How creatine helps you get stronger and build muscle

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Super assistant during hard training and competition.

What is creatine

Creatine is an amino acid found in muscles (95%), brain and testes (about 5%). About half of all creatine comes from the diet - mainly red meat and seafood. For example, 450 g of raw beef or salmon contains about 1-2 g of this substance. The remainder is synthesized in the liver and kidneys from the amino acids arginine and glycine.

For most people, the amount of creatine is 120 mmol per kg of lean muscle mass. Vegetarians may have lower levels of this amino acid - about 90-110 mmol per kg of lean muscle mass, and in people taking supplements, it can be higher - up to 160 mmol per kg.

About 1–2% of all creatine in the muscles is broken down to creatinine and excreted in the urine. To maintain a normal level of this substance, you need to consume about 1-3 g of the amino acid in the diet. Athletes may need more - on the order of 5-10 g of creatine daily, depending on the intensity of training.

Why you need creatine

Creatine is needed by the body for energy production. It is used when you need to "explode" - to work quickly, powerfully and as intensely as possible. For example, do a heavy barbell set, jump to maximum height, or run 50 meters. The reserves of creatine in the muscles are enough for 8-10 seconds of such work.

After 45 seconds, its reserves are completely exhausted, and the body switches to another source of energy.

Thus, how much creatine is contained in your muscles directly depends on how well you will be given a snatch and how long you will last in this mode of work.

In addition, creatine reduces the formation of reactive oxygen species in cell metabolism, reducing oxidative stress. In other words, it can be used as an antioxidant to protect cells from damage.

Why take creatine supplements

Numerous studies show that creatine supplementation provides an ergogenic effect - helping the body adapt to stress and improving athletic performance.

Increased strength and power

Creatine increases anaerobic capacity,,,,,,, - the ability to exert maximum effort in minimum time. This quality is necessary in any sport where you need to "explode": in sprinting, weightlifting, martial arts and team sports such as basketball, football, American football, tennis.

Also, taking creatine has a positive effect on the development of strength indicators.

In most studies,,,,,,, 6-10 weeks of supplementation provided significant gains in strength and one-repetition maximum (1RM) across exercise.

However, there are exceptions. For example, in one experiment, creatine supplementation increased participants' anaerobic capacity, but did not help lift more weight in different exercises. Perhaps this happened due to the short time of admission: the experiment lasted only a week.

Since not only the ability of muscle fibers to contract quickly is important for the development of strength, but also many other factors, including the neuromuscular connection, it can be assumed that a week is simply not enough to build strength. Although in another experiment, a similar period (10 days) provided a significant increase in 1RM in the bench press and squats.

There is another experiment in which creatine supplementation did not affect participants' strength performance. Over the course of 14 weeks of training, older men increased strength regardless of whether they were taking creatine, protein, creatine with protein, or placebo. Perhaps the lack of additional benefits is due to the age of the participants - 48–72 years.

However, in other experiments with people aged 57–70, creatine supplementation gave a good increase in strength compared to exercise without supplementation.

Thus, while there are a few studies showing little or no benefit from supplementation, most studies still support creatine's benefits for increasing power and strength.

Increasing the rate of muscle growth

6-12 weeks of creatine supplementation with strength training will help you build more muscle than training without supplements. Scientists don't fully understand how it works. There are various assumptions: anabolic stimuli from the osmotic effect of creatine, a direct effect on the mTOR signaling complex, an effect on myogenesis - the formation of new muscle fibers from progenitor cells.

In addition, creatine can influence hypertrophy through increased training volume.

The higher it is, the more muscle fibers will work and the stronger the signal for muscle growth will be.

Since creatine supplementation can help increase the volume of strength training and withstand heavy loads without sliding into catabolism, taking the supplement has a positive effect on muscle size.

Acceleration of recovery from strength loads

For muscle growth and strength indicators, not only loads are important, but also recovery. Its speed after exercise is largely dependent on how quickly you can replenish glycogen stores, a form of glucose stored in muscles and used as fuel during physical activity.

And creatine helps to do this faster and more efficiently.

