Creatine and What it Does

I have been seeing a new interest in what creatine does to help us and how it works over multiple pages.   Creatine is a naturally occurring element in the human body.   It is not something synthetic like a steroid.   Supplemental creatine has been around for decades and has been found to be safe and effective throughout numerous studies.

So why should we use it?   To understand why creatine is helpful in our fitness endeavors, we must understand what it does.   I will try to keep this easy to understand, but it involves chemical processes in the body so it may be difficult.   I will do my best.

Before we discuss creatine, we must discuss adenosine triphosphate which is a naturally occurring element in our bodies.   Essentially, ATP it is stored muscle energy.   It allows us to work our muscles anaerobically, which means for short duration without the addition of oxygen through breathing.   Essentially getting a few reps in during an exercise while holding our breath.   Unfortunately, ATP is very limited and is used by the body very quickly.   Once we get depleted when we are working, lifting or exercising, we run out of it.

At this point, no matter if we are lifting heaving weights or doing heavy yard work we need to replenish the ATP.   Without getting too technical, the body can convert other energy sources into ATP, but it is not simple and degrades over time.   Think about running around a track and getting slower and slower the farther you go.   We can sprint at first, but it get’s harder the further we go.

This is where creatine comes into play.   Creatine monohydrate is essentially the first phase of the bodies back up to ATP.   When we saturate our bodies with creatine, it allows the body to more quickly replenish out ATP stores giving us just a little more muscular energy.   Unfortunately this too is short lived, but what does that mean for us as bodybuilders and strength trainers?

What it means is one or two more reps when lifting which allows our bodies to continue growing beyond what we could do without using it.   Over time this could mean bigger strength and growth gains.

Now there are some things to consider before using this supplement.   Creatine pushes additional water into the muscle cells making them look fuller, but you are carrying more water which can make you bigger, but “puffier.”   This can be good or bad depending upon your goals.   If you are cutting, I do NOT recommend it!

I hope this clears some questions up.  

Creatine is a naturally occurring element in the body and supplementing with it has been proven to be safe, but you must understand this and use it depending upon your fitness goals.   To me, that means it is good for strength and size building, but should not be used if you are cutting weight or fat.  

Scott