Creatine Crazy

I have never been big into supplements.  I'll take a multi-vitamin every once and a while, some vitamin D for immunity, and have taken flax seed oil in the past.  But I have never taken any sports nutrition supplements.  I decided that I want to take my performance to the next level and take creatine.  I have been keeping up to date with the research of Creatine since college and all the research seems to point to the fact that it does help increase strength and power as well as size and definition.  The long term effects are still unknown.

I went to GNC and got some Pro Performance Amplified Creatine 189.  Which is a little different than the traditional creatine monohydrate.  You only have to take two pills once a day and do not have to take a large dose the first week as compared to the classic Creatine monohydrate.  We'll see what the results are in a month.

Since Friday was pretty busy, we didn't work out at all, so we went 4 days in a row to make up for it. 

On Monday I did "Joshie", a hero workout that consisted of (scaled):
3 rounds for time:
Right arm 30# dumbbell snatch
21 tuck pullups
Left arm 30# dumbbell snatch
21 tuck pullups
Time: 27:50

I tried to do as much of my pullups as tuck pullups (hips flexed to 90 degrees).  The last set of the second round and first set of the third round were kipping, the rest were tuck or strict pullups.
I cashed in with: Bergener warmup, barbbell complex warmup, dynamic stretching and quad spinal rotations.

I cashed out with a dropset of bent over dumbbell rows:
1.  45# x 3
2.  40# x 7
3.  35# x 9
4.  30# x 10
5.  25# x 10
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On Tuesday, "fight gone bad", which I love, was prescribed workout.  You need a rowing machine to perform it, which my gym doesn't have.  Here is a description:

"Fight Gone Bad!"

Three rounds of:

Wall-ball, 20 pound ball, 10 ft target (Reps)

Sumo deadlift high-pull, 75 pounds (Reps)

Box Jump, 20" box (Reps)

Push-press, 75 pounds (Reps)

Row (Calories)

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. On call of "rotate", the athletes must move to next station immediately for best score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

Instead, I looked back at some archives of workouts and decided to do "Jackie". 

Jackie also requires a rowing machine, but you can substitute sumo deadlift high pulls (SDHP) for them in a 10:1 ratio.  For example, row 1000 meters equals 100 SDHP. 
I actually did this one as prescribed and felt very good about it.

For time:
100 SDHP 45# bar
50 45# thrusters
30 pullups
Time: 10:43

Cash out:
10 x tabata on bike

Max reps dips/ pullups
1. 8:3
2. 6:4
3. 6:4

I'm not sure if it is a placebo effect or if the creatine is actually helping increase my energy, but I felt really good after the workout.  I felt like I could do more.  That evening I was also a little restless.  Not sure if it's the creatine or what, but I changed my dose to the morning rather than afternoon or evening, just to see what happens.