in no way 100% scientifically factual. It is mostly based on one man's personal experience. Many of the statements are opinions and other claims are based on conjecture. In my defense, I am NSCA CSCS certified, so I do know a good bit of what I am talking about when it comes this subject. I also have a strong scientific knowledge about this subject due to personal research and reading of official scientific studies in various journals and magazines. I hope sharing my experience with you has helped shed some light on creatine supplementation. If you have any further questions about my story please feel free to contact me. And for more information on the subject, please visit the links below. I am in no way affiliated with nor know the people responsible for these websites. I simply found them to be helpful and insightful pieces of writing on the subject of creatine while doing my own research.