Creatine - how to take it, action and side effects

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Natural, doping-free sport is a whole science that requires maximum effort from gym visitors. Nutrition, including sports nutrition, plays a significant role in achieving results. And a striking example of the need to use dietary supplements in crossfit, bodybuilding and other sports are amino acid phosphates.

What is creatine, why is it so popular, and is it really that effective in sports? You will receive detailed answers to these and other questions in the article.

Chemical structure

Creatine is a non-essential amino acid. If necessary, the body is able to independently synthesize creatine phosphate and transport it to muscle tissue, containing:

• arginine
• glycine.
• methionine

Creatine phosphates are found in small quantities in meat foods.

Interesting fact: the amount of creatine in the muscles of poultry and wild birds differs by more than 20%. The same applies to aquarium fish, which contain 40% less creatine than those caught in ocean waters. The answer to this question lies in the training of organisms. As you know, if a calf/chicken or other domestic animal moves a lot, its muscles become stiffer, which is why sedentary animals are specially raised on farms for meat lovers. Mobility stimulates anabolism in any animal - as a result, more creatine is found in trained muscles

Why has creatine become a revolution in the world of sports nutrition? It's simple. The body can synthesize very small amounts of the substance (maximum 1 g), while at the same time its concentration is negligible compared to other amino acids in meat. During heat treatment, it breaks down into arginine, glycine and methionine, which deprives the value of fried and heavily cooked foods.

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What can creatine be mixed with?

The best option is with plain water, but you can also use juice. Please note that the substance does not dissolve completely in water. When stirred, a suspension is obtained. However, it is remarkably digestible. It is not recommended to be overzealous when stirring, as it may begin to decompose.

A fitness shaker is indispensable for mixing. Sold in almost every sports nutrition store. First, pour the required amount of creatine into the shaker, then add water and stir. The additive has no smell or taste.

Reason why it must be taken separately

From all of the above, there follows the main reason why creatine (in any of its chemical forms) is more profitable to take as a sports supplement. Everything is very simple. With negligible presence in food and minimal synthesis from other amino acids, the average person's need for creatine is about 6-8 grams per day.

As for athletes, their need reaches a phenomenal 30 g per day. And this is not counting the fact that muscles are capable of storing creatine phosphate in amounts of up to 450 g. To organize such a supply of creatine to the body, it is necessary to consume tens of kilograms of meat per day, which will lead to rapid failure of the gastrointestinal tract. At the same time, creatine in the form of supplements has almost no interaction with the digestive system and penetrates directly into muscle tissue.

History of scientific research on creatine

Creatine was first obtained back in 1832. Its discovery belongs to French doctors who discovered this unusual substance in skeletal muscles. After some time, scientists in many countries around the world began to conduct research on this element, trying to identify a pattern between creatine and the growth of muscle mass in the tissues of humans and animals. Even then, creatine began to be used as a dietary supplement to ensure enhanced metabolism in skeletal muscles. Around 1926, the scientific community was able to prove that increasing the concentration of creatine in the human body leads to a significant increase in body weight and muscle strength. This discovery attracted the attention of many doctors working in the field of practical dietetics. They began to actively use different doses and regimens of creatine to obtain an ideal source of energy for the muscles.

A real breakthrough occurred in 1993, when the authoritative publication Science & Sports published an article on the use of creatine as an effective means of increasing strength. This publication was based on numerous experiments conducted to identify the beneficial properties of creatine. It triggered a surge of interest in it from professional athletes who needed a balanced diet that could ensure constant and stable growth of muscle mass. Since about 1995, creatine has been making its way across many countries and continents, quickly gaining popularity among people interested in quickly improving the results of their daily workouts. Today, sports creatine is systematically used by many athletes who need to maintain a high level of energy in their body.

Effects of creatine on the body

The main effect of creatine when it enters the body is the accumulation of the compound in the muscles.

