yeah, definitely... I researched stuff for an hour before I got tired of it and those two articles summed up the key points. I was hoping someone on here could fill in the gaps.
The caffeine part surprised me...I don't normally drink any, but a lot of people have energy drinks right before their workouts.
Here is some more stuff that I just found...Sorry this is a kind of random post. These are just questions about creatine that I've had over the years and I thought that other people might have the same questions.
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Here is our advice - take the powder about 1 hour before your workout. Here is our reasoning...
It can take about 1 hour for the creatine to be absorbed into the bloodstream - and from that point you have about 1.5 hours to use the creatine or lose it. So, let's say you workout at 10am - here is our logic. At 9am you take the creatine powder. By 10am the creatine is in the blood stream. Your muscles are probably mostly saturated with creatine from the supplement you took the day before. So, some of the creatine you took at 9am may be absorbed into the muscles - but the rest is still in the blood. At 10am you start working out and depleting the creatine in your muscles. Your muscles then replenish their creatine supply from the creatine in the blood stream. Your workout ends at 11am (you really should not workout more than 1 hour - but that is a topic for a different day). Remember, you took creatine at 9am - but it was not absorbed into the blood stream until 10am. This means it will stay there until 11:30am (1.5 hours). So, now you have another 1/2 hour where your muscles can replenish their creatine supply if depleted. In a way you are getting the best of all worlds - you have creatine available before, during and after your workout.
You will hear other theories - but that is what we have found to be most effective. Since creatine supplies us with energy when working out - it is important we have creatine available during our workout. Creatine as a recovery agent is much less clear, so taking it after a workout to help with recovery is not proven.
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Many people believe that you need to take creatine everyday to keep your creatine levels topped off. We do not see the research that proves this to be true. If you are taking creatine for the muscular boost in energy, that taking it just on workout days should be fine.
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http://www.absolute-creatine.com/9.htm
Some more food for thought... I think that the second part about taking it on off days or workout days pertains more to CEE since it is more readily absorbed.