Creatine: Details and Recommendation

Anyone that has been involved in sports has undoubtedly heard about creatine in some way or another. However, on the other hand, I would be shocked to find if the mass majority of tiness enthusiasts today really knew what creatine was or why everyone, not just those involved in strength training, should be taking it.

Clearly, I back the use of creatine, but before I wield by sword and shield to defend my stance let’s go into depth about what it is and research to show it’s efficacy.

Examine.com tells us:

Creatine Monohydrate supplementation, according to the International Society of Sports Nutrition, is the most effective ergogenic (performance enhancing) nutritional supplement currently available to athletes in terms of increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.

Creatine’s main action in the body is to increase stores of what is called Creatine Phosphate, which is a molecular ‘storage’ of energy which can quickly give energy to cells faster than even glucose.

Outside of increasing these energy stores, creatine can also aid performance by increasing the amount of water inside a cell (which may, via pressure, exert forces upon the cell membrane and induce muscular growth), and can aid in muscle building by recruiting what is known as satellite cells (muscular stem cells). It can also aid in cognition significantly in vegetarians and the elderly.

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound, made up of three amino acids called Glycine, Methionine, and Arginine. It exists in meat (roughly 5g per kg of meat) and animal products as well. Supplementation with creatine (in the form of monohydrate) has not been shown to infer any harm to any healthy population.

Despite popular broscience, creatine will not (under healthy conditions) harm kidneys, the liver, the heart, the brain, and will not induce any significant hormonal changes that manifest themselves as behavior changes.

Overall, creatine is almost vitamin-like in its actions and should be treated as such. It has wide-ranging benefits all over the body with almost no side-effects. It is one of the most well-known and well-studied compounds and much faith can be placed in usage of it.

Sounds almost too good to be true doesn’t it?

Well, in the case of supplementation of creatine it is not too good to be true. It’s actually the most beneficial supplement, in my mind, that you can take.

Okay, so you don’t believe me. Fair enough. I fully expect you to question if something is factual or not, but how about reading through some scientific backed studies to help you decide if creatine is actually effective, safe and worth supplementing.

Convinced? You should be.

You can purchase creatine monohydrate from any typical GNC location, but I would personally recommend Optimum Nutrition’s micronized creatine monohydrate powder as it is easily diluted in water or juice and I have seen it as effective.

The typical dosage of creatine is 5g a day as printed on the bottle. I also see no need to “load” creatine by taking a large amount in your first week or to cycle on/off it. Do you load or cycle meat? No.

Now, get to it.