People often mistakenly believe the steroid-like claims that creatine can cause. But this is far from the truth. Seeing folks at the gym who are afraid to use this common supplement motivated us to dispel that myth for good.
Read on to learn about creatine and how you can incorporate it into your workout to maximise your gains.
Creatine is not a steroid. It is a natural substance. You body and many foods have creatine.
What is Creatine?
To put it simply, creatine is a chemical that occurs naturally in the human body. When we exercise regularly, we use between two and four grammes of creatine, which is only a fraction of what the body stores.
Taking a creatine supplement is necessary because of the increased need for creatine during high-intensity workouts. Our liver and kidneys are responsible for breaking down creatine, which is then used by our muscle cells to transport and store energy.
One of the most popular supplements despite widespread apprehension about its purported benefits. Furthermore, scientific research shows that this is the most beneficial supplement for explosive activities, weight lifting, high-intensity training, football, sprinting, baseball, and other sports that require quick bursts of energy.
Is It Safe?
- Creatine is completely safe to use. The chemical is present all over the body, with 95% of it being stashed away in the muscles. Creatine has a common misconception that it is the same as anabolic steroids.
- Creatine, on the other hand, does not have the same effect on testosterone levels as steroids, which is why the latter are banned from Olympic competition. Professional leagues, the IOC, and the NCAA all permit the use of creatine, although the NCAA does not.
- Our bodies can synthesise creatine from amino acids, and we can also receive it from foods like fish and red meat. Unfortunately, even with ideal diets and high levels of natural creatine, most of us are unable to maximise creatine storage in our muscles.
- Stores are typically approximately 120 mmol/kg, but can be increased to roughly 140-150 mmol/kg with the help of creatine supplementation. Our muscles are able to generate more energy and improve their performance thanks to the creatine we’ve been able to store.
- As soon as our muscle stores are full, the surplus is metabolised into creatinine, a byproduct of creatine, and excreted in the urine.
What Effects Does It Have on Your Body?
In addition to helping you bulk up and build lean muscle, creatine has a number of other health and performance benefits.
If you want to build muscle, for instance, you need to increase your muscle’s supply of creatine phosphate, and that’s where creatine comes in. Muscle cells store energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the only accepted energy currency in the body. The extra stores are then utilised to make more ATP. High-intensity exercise and weight lifting rely heavily on ATP because it is the primary source of energy for these activities.
Creatine has a number of positive effects and benefits, including:
Creatine supplements allow users to train harder and for longer, which is crucial for sustainable muscle gain. Simply put, taking creatine before a workout will give you the boost in stamina you need to complete more repetitions, which in turn will lead to more muscular growth. Creatine enhances cellular signalling, which aids in post-workout muscle repair, growth, and size.
- Increased levels of anabolic hormones, such as insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1), have been linked by scientists to the use of creatine and the resulting development of larger muscles.
- Cell hydration is increased; taking creatine causes your muscle cells to hold more water, resulting in muscle growth.
- Creatine supplementation has been shown to have many benefits, including increased muscle size and decreased protein breakdown.
- Increased muscle mass is possible when myostatin is suppressed.
- Creatine supplementation has been shown to have a number of health benefits, including the enhancement of strength in older persons and the potential for increased phosphocreatine reserves in the brain, both of which have positive effects on neurological function.
Creatine Has Three Primary Advantages
There are numerous advantages of supplementing with creatine, such as:
1. Muscle Power and Physical Prowess
Creatine is a supplement that boosts strength and performance during high-intensity exercise. Creatine supplementation against conventional exercise alone.
Supplementing for only 28 days has been shown to improve performance in the bench press by 6% and bike sprinting by 15% in elite athletes. Creatine increases the body’s ability to produce ATP, which has phenomenal effects.
2. Lean Body Mass
Creatine is useful in the short and long term for increasing muscle growth. During a 12-week study on weightlifters, creatine was shown to stimulate muscle fibre growth two- to three-times greater than exercise alone. A single maximum repetition led to a doubling of body mass.
3. Rapid Bulking Up
Creatine is the supplement of choice for anyone seeking rapid muscle growth and weight gain. According to studies, users can gain between 2 and 6 pounds after just one week of high-dose (20 g/day) creatine consumption.
This is initially caused by a buildup of water in the muscles, but as the body continues to gain mass, the muscles themselves contribute to the growth. To clarify, the weight gain is not due to fat but to muscle, which is a beneficial adaptation for the vast majority of athletes.
- Blood creatinine levels may increase when using creatine. People mistakenly believe that creatine is harmful to the kidneys and liver since creatinine is frequently measured to diagnose renal and liver disorders.
- Long-term use of creatine has been shown to have no negative effects by a number of studies.
- Even a longer-term study of four years found the same thing.
- However, if you have a history of renal illness, you should exercise caution when using creatine and other sports nutrition products.
- The suggested dosage of creatine should be adhered to at all times, even if you are in perfect health.
