ok, so my mono came in yesterday. i started taking it this morning. i was reading on the label and it said taking "high doses" of caffiene would prevent the performance enhancing properties of creatine. i wonder what constitutes a "high dose".
i ususally take 200mg of caffiene preworkout and then a cup or two of coffee when i get to work, about an after my workout.
i wonder if that's gonna make the creatine not work. . .
The only relationship between caffeine and creatine, in how they detrimentally effect each other, is a very indirect one and this relationship is ambiguous and contains a ton of mediating variables.
One of PCr???s (phosphocreatine aka creatine phosphate aka creatine mono) primary roles in muscle is to provide the energy to return calcium into muscle stores. In this manner creatine (PCr) assists in muscle relaxation and enhances our athletic performance. Interestingly, caffeine has the opposite effect of allowing calcium to escape from these intracellular calcium storage sites. Caffeine would thus hamper muscle relaxation. In agreement with these findings a recent study has shown that caffeine interferes with creatine???s ability to facilitate muscle relaxation, especially during moments of fatigue. Caffeine "might" therefore, confound the ability of PCr to store away calcium and in doing so nullify part of creatine???s benefit.
In Laymen's terms, strength is both a combination of muscle contraction combined with a "lack" of co-contraction, meaning, when you bicep curl, the more tense or contracted your triceps remain, the more it takes away from the biceps curl. When muscles co-contract, its detrimental to the agonist muscle in the lift. Therefore, in a biceps curl, the more relaxed your triceps remain, the greater force you can produce from your bi's into curling the weight.
Theoretically, caffeine is an antagonist to muscle relaxation, therefore, an agonist of co-contraction and therefore, therefore, detrimental to strength, therefore, therefore, therefore, comes the conclusion that caffeine detrimentally effects creatine.
That said, studies also show that caffeine increases the effects of creatine if used together (say pre-workout). Cumulative use of caffeine is what "could" effect creatine, via promoting co-contraction, as stimulants are antagonistic to muscle relaxation.
All that said, again, these studies use these very general terms such as "increase" or "decrease" without quantifying any variables, so is "decreased," decreased by .0000001%? or .0001%? or 1%? or 2, 3?
Take home message, don't worry about it. The mediating variables off the top of my head are too long to list.