Powerhouse Supplement Profile: Creatine. Should You Use It?

After training for a while, one question that many of my personal training clients start to ask is whether or not they should be adding the supplement creatine into the mix.

Many people have heard about creatine before but may have heard some of the negative myths that surround it or have the pre-conceived notion that it’s only for those who want to pack on plenty of lean muscle mass in a hurry.

But what's the truth? Could creatine be beneficial for your workout performance? Or is this something that you just don’t need?

Let’s have a quick look at some of the important points to consider.

What Creatine Does

First let’s look at what creatine does.  Creatine is essentially the precursor to the higher energy molecule ATP, which fuels every single muscle contraction that takes place. So when your creatine stores start to fall low in the body, not enough ATP is produced and you may find that you aren’t sustaining the intensity that you should within your workout.

So by using creatine, you can workout harder and longer in the gym without suffering from the normal fatigue that you otherwise would.

Who Creatine Is Best Suited For

This then means that those who are best suited for using creatine are going to be those who are performing intense muscle contractions.  Intense muscle contractions, like those that take place during weight lifting or sprinting activity, are the ones that are going to burn through the most ATP. So obviously this is where you are most likely to become depleted.

If you can ensure that you are never running low on your creatine stores, you will see far superior performance in all of these activities.

Those who are doing more endurance related activities or those that are performing at a lower intensity won’t see the great benefit from utilizing creatine simply because they aren’t exhausting their stores of ATP as readily.

For them, they should be able to sustain their workouts over a longer period of time without any trouble at all.

What To Know About Using It

So if you’ve decided that you would like to get started utilizing creatine supplementation because perhaps you are suffering from some fatigue during your high intensity workouts, there are some important things to keep in mind.

First, while it's best to utilize a loading period during the first 5-7 days where you take twenty grams per day, spread out over four different dosages of five grams each, it's not necessary. Taking 5-10 grams per day (a 5 gram dose pre and/or post workout) will work wonders for your workout performance. And by the end of a 30 day period, you're creatine stores will likely be just as high as if you had gone through a loading phase.

If you do utilize the loading phase, I recommend sticking to it for five days and after that, you would reduce it back to just five grams per day for maintenance purposes.

Keep in mind that the above guidelines are for the original, tried-and-true creatine monohydrate version. There are all sorts of creatine products on the market now...creatine sulfate, creatine ethyl ester hydrochloride, creatine alkaline, etc. Although I like the micronized creatine monohydrate versions the best, there are other options. Whichever you try, be sure to follow the instructions on the label.

When you do start to use creatine, keep in mind that you will likely retain some water weight. So if you see body weight shoot up, don’t be alarmed.  This is just the muscle cells becoming saturated with creatine while binding with water (often refered to as volumization). The bulk of it will pass if you remember to drink enough water and give it some time.

If you read that correctly, you will see that this is just your body storing excess water at this point – not gaining body fat. All in all, once you stop creatine supplementation, your body releases that water weight.

That's the basic key points to know about creatine. It can be an effective supplement for some people but don’t think it’s going to cause you to automatically gain lean muscle. You’ll only see results if you work harder in the gym because you’re using it.