Other positive effects of taking amino acids:

• Increasing the transport properties of cholesterol in the body. This concerns increasing the period of removal of bad cholesterol and transportation of good cholesterol.
• Creation of lactic acid buffer. Lactic acid is the main cause of micro-tears in muscles, therefore, it acts as a direct precursor to the principle of super-recovery of the body.
• Increased oxygen transport to type 2 muscle groups (with white fibers).
• Retention and binding of fluid in the body.

These are just the general effects of creatine that affect an untrained person. Read more about the benefits and harms of creatine here.

Which creatine should you buy?

Is it possible to absorb a substance if you keep it under your tongue? When you receive an offer to purchase such creatine, you should understand that this is falsification. Since the substance molecule is supposed to overcome cell membranes for creatine to penetrate into the blood.

Another type of adulteration is an additive in liquid form. Due to the fact that when it is in this form, the substance is destroyed. The price for creatine may vary. You shouldn’t be fooled by cheap prices from dubious sellers. The best creatine is sold in powder form or capsules.

Creatine in sports

There is active debate regarding the effectiveness of creatine in sports disciplines. On the one hand, it has received wide support in the bodybuilding community, as it allows you to significantly bloat your muscles. On the other hand, people who need to stay in certain weight categories become ardent opponents of creatine.

However, no one disputes that using creatine leads to:

• pumping effect on earlier repetitions;
• significant increase in muscle mass;
• increasing the efficiency of anabolism when acting on selective androgen receptors;
• increasing endurance by increasing the oxygen content in white muscle fibers;
• accumulation of glycogen reserves in water-bound muscle tissues;
• temporary increase in strength indicators, which allows you to break through the strength plateau and build more muscle mass;
• beneficial effects on the strength of contractions of the heart muscle.

Let's take a closer look at what creatine is needed for.

Performance boost

This is not a direct, but an indirect consequence of taking creatine. The supplement increases strength and endurance during loading and maintenance by almost 35%.

Here's how it happens. Saturating muscles with creatine leads to an increase in fluid in them. In turn, this leads to greater pumping and an increase in the body's need for oxygen. After the second workout, the body begins to adapt to this factor and forces the blood vessels to more powerfully supply the muscles with oxygen. Namely, it depends on oxygen reserves how much glycogen in anaerobic form can be released by the body.

Consequently, due to pumping, an increase in the amount of oxygen and glycogen is achieved.

In turn, both of these factors directly affect strength endurance. The athlete can lift the same weights but with more repetitions. And this, in turn, increases training: an athlete can work in high-volume training not with 50% of his maximum weight, but with 75-80%. In turn, increasing endurance with proper training and the use of creatine leads to an increase in strength indicators - working weights become larger, the number of repetitions increases.

Conclusion: indirect filling of muscles with blood when consuming creatine phosphate triggers a whole chain of events that ensure the growth of all indicators of the athlete.

Pouring water

Another important feature of creatine is water infusion. Is it good or bad? For athletes in the off-season, this is a serious advantage.

Water in muscles protects and lubricates joints and ligaments. In turn, this reduces the likelihood of injury.

On the other hand, such flooding has its side effects. In particular, due to the abundance of water and the lack of salts (which bind water), an athlete may experience cramps during heavy lifts. Therefore, when loading with creatine, it is better to use insurance in case of unforeseen circumstances. Increasing water in the body is generally a useful thing, except for the increasing load on the kidneys at the time of initial loading.

Muscle growth

The triggered chain of events associated with an increase in the number of blood bodies in muscle fibers indirectly leads to an increase in muscle mass. What is especially noteworthy is that the synthesis of new protein fibers also increases and, as a result, “dry” meat increases. How does this happen?

1. The athlete overcomes a strength plateau - the muscles receive new stress, stimulating them to further growth.
2. Additional glycogen stores are located exclusively in the cells, which leads to the fact that excess glycogen (affecting endurance) is excreted along with water.
3. Improved oxygen supply to muscles leads to acceleration of anabolic metabolic issues.
4. At high loads, creatine bound in muscles breaks down back into arginine and other amino acids, which are part of muscle tissue.

