Crea-What?
Let's begin at the top. Creatine mono isn't some super chemical created by a bodybuilding Tony Stark. It's actually an organic acid found naturally in food, and it exists in significant quantities in poultry and fish.
Creatine is nitrogenous, which means it's nitrogen-containing and is made from a combination of 3 amino acids: Glycine, Methionine and Arginine.
In humans, approximately 95% of creatine is stored in our skeletal muscle where it exists as creatine phosphate and they are also known as a phosphate donor during certain metabolic processes. We'll discuss the importance of this in greater detail soon.
Crea-Who?
If you're wondering whether you can benefit from creatine supplementation,consider your fitness goals. Creatine will give the extra edge to people who are looking to maximize muscles, strength and performacne gains.
So, if you're trying to get bigger, stronger and maybe even lift heavier, creatine can help. If you're not trying to do any of these things, go take a nap and come back when you're ready.
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The Energizer
Creatine support these goals because it can be used as a source for anaerobic work, which includes high-intensity weight training or any HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) like sprinting.
Supplementing with creatine has been shown to significantly increase the concentration of creatine in the muscle. Recall that, creatine is found as creatine phosphate in the muscle and can act as a phosphate donor. Our body's energy currency- a molecule called Adenosine Tri-Phosphate or commonly known as ATP- happens to use phosphate to power certain cellular processes.
During exercise, ATP is broken down to Adenosine Di-Phosphate (ADP), where it loses one of its phosphate molecules. The loss of the phosphate essentially provides the energy to power your cells during any activity.
As the training prolonged, your ATP stores become depleted, performance can suffer. Creatine Phosphate can help restore ATP by donating its phosphate to ADP to reform ATP. In this way, creatine can help improve performance and has also been shown to increase strength and power.
Size Matters
While all this performance and strength stuff sounds great, I'm sure you may be wondering what creatine will actually do to your body.
Creatine has also been shown to increase lean body mass, mostly through increasing the fluid content of muscle cells. While this may seem like an artificial increase in lean body mass, keep in mind that muscles cells that are better hydrated are also more anabolic.
Additionally, creatine has been shown to increase the activity of muscle satellite cells, which may increase the overall capacity for long-term muscle growth.
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So Many Options!
Every few years, it seems like the latest and greatest form of creatine comes out. Creatine monohydrates is the most common, and the most studied, form of creatine on the planet. It has proven its worth in research time and time again.
Fortunately for you, creatine mono is generally the least expensive form of creatine available, so it's good for the muscle and the wallet.
How Much, Man?
There are two traditional ways of taking creatine monohydrates. You can take 3-5g per day (depending on muscle mass), which will saturate your intramuscular creatine stores in a few weeks. Or, you can load creatine at 15-25g for the first 45 days, which will saturate the muscle cells more rapidly.
While the latter (loading) saturates the muscle cells at a rapid rate, the downside is that you do not assimilate the majority of that creatine, so those on a budget may consider it wasteful.
Timing is...
Numerous people consune creatine post-workout since it's been speculated that taking creatine after training will lead to better uptake of creatine into the muscle.
In all likehood, however, this is splitting hairs. Consistent supplementation of creatine at 3-5g per day has been shown to saturate the muscle cells, mostly regardless of time consumed, so you can consume your creatine whenever it's most convenient. Personally for me, I would consume around 10g pre- and 10g post-.
What To Choose
Based on current research, It appears that creatine monohydrates is the most effective creatine product available on the market today. If you are going to spring a few extra dollars for anything, then go for a micronized form of creatine monohydrate to improve mix-ability.
Other Sides To The Story
When creatine was introduced to the market as a supplement in the early 90s, many anecdotal and theoretical side effects were brought up as potential concerns- including kidney and liver problems, dehydration and cramping. Thus far, short- and long- term research studies have demonstrated no side effects of recommended creatine use on kidney, liver and/or the heart. Additionally, creatine has not been shown to increase the incidence of cramping.
There is some evidence that creatine can increase dihydrotestosterone levels. Some have theorized that this may cause an increase in acne, but his has yet to be demonstrated.
Finally, strong anecdotal evidence exists that some users may experience gastrointestinal distress when loading creatine. This is likely caused by excess creatine intake exceeding the GI tract's capability to absorb it, which could lead to gas and cramping due to the excess creatine.
If you experience GI distress during creatine loading phase, try reducing your creatine intake until you reach a comfortable level of intake.Alternatively, skip loading entirely.
Lastly, If your physician has advised you against using creatine, then you should avoid it.
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