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Lead Stories: Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Will lifting weights make
me musclebound?

Posted December 31st, 2006 at 12:00 PM by Jamal Walker

Section: Health & Fitness, Exercise

In 1937, Dr. Peter Karpovich of Springfield College in Massachusetts published a ground-breaking paper showing that lifting weights helped men improve their coordination. At the time, his paper was ridiculed by most athletes, particularly professional baseball players. They were afraid that lifting weights would cause them to develop such large muscles that they would lose the fine coordination necessary to hit and throw a baseball.

Today we know there is no such condition as “muscle bound”. Baseball players all lift weights and they are so much better as athletes that the best baseball players in the world before 1940 probably would not even make today’s professional teams.
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Does creatine build larger muscles and/or delay fatigue?

Posted December 6th, 2006 at 11:00 AM by Jeanie Rebb

Section: Nutrition, Supplements, Health & Fitness

Creatine can help to strengthen muscles, but athletes who take these supplements need to know how much they can take safely before they harm themselves. When you exercise and your muscles get as much oxygen as they need, they burn carbohydrates, fats and protein for energy. When you exercise so intensely that you cannot get all the oxygen you need, your muscles use creatine and ATP. So when you exercise so intensely that you can’t get enough oxygen, you can delay fatigue by taking creatine and it allows you to do more work, which makes you stronger.

The body of a 160 pound man contains 120 grams of creatine and he takes in and uses about two grams a day. No good studies have been done to show what amounts are safe to take beyond what your own body makes, so let the buyer beware. Creatine may allow you to lift more weights and make you stronger, but it may also harm you.
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