2023-08-21 13:24:00
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The Serbian Novak Djokovic surprised everyone this Sunday in the final in Cincinnati (United States) when, during a break in the match he was playing against the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, he shouted to his team: “¡Creatine!“. And it is that, the tennis player was asking for the famous amino acid that responds to that name and that has a energetic effect on the muscles, helping in sports performance.
And no, Djokovic has not committed any crime by asking for this substance, since it is a natural element, present even in the body itself and whose supplementary administration it is legal and beneficial in case of high intensity exercises. But do you really know how creatine works and why it is such a popular element in the field of sports?
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WHAT IS CREATINE?
Creatine is a amino acid discovered in the year 1832. The protagonist of this discovery was the French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul, who concluded that the accumulation of creatine in the body is directly related to muscle work. To reach these conclusions, the scientist analyzed the creatine content of the muscles of wild foxes, comparing it with that of domestic foxes, verifying that the feral ones, which lived more actively, had up to 10 times more amount of creatine in their muscles than the trained ones.
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Creatine is a very common food supplement among high-performance athletes.
Thus, creatine is a substance present in the body itself, which reaches the body through certain foods, such as red meat, shellfish and certain fishor that can be ingested through Food supplements of artificial creatine. Its objective is to supply energy to the muscles, helping them in the development of sports activities and high intensity exercises.
Therefore, in sports, its use is indicated to improve performance and increase muscle mass. However, it is also useful to eliminate and improve the appearance of muscle cramps or to reduce fatigue, and even for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and depression. In its topical application, it has therapeutic uses related to skin aging.
HOW IS IT PRODUCED?
Creatine is synthesized within the human body, in the liver and kidney. From these organs, it is transported in the blood to the muscles, where it accumulates until it is used during moments of physical exercise. In fact, 95% of the total creatine in the body accumulates in skeletal muscle, that is, the muscle attached to the bones and controlled voluntarily. Thus, scientists estimate that the amount of creatine accumulated in a person weighing 70 kg is 120 g.
But why is it stored? Well, creatine is not consumed by the muscles directly, so it must be saved until the moment it is used, when it will unite with phosphorus to create the phosphocreatine. But the key to this matter is not that final product, but the process by which it is formed, since for this it is necessary consume ATP (Adenosine trisophate), an energetic constituent of muscle cells.
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Thus, when ATP is consumed, its immediate regeneration, an act that will provide the energy to the muscle to carry out a physical effort. Therefore, this reserve store allows the production of high levels of ATP quickly, allowing the body to respond immediately to an urgent demand for muscular energy.
CREATINE IN SPORTS
The ability to perform high-intensity exercises and recover quickly is one of the characteristics that makes creatine a widely used substance among athletes, as it allows them to achieve a better training with optimum performance. In fact, its beneficial properties, the safety of its intake and its natural nature make it a substance allowed in official competitions by the National Olympic Committee and for the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
However, it is the experts who must regulate what dose is better depending on the type of physical exercise to be performed, as it will not be the same for long-distance exercises, where resistance is very important, as for those of short and high intensity, where muscle recovery will play a very different role. Depending on this, the doses could vary from 25 grams a day for 15 days, up to 4 or 5 grams a day in periods of 18 months.
However, its benefits are likely are not the same for all athletes, as it will depend on your initial levels of creatine in the body, the metabolism of each individual or the amount ingested. Hence the importance of going to the experts before starting its consumption. Of course, to make the most of it, it is advisable not to accompany it with drinks that contain caffeine, as they could reduce or cancel the effect of creatine.
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