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1.37 kg, and only if you lift.
Two big ones ran this week. Monday took on myostatin, the brake your body keeps on muscle. Wednesday gave you a five minute breath drill. Then the replies came in.
Three questions came up again and again. So I went back to the source papers for each one. My journal access runs past $20,000 a year. That is the tier the big funds pay for. It means I read the trial, not the brand page. A claim with no trial does not make the letter.
Here is what the trials say.
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// The Mailbag
DOES THE POWDER WORK ON ITS OWN?
Ron is 64. He asks if creatine does much for a man who skips the gym.
My read of the trials says the two go as a pair. Chilibeck and his team pooled 22 trials with 721 adults. Mean age ran 57 to 70. Both groups lifted in each one. Sessions ran two or three days a week. Trials ran seven to 52 weeks. The creatine group gained 1.37 kg more lean tissue than placebo. Which is a fine edge… but it sits on top of the lifting. So the lifting is the part to book first.
TRIALS: 22 · ADULTS: 721 · LEAN MASS EDGE: 1.37 kg
→ Source: Chilibeck et al., Open Access J Sports Med, 2017
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// The Mailbag
WHEN DOES THE BREATH DRILL PAY?
Sandra tried the 30 breath set. She asks how long to give it.
Less time than most folks guess. Craighead and Tavoian pooled five trials. That is 67 adults on the high load. Mean systolic pressure came down 9 mmHg by the end of six weeks. But the first change showed at week two, about 4 mmHg. It held from there. I ran the same drill for six weeks… my own gauge moved in week three.
TRAINED: 67 · SYSTOLIC: 9 mmHg · FIRST CHANGE: WEEK 2
→ Source: Craighead & Tavoian, J Appl Physiol, 2022
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// The Mailbag
HOW MUCH PROTEIN IN ONE MEAL?
Dave is 60. He asks what a meal must hold to feed muscle.
More than a young man would need. Moore and his group pooled infusion data from men near 71. They matched it against men near 22. The older group peaked at 0.40 g per kg per meal. Young men peaked at 0.24 g per kg. So the ask is close to double. An 80 kg man wants near 32 g in one sitting.
AGE 71 GROUP: 0.40 g/kg · AGE 22 GROUP: 0.24 g/kg
→ Source: Moore et al., J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci, 2015
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One reader skipped the questions and just ran the drill. Six weeks later he sent me the log. Here is the man and the method he used.
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// Reader Spotlight
SIX WEEKS AND A CUFF
Ray is 61 and keeps a log. He read the Wednesday piece and bought a hand held trainer. Then he sent me six weeks of morning numbers. Here is what he ran.
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Set the load: he had his max checked, then dialled in 75 percent. |
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Thirty breaths: five sets of six, a minute of rest between. |
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Six days a week: five minutes each time, done while the pot brewed. |
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Log the number: same cuff and chair, at a fixed hour. |
His week six mean sat 7 points under his week one mean. One man with a cuff is a log, not a trial. Hold it loosely. The trial below backs the method. It ran the same six week frame with 36 adults.
→ Source: Craighead et al., J Am Heart Assoc, 2021
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Good questions, all three… and one man with a cuff to close it out.
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