Most people first heard of creatine supplements only when the famous athletes Linford Christie and Sally Gunnell said they’d helped them achieve better performances. In 1912 researchers from Harvard University discovered that adding creatine to animal foods promoted their muscle growth, and in the 1920s this was confirmed to happen in humans as well. Some professional athletes started taking creatine supplements straight away, but it took until the 1950s for the affordable forms of creatine to become widely available.
Ingredients:
One of the most well-known benefits of creatine is its ability to increase muscle strength and speed up muscle growth. This is of particular importance to older adults, as muscle mass and strength naturally decline with age. Electrolyte salts are minerals that are crucial for smooth functioning of our body. They determine, amongst other things, how well hydrated we are – how much water is absorbed by our muscle cells and tissue. Electrolytes are lost through sweat and cannot be replenished by drinking plain water.
- When you start taking creatine for the first time you may want to do ‘creatine loading’ – this means taking a very high dose for a short period of time in order to quickly load your muscle cells with the optimum levels of creatine.
- For the best effects and safety it is best to stick with the original.
- And if you haven’t yet heard of creatine and ask around, the first thing you’ll be told is that it is something people take to grow bigger, stronger muscles.
- The end product of this process is a molecule called ATP (adenosine tri-phosphate).
- Apart from helping fight muscle loss, other possible anti-aging benefits of creatine include improving brain function, lowering inflammation and improving blood sugar control.
- If you already have very high creatine stores you may receive less obvious benefits from the supplements, while those with low creatine stores should see bigger improvements sooner.
- It is worth mentioning that the benefits you will receive from taking creatine supplements are likely to depend on your current creatine muscle stores, or in other words how much creatine you have in your body as your starting point.
Every time you use your muscles to deliver a high intensity, short burst of action – for example lifting a heavy weight, sprinting, or brief bouts of fast uphill running, the energy for such actions comes from this ATP-PC. Once it is produced, which happens mainly in the liver, creatine gets stored in your muscles and brain. Once that protein is digested and broken down into amino acids, our body uses two of those amino acids – arginine and glycine, to produce creatine. If you’ve heard of creatine, the first thing that pops into mind when you hear that word is a big muscle guy pumping iron in the gym. And if you haven’t yet heard of creatine and ask around, the first thing you’ll be told is that it is something people take to grow bigger, stronger muscles.
Hydration, muscle growth and muscle recovery
- It’s in capsule form and you can swallow it with water or any other drink.
- In 1912 researchers from Harvard University discovered that adding creatine to animal foods promoted their muscle growth, and in the 1920s this was confirmed to happen in humans as well.
- Once it is produced, which happens mainly in the liver, creatine gets stored in your muscles and brain.
- If you do not wish to undertake a loading phase you can just take the regular dose straight from the start, but keep in mind that it might take a bit longer to achieve desired effects.
- As for distance running, the evidence is very strong for creatine improving recovery time and muscle inflammation in endurance athletes.
Maximise the results of your hard work and power up your body with the purest and the most rapid-acting and absorbable form of creatine on the market. It affects every person lucky enough to live %KEYWORD_VAR% to old age. There are MANY things that you can do to slow down or in some cases even reverse this process and keep muscle as you age. Creatine was discovered in the early 19th century, when a French scientist Michel Eugene Chevreul isolated it from an ingredient in beef. He named this molecule creatine, from the Greek word kreas, meaning meat.
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If you already have very high creatine stores you may receive less obvious benefits from the supplements, while those with low creatine stores should see bigger improvements sooner. The most common creatine loading protocol is where you take 15-20g of creatine per day, split into 4 to 5 doses, for 5 days. Another way to achieve loading is to take 10g per day for 2 weeks followed by the maintenance schedule. But if you are training at a more demanding level, or running difficult runs and races that require carbohydrate loading afterwards, it might be a good idea to take your creatine at that same time as the carbohydrates.
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On the other hand it is possible that a small percentage of people, possibly those already prone to muscle cramping, water retention and/or dehydration, do in fact experience more cramps from creatine. Taken in the right dosage, creatine will work alongside supplements to improve your athletic performance. It is just a faster way, a shortcut for achieving a high level of creatine in the body. If you do not wish to undertake a loading phase you can just take the regular dose straight from the start, but keep in mind that it might take a bit longer to achieve desired effects. On the other hand there is emerging evidence that suggests more benefits could be achieved when creatine is consumed after exercise compared to pre-exercise.
For the best effects and safety it is best to stick with the original. And in contrast to steroids, creatine is safe, even when taken over a long period of time. The ATP-making process that involves creatine is called ATP-PC. Apart from making our own creatine, we can also obtain it directly from protein rich foods. However, even the most protein-packed foods, like red meat or fish, contain only around one to two grams of creatine per pound of their weight.
At the time of his death in July 2025, Singh was widely reported by international media to be 114 years old,78 which would have made him one of the oldest living men in the world. This is a busy area of research and hundreds of scientific studies have been so far on the effects of creatine, with more being published every month. (aka ‘new secret weapon’ for a better sports performance)During my running journey I have learned lots about running technique and gear.