It’s one of the most popular, if not the most popular, fitness supplements: creatine. Yet few athletes know exactly what it is and how it works. Time to change that.
Wat is creatine?
Creatine is a product produced by the body in the liver and kidneys. It is used by muscles to make energy. It works like this: Your muscles use the creatine from the liver and kidneys to make creatine phosphate. Creatine phosphate is converted to adenosine triphosphate (ATC).
Pay attention: ATC is then converted to ADP (adenosine diphosphate) which allows your muscles to contract and generate energy. Ergo, creatine pumps energy into your muscles.
What does creatine do?
Creatine provides the muscles with energy. You get creatine daily from your diet. It comes mainly from animal proteins, including red meat and fish. But you have to eat immense amounts of that to experience its effect on muscle strength.
Therefore, you can increase the creatine level in your body by taking creatine supplements. These can ensure that your muscles generate more strength and endurance.
How does creatine affect your gym results?
The mechanism is simple, if you have more strength from creatine in the gym, you can lift more. The increasing weight puts more pressure on your muscles and they grow faster. So bigger muscles. In addition, according to the US National Library of Medicine’s, creatine provides “more muscle strength in both the young and the elderly” and is said to “increase the sports performance of elite athletes”.
The Effects of Creatine
In addition to the short-term strength gain that creatine causes, it also causes weight gain. Creatine ensures that more water is stored in the muscles. Carolyn Brown, nutrition consultant at Foodtrainers says: “Most people gain about 1.5 kilos in the first week after taking creatine, but that is mainly fluid that the muscles retain.”
In the long run, creatine allows your muscles to handle more weight. This makes creatine the ideal fuel for long-term goals in the gym.
An incorrect assumption about creatine is that taking it without exercising will make you fat. But according to Men’s Health nutrition expert Michael Roussell is not true: ‘Creatine contains no calories and has no further effect on the metabolism. The combination of creatine and not exercising therefore has no effect on your fat mass.’
What does creatine do to your heart and kidneys?
“Creatine is one of the most researched sports supplements,” reassures Paul Greenhaff. He is a muscle metabolism expert at the University of Nottingham and explains: ‘If there had been problematic side effects to creatine for organs, we would have found them by now. But apart from exceptional cases there are none.’
If you already have kidney problems, pay attention. Creatine produces a residual product called creatinine, which is rejected by healthy kidneys. But if you have weak kidneys, creatinine can cause problems. In that case, do not use creatine.
Also check out these facts and fables about creatine.
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