Essentially, at a certain point, muscles begin to be built directly from creatine (with a sufficient amount of auxiliary amino acids).

Creatine is used exclusively for gaining weight. Strength indicators are secondary for athletes who consume this supplement.

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Rollback effects

Beginner athletes do not like creatine because of the rebound effect. However, it cannot be taken year-round. All this is due to the fact that with prolonged loading and maintaining the level of acid in the blood, metabolism tends to remove excess creatine and does not accept new portions. After the second month of continuous use of monohydrate, its usefulness is reduced to zero. Therefore, it is recommended to take a break of at least 3 months between loads for the body to adapt. The period of removal of creatine from the body is about 7-10 days.

During this time, the athlete observes:

1. Sharp weight loss (due to a decrease in the amount of water in the body).
2. Increased fatigue associated with faster accumulation of lactic acid in the muscles.
3. Loss of stamina.
4. No pumping when performing up to 20 repetitions.

It is important to understand that even when comparing the performance of athletes before and after a creatine course, a significant increase in the percentage of lean muscle mass and overall strength can be noted.

And the most unpleasant thing for most athletes practicing creatine: when removing it from the body, it is necessary to limit the load. Otherwise, you can easily overtrain the body, and then all the benefits obtained from taking the supplement are offset by a delay in further muscle growth.

Creatine and bones

Creatine also has a positive effect on bone density and strength due to the improvement of the transport system. However, the effect is only achievable if the athlete takes enough calcium and vitamin D3 during the creatine loading course. In this case, absorbed calcium enters the blood faster and is redistributed by the body in order to strengthen bones in response to increased loads. The effect lasts for a long time even after you stop taking creatine.

Coaches' opinion

Experienced trainers are accustomed to dividing the periods of taking creatine into loading and maintenance periods. The loading phase is needed to accumulate the substance in the body with a “reserve” and lasts about a week, then the maintenance phase begins, which stabilizes the body’s condition. Judging by the comments of experienced athletes, it is not always necessary to separate the use into phases, since the same dosage every day helps reduce the risk of side effects from creatine for muscle gain. However, each manufacturer has its own specific conditions for use, so you should carefully read the instructions so that the drug does not harm, but for good. The effect of this substance is active only if accompanied by training and a balanced diet.

Creatine and cutting

Creatine is extremely rarely taken while cutting. Experienced athletes recommend starting cutting during the last period of creatine intake. What is this connected with?

1. During drying, the nutritional balance changes dramatically. Carbohydrate rotation and a low-carb diet are designed to deplete glycogen stores. The additional glycogen that comes with phosphate molecules significantly slows down this process, making the diet less effective.
2. Creatine with a lack of salts and minerals (which are washed out during drying) can lead to frequent cramps. For this reason, training complexes can result in injury.
3. Water retention interferes with the work of diuretics, which are taken in the last days before competitions to obtain maximum relief.
4. Due to the additional water, it is impossible to assess the level of subcutaneous fat during the intermediate stages of cutting, which can lead to errors in training or nutrition. As a result, muscles will be burned instead of fat.

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Strength is growing

During active training, muscles need much more energy than at rest, so the need to replenish muscles with ATP molecules increases significantly. In this process, creatine helps to become an additional source of energy, which makes the workout more intense and the athlete is able to do more repetitions. Thus, working to the limit of one’s capabilities, by combining the use of creatine with competent training, a person significantly improves his strength indicators.

For opponents of sports nutrition

The main reason for the popularity and effectiveness of creatine is due to two things:

1. Its low content in food products.
2. Low bioavailability in food.

However, for those who still prefer to receive all the necessary amino acids and substances without sports nutrition, we have provided a table of products containing creatine phosphate.

