Quite popular with athletes, fitness buffs, fitness gurus, and strength and conditioning coaches, creatine is hands down one of the most popular supplements ever!
The evidence supporting creatine’s effectiveness is strong: thousands of professional and amateur athletes, weekend warriors, and regular exercisers have discovered it from personal experience. More importantly, irrefutable proof of creatine’s efficiency also abounds in the scientific literature (Buford et al., 2007; Terjung et al., 2000; Branch, 2003; Rawson & Volek, 2003).
From my point of view, creatine is one of the few supplements that really work. When combined with an effective strength and conditioning program and protein supplementation, creatine is helpful in improving body composition, muscular strength, power, and running ability – improved performance has been observed in almost every sports after the use of creatine. So whether you like short, intense activities like track and field, wrestling, or are a strength athlete or just a fitness buff looking to improve your fitness parameters, you can’t afford to miss out on the benefits. offered by creatine supplementation.
How should I take creatine?
Creatine is available for oral ingestion in the form of creatine monohydrate, as a powder, pill, liquid formulation, or stick. Here are some tips on how to take creatine:
• daily dose of 5 g per day (recent thinking is that the loading dose of 20 g/day x 5 days offers no benefit and is therefore not necessary)
• creatine absorption is better when taken in combination with a sweetened liquid (grapefruit juice)
• can be taken before or after training
• taking protein supplements in combination with creatine can further enhance the benefits
• after a cycle of 12 to 16 weeks of creatine intake, take 4 weeks off
To conclude, creatine is one of the few supplements that actually works. When combined with an effective strength and conditioning program and protein supplementation, creatine is helpful in improving body composition, muscular strength, power, and running ability – improved performance has been observed in almost every sports after the use of creatine. So whether you like short, intense activities like track and field, wrestling, or are a strength athlete or just a fitness buff looking to improve your fitness parameters, you can’t afford to miss out on the benefits. offered by creatine supplementation.
To learn more about how creatine works and the benefits of creatine supplementation, follow this link.
References
Branch, J.D. (2003). Effect of creatine supplementation on body composition and performance: a meta-analysis. Int J Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab, 13, 198-226.
Buford TW, Kreider RB, Stout JR, Greenwood M, Campbell B, Spano M et al. (2007). Position of the International Society of Sports Nutrition: creatine supplementation and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr., 4, 6.
Rawson, ES and Volek, JS (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. J Force Cond. Res., 17, 822-831.
Terjung RL, Clarkson P, Eichner ER, Greenhaff PL, Hespel PJ, Israel RG et al. (2000). American College of Sports Medicine Roundtable. The physiological and health effects of oral creatine supplementation. Med Sci. Sports Exercise, 32, 706-717.