The combined intake of 5 g of creatine and 18–95 g of carbohydrates, as well as the combination of 5 g of creatine with 50 g of carbohydrates and 50 g of protein, significantly increase the level of insulin, a hormone that helps accumulate glucose in the muscles, and also cause the accumulation of creatine and its delay - reduce excretion from the body. Taking 20 g of creatine along with carbohydrates for 5 days increases muscle glycogen levels by 14% compared to a carbohydrate load alone.

Thus, by taking creatine and carbohydrates, you will quickly and more efficiently restore glycogen stores after exercise, maintain high performance and avoid overtraining during the period of voluminous activities.

Plus, creatine supplementation can help repair damaged muscles faster after strength training. In one experiment, strength training caused much less damage in the creatine group. Creatine kinase, an enzyme that serves as an indicator of muscle damage, was 84% lower and muscle strength 10–21% higher than in the no-supplement group.

Creatine reduces, and inflammation is a factor that interferes with recovery and increases soreness after strenuous exercise. All this helps to endure large volumes of training without harm to strength indicators.

Reducing the risk of injury and accelerating recovery from them

There is evidence that creatine supplementation can help reduce the risk of injury during intense exercise. For example, footballers taking creatine are generally less likely to experience dehydration and heatstroke, muscle cramps, strains, and non-contact injuries.

They are also less likely to skip workouts due to injury than those who do not take supplements.

In addition, creatine loading during the course of rehabilitation helps to quickly restore the strength and size of the muscles lost during the period of immobilization of the limb.

Improving cognitive performance

Taking 20 g of the supplement per day for 4 weeks increases the amount of creatine in the brain by 8.7% –9.3%, which can have a positive effect on cognitive functions.

Creatine can improve short-term memory and results on intelligence tests, reduce mental fatigue from solving math problems, and increase working memory and processing speed.

In addition, creatine supplementation can help overcome the negative effects on performance, cognitive function, and mood caused by lack of sleep.

Who shouldn't take creatine

Creatine is one of the safest and most well-researched supplements around. Contrary to popular rumors, creatine supplementation does not cause dehydration and muscle cramps, digestion, liver and kidney problems. Because of its ability to retain water in the body, creatine can increase weight. But when you stop taking the supplement, the extra pounds will quickly go away.

However, it is still worth consulting with your doctor or therapist if you have the following conditions and conditions:

• Pregnancy and breastfeeding.
• Serious diseases of the heart and other organs, cancer.
• Taking medications that affect liver and kidney function.
• Taking cyclosporine, aminoglycosides, gentamicins, tobramycin, anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen, and other drugs that may interact with creatine.
• Taking medications that affect blood sugar levels.

What form of creatine to choose and how to take it

The most popular and readily available form is creatine monohydrate. It is he who appears in most scientific works on the benefits of the supplement. Other forms also exist: creatine ethyl ester (CEE) and krealkalin (Kre Alkalyn, KA). On the sports food market, they are positioned as more effective, but this is not confirmed by science.

There are two ways to take creatine: with or without a loading phase. 80% of the studies examining the effect of the additive use a loading method consisting of two phases:

1. loading- 5-7 days. Creatine is taken in an amount of 20 g per day, divided into 4 equal doses of 5 g. After that, the level of creatine in the muscles increases by 20%.
2. Maintaining- all the remaining time. Creatine is taken once in an amount of 2–5 g per day to maintain high levels. If you stop taking creatine after the loading phase, it will gradually return to baseline over a month.

You can also do without the loading phase - consume immediately 3-5 g per day. In this case, the level of creatine will gradually rise and reach an increase of 20% after about a month of use.

Since the combination of creatine with carbohydrates and protein increases its retention in the body, it is rational to take the supplement with meals or with a protein-carbohydrate shake.

As for the time of intake, it is worth doing this after training, when the body has exhausted its glycogen and creatine stores and needs to replenish them.

How long can creatine be taken

Side effects are not observed even from very long-term intake of creatine - up to five years. So you can take the supplement on an ongoing basis and only benefit from it.

If you want to do this in courses, for example, for financial reasons, it is worth drinking creatine during periods of intense training, when you build volumes and increase working weights, as well as during competition.

Stop taking creatine during periods when you need to lose weight, for example, to get into the desired weight category or "dry" for a bodybuilding competition.