As you can see from the table, in order to get an acceptable dose of creatine phosphate for training, you need to eat at least 4 kilograms of herring. During heat treatment (i.e. cooking), phosphates, which are extremely unstable to temperature, disintegrate. As a result, fried or boiled herring contains 4 times less nutrients. In other words, you will need tens of kilograms of herring per day. And consuming such an amount of food per day will easily “ruin” the athlete’s digestive system.

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Side effects from taking creatine

Creatine phosphate came into sports disciplines relatively recently. Only in 1996 did athletes begin to actively load up on the first samples of sports nutrition. For this reason, doctors are concerned about the risk of unknown side effects due to long-term use (more than 30 years).

In the short term, creatine is unlikely to have the following side effects:

• Increased load on the kidneys. NOT recommended for people suffering from any type of kidney failure.
• Vitamin deficiency and mineral deficiency are associated with the fact that with an increase in weight and water, minerals and vitamins are concentrated in the bound fluid. You will need to take additional multivitamins.
• Sudden cramps due to insufficient water intake.
• Discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract during the loading period associated with tissue dehydration with insufficient fluid intake.

But the most important side effect comes from the benefits of creatine. It is not recommended to use creatine in loading in the presence of heart failure. At the time of taking creatine, the force of contraction of the heart muscle increases. On the one hand, it helps fight arrhythmia and other problems, and reduces the risk of heart attack. However, when leaving the drug, the opposite trend is observed. Due to the buffering of lactic acid, the heart, under severe loads, significantly exceeds its standard pulse, which can lead to pain and even microtrauma to the heart muscle.

Note: a technique with smooth loading or no loading is quite acceptable. Since the amount of creatine in the blood decreases gradually, the heart muscle has time to adapt to new conditions.

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Negative sides

Yes, creatine has several disadvantages, but it is worth noting that they are quite minor. Thus, the substance tends to accumulate water in muscle cells. You should stop using creatine if the athlete often experiences swelling: when taking this substance you need to drink water, which can only worsen the situation. Some athletes, after taking the drug, note the appearance of intestinal spasms, nausea and indigestion. Individual intolerance should also not be ignored.

Another disadvantage of creatine is the possible occurrence of dehydration, which occurs with minimal water consumption. You should not remove excess water with medications, as this can be harmful to health.

If you have doubts about whether you should take creatine, you can buy several samples. This amount will be enough to form your own opinion about it.

After you have become familiar with the pros and cons of creatine, what this product provides and how to take it, you can make a choice of drug.

How to take it correctly

Creatine phosphate can be used in two main variations - with and without loading.

In the first case, faster saturation is achieved, but the consumption of the additive increases. In the second option, the risk of side effects is reduced, but the peak occurs only in the third or fourth week of taking the drug.

In the case of consumption with loading, take as follows:

• 10 g of creatine immediately after breakfast along with fast carbohydrates (juice/sweet water).
• 7 g of creatine 2 hours before training, along with the transport system.
• 13 g after evening meal.

After reaching the peak, it is enough to drink creatine once a day, 5-7 g, to maintain its level in the blood. In the case of non-loading use, 8 g of creatine is consumed once a day (in the morning with juice) throughout the entire course of use. The maximum course of taking creatine phosphate is 56 days (8 training weeks). After this, the dosage of creatine is reduced to 1-2 g per day, and after 2-3 days, its use is completely abandoned. Creatine is eliminated 21-28 days after the last dose.

Note: exotic types of creatine have their own scheme of use, which the manufacturer must write about on the packaging. Follow the diagram on the packaging if available.

Positive sides

When an athlete trains, the muscles must receive sufficient energy. The use of creatine allows you to moderately consume glycogen and ATP reserves, which, in turn, increases strength indicators and working scales. There is a visual increase in muscles as the drug accumulates fluid in their cells. However, when the course of taking this substance is completed, the muscles can return to their normal state again. Of course, they will not sag and deflate - liquid will gradually leave them, which will make them smaller.

