Creatine and Pre Workout Drinks | Nurtition and injury prevention | TopVelocity Baseball Forum

DP, thanks for the in depth description on creatine. I used it in my career when it was just getting big. I did experience a performance gain but at the same time it caused me to dehydrate quickly. I already had dehydration issues and creatine just made it worse. It got so bad I couldn't use it again. If anyone struggles to stay hydrated during hot summer games I would be careful with creatine.

As for the pre-workout drinks, I believe it is just marketing hype like when energy drinks first came out. It is a lot better for you to focus on a good diet of whole foods, supplementing with all natural products then continuing to dump chemicals in your body. It may have a short term effect but in the long term it will not help. If you want an all natural pre and post-workout supplement then use unsweetened dark chocolate that is not processed. Studies prove this is the most effective way to enhance your own Nitric Oxide levels. Check out the study below.

Effect of dark chocolate on nitric oxide serum levels and blood pressure in prehypertension subjects.

RESULTS:

after 15 days treatment, NO serum level between treatment and control groups were significantly different 7.70 ± 3.84 vs 1.92(-0.79 ± 17.78) (p=0.001). Both groups had decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Systolic blood pressure was different significantly between groups after treatment 120.64 ± 8.47 vs 131.19 ± 7.45 (p=0.001), while diastolic blood pressure was not significant 74.14 ± 6.30 vs 77.44 ± 10.29 (p=0.308).

CONCLUSION:

in prehypertension subjects, dark chocolate 30 g/day increased NOx serum levels and decreased systolic blood pressure after 15 days of treatment.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pu.....d/22156352

Here is some great info on pre and post-workout drinks. A well respect dietitian Ori Hofmekler who developed the Warrior Diet warns against Nitric Oxide supplementation in an interview on this site below.

Here is an excerpt from the interview.

CW: Are there any side effects from boosting NO too high?

Ori: Yes, NO may act in your body like a double-edge sword. Nitric oxide’s metabolism yields some of the most deleterious free radicals in the form of oxidized nitrites and peroxynitrites. These are highly reactive molecules that, when in excess, lead to accumulated oxidative stress, inflammatory disorders, mitochondrial and DNA damage, lipid per oxidation, insulin resistance, and impaired energy production.

CW: That sounds pretty bad, indeed.

Ori: Unfortunately, the story gets even worse with excessive or chronically elevated NO: it can inhibit testosterone production. Accumulated excess of its free radical metabolites have been shown to cause damage and destruction of the Leydig cells that produce testosterone. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why testosterone production is shattered during chronic inflammatory disease, or after steroid abuse.

http://chadwaterbury.com/how-t.....nutrition/

This is the unsweetened Chocolate I take pre and post workout with protein.

Ghirardelli Chocolate Cocoa Powder - Unsweetened