Creatine

Overview: 

Creatine monohydrate is one of the safest and most effective ways to see results in the gym. Along with this, it is the most researched supplement on the market. When you ingest creatine, it travels to your muscles, leading to increased stores of phosphocreatine, helping to produce ATP (the energy molecule in the body specifically utilized during exercise). During short to moderate exercise, the ability to create ATP is heightened and utilized to create many positive effects.

Simple:

Based on the current evidence we find that creatine is a very safe and effective supplement, most notably at a 5g/day dose. There is a common misconception that a “loading phase” 20g/day is required for the first week of usage, but ultimately, it is unnecessary. In recent research, it has been found that loading is not needed to reach the same performance and energy enhancing effects with this supplement. Research into creatine monohydrate has shown impressive results in regards to power, recovery, and energy for short powerful bouts of exercises such as lifting weights, but not much evidence supports its helpfulness in endurance exercise. Studies in resistance training show that this supplement can greatly increase strength compared to control groups in as little to two weeks using 5g/day. Also, Creatine monohydrate has shown improvement in brain function because of its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and increase the creatine and ultimately, energy stores available in the brain. As more evidence comes out, we continue to see the effectiveness of this supplement and its wide array of advantages. Furthermore, creatine monohydrate has shown no known short or long-term side effects.

Complex:

This supplement has an enormous amount of research, so this will be a summary of a few of the key ones. Many people believe creatine helps with short-term energy and is associated with primarily lifting/short bouts of exercise. This is seen in a prominent article from 2018 by Kaviani et al. where young males underwent an 8-week resistance training 3 days per week, while strength was assessed across 6 exercises. Strength was found to be significantly higher in the creatine group vs placebo in just the short time of two weeks for bench, leg, and shoulder press movements. At the end of the study, after the 8 weeks, strength was significantly higher in bench, leg, shoulder presses, and tricep extensions, but not bicep curls or pulldowns. This showed the extent to which in just a short time creatine is available to increase strength in short-term muscular bouts. This can lead to a greater protein turnover and help with muscle adaptation [3].

A 2021 article on an analysis of creatine literature showcases the many benefits we now know. Creatine has been found to have the most benefit in explosive exercise, specifically short to moderate bursts of high intensity. When used at doses from 5-30g/day it has been proven to be safe for clinical use across all age groups. Although this is true, creatine’s use has been shown to not be as effective in endurance exercise, which is because this type of exercise doesn’t rely heavily on ATP-creatine phosphate system for the short-term bouts of energy. Other notable improvements from this analysis indicate enhanced recovery from intense exercise, a greater adaptive response to exercise, reduced post-workout soreness, and enhanced recovery from muscle damage. Creatine has also been tested with co-ingestion with other substances like caffeine, carbohydrates, or HMB to be beneficial. It also has some neuroprotective effects we will get into with the next study [2].

Another key part of creatine research has shown its effects on brain function and health. A recent study in 2022 by Forbes et al. has demonstrated this. We know that although comprising about 2% of the weight of the total body, the brain accounts for 20% of ATP usage, so something such as creatine could potentially be of good use, on top of the fact that creatine is able to cross the blood-brain barrier. It was concluded that creatine and GAA supplementation (glycocyamine, a precursor to creatine) creates an increase in brain creatine content, which helps the theory of benefits in the cases of cognition, depression, and even concussion rehabilitation. More research however is needed in the use of creatine in treating symptoms of some neurodegenerative diseases, anxiety or PTSD [1].

Works Cited

1. Forbes SC, Cordingley DM, Cornish SM, Gualano B, Roschel H, Ostojic SM, Rawson ES, Roy BD, Prokopidis K, Giannos P, Candow DG. Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Brain Function and Health. Nutrients. 2022 Feb 22;14(5):921. doi: 10.3390/nu14050921. PMID: 35267907; PMCID: PMC8912287.
2. Hall M, Manetta E, Tupper K. Creatine Supplementation: An Update. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2021 Jul 1;20(7):338-344. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000863. PMID: 34234088.
3. Kaviani M, Abassi A, Chilibeck PD. Creatine monohydrate supplementation during eight weeks of progressive resistance training increases strength in as little as two weeks without reducing markers of muscle damage. J Sports Med Phys Fitness. 2019 Apr;59(4):608-612. doi: 10.23736/S0022-4707.18.08406-2. Epub 2018 May 2. PMID: 29722252