Creatine improves the quality of the composition of sarcoplasm - the nutrient medium located around muscle fibers. As a result, less glycogen will be consumed, and muscles will recover much faster. To summarize, it can be noted that after taking creatine, muscle performance during training increases significantly; they seem more powerful and plump.

Top phosphate additives

Creatine is produced by almost all well-known manufacturers:

• Optimum nutrition.
• Ultra nutrition.
• Biotech USA, etc.

Kinds

The quality of the additive from all manufacturers is approximately at the same level. Therefore, it is better to consider creatine supplements by type:

1. Creatine monohydrate. The most popular type of sports supplement. The main advantages are a high degree of purification, minimization of side effects and the ability to load with creatine faster compared to other types (you can consume up to 50 g daily, reducing the loading phase by 3-4 days).
2. Creatine Phosphate. The cheapest and most effective creatine. Due to the low degree of purification, it has lower bioavailability, which is why phosphate must be taken 15-20% higher than monohydrate. But even in terms of conversion, it remains a cheaper alternative for quickly gaining muscle mass.
3. Creatine with transport system. This is a system for the lazy from Weider and Optimum Nutrition. The main feature is the presence of hydrolyzed grape juice, which saves the athlete from consuming sweet tea or separate water. Makes it easier to use the drug when it is impossible to get fast carbohydrates.
4. Creatine hydrochloride. Produced by Biotech. Allows you to stay in the loading phase longer and not experience problems with water retention. The actual benefits over other types of creatine have not yet been proven.

Interesting fact: creatine monohydrate is often added to the composition of the gainer. So, when talking about the effectiveness of a gainer, manufacturers often mention the number of kilograms gained while taking the dietary supplement. However, creatine bloats the muscles and floods the body with water, which prevents the actual growth of muscle and glycogen fibers from being assessed. And when you stop taking the gainer, the water goes away. This effect is similar to the effect of a course of creatine. This is why advertising campaigns for gainers often hide the presence of creatine, despite the absence of potential harm to the body. (here are details about how to take mass gainer).

Hydrochloride or monohydrate: which is better?

In the range of sports nutrition, you can observe competition between two types of creatine: hydrochloride and monohydrate. The following features are in favor of the first:

• it does not provoke typical adverse reactions from the stomach and the entire digestive system (bloating, heaviness, etc.);
• there is no negative effect on the liver, kidneys and other organs of the human excretory system (especially when taken according to the “loading” scheme).

The disadvantage of hydrochloride remains its price. Even when using a reduced dosage, the cost of the supplement is much higher than that of products with a competitive form. Creatine monohydrate remains the most profitable purchase in terms of price/effectiveness ratio.

Monohydrate

ALLMAX Nutrition, Creatine, Pharmaceutical Grade, 3.53 oz (100 g)

Price – ₽631.06

Buy from a partner

Creatine HCl

Kaged Muscle, Proprietary Dietary Supplement, Creatine HCL, Unflavored, 1.98 oz (56.25 g)

Price – RUB 1,578.83

Buy from a partner

Now Foods, Performance Nutrition, Creatine Monohydrate, Pure Powder, 8 oz (227 g)

Price – ₽616.05

Buy from a partner

Kaged Muscle, Patented Creatine Hydrochloride, 75 Vegetable Capsules

Price – RUB 1,578.83

Buy from a partner

Dymatize Nutrition, Micronized Creatine, Unflavored, 10.6 oz (300 g)

Price – ₽631.06

Buy from a partner

Muscletech, Performance Series, CREACTOR, Creatine HCI, Blue Raspberry Blast, 9.31 oz (264 g)

Price – ₽1,525.28

Buy from a partner

Note! If you have chronic diseases of the kidneys, liver and gastrointestinal tract, it is better to stick to the hydrochloride form. In these cases, it will be absorbed faster and will not cause discomfort.