If I had a dollar for every time a client asked me about creatine, I’d be retired before I hit the age of 30.

Creatine Monohydrate is possibly the most studied supplement out there. It has been proven time and time again to actually improve athletic performance. However, for some reason, creatine has gained the reputation of being a “gym bro’s” supplement, and only the most hardcore lifter take it as part of their daily regimen.

If you take your strength training seriously, there’s no question about whether or not you should be taking it. You’ll notice improvements in your recovery inside and outside the gym, the potential increase in muscle mass, and your strength might improve as well.

While not all my clients are building towards their next deadlift PR or squatting double bodyweight, most of them are working on maintaining or improving their health on a physical and mental level. Creatine is a supplement I encourage anyone I work with to start taking regardless of their goals.

Now, let’s get geeky.

How Creatine Monohydrate Benefits Strength Training

1. Creatine increases ATP (aka energy production).

ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) is the energy currency your body utilizes to perform everything from basis metabolic functions (digestion, breathing, sleep). You can only imagine the importance of it during intense bouts of training or physical activity! When these energy stores are depleted at a faster rate than when at rest, you may experience a dip in your body’s ability to produce continuous effort. ATP needs regeneration at the same rate at your body demands it for a certain task or else your muscles won’t have the energy to perform (1) .

Creatine increases the synthesis of phosphocreatine (PCr) in skeletal muscle which is used by creatine kinase to create more ATP. PCr also acts as a buffer to protect ATP concentration in muscle tissue thus reducing the potential of going into a deeper state of depletion from exercise (2 ).

So, while taking creatine doesn’t inherently “give you energy”, it is an essential metabolite in the network of energy transfer. The more creatine your body has available to use, the more PCr it can synthesize, the more ATP you’ll have available to use as energy.

**Some individuals have found that after supplementing with creatine, they feel stronger for longer during their strength training sessions.

2. Creatine increases muscle mass.

This is definitely where creatine gained its reputation of being a “bro” supplement.

Studies have proven that regular supplementation of creatine will increase your body’s production of lean mass. This particular study showed increased intramuscular creatine storage, muscle growth, and muscle performance even under a dosage of 3 to 5g a day of supplementation (3). It’s worth noting that how quickly you gain muscle is dependent on a few other factors such as resistance training intensity, resistance training frequency, how much lean mass you have on you at the start, your biological age, and your training age (i.e how many years you’ve got under your belt).

Creatine has also been known to make you “retain water”—which isn’t necessarily a bad thing! This side effect is mostly experienced during the first phase of supplementing creatine as the body adjusts to this added concentration to the muscle tissue (4). Due to the nature of creatine compounds, they directly enhance cell hydration by pulling any free water into your cells. This increased water storage leads to swelling of the cell which is a key stimulus for protein synthesis and cell growth.

Creatine is a superb supplement to add to your daily stack if your goal is centered around increasing your lean body mass.

**If someone complains of dehydration after beginning a creatine cycle, it’s most likely due to their inability to keep up enough water consumption to offset the uptake in water their cells are experiencing. Drinking a minimum of 2 litres a day is a safe bet to help you maintain a good balance of hydration.

3. Creatine increases IGF-1 and growth hormone release.

Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is one of the primary mediators of anabolic responses in cells and tissues. This hormone acts as a precursor to the release of natural growth hormone (GH) which regulates metabolic substrates (ie. turning glucose, fatty acids, and amino acids into usable energy). IGF-1 also helps build muscle mass, prevents muscle wasting, builds bone mass, manages blood sugar levels, and protects against neurological disorders. All of which favours anyone that prioritizes their resistance training and muscle building (5)

Supplementing creatine daily has showed to improve IGF-1 release which resulted in increased muscle building, improvements in strength, and reduction in recovery time between sessions (6) (7). If you can regulate the release of IGF-1 to enhance GH production, you’ll maximize your ability to recover and the potential outcome of your efforts inside the gym.

4. Creatine increases muscular strength and power.

Aside from the great benefit of packing on lean mass, creatine also makes you stronger (8). Given what we know about creatine and energy potentiation, it makes sense that an increase in available energy would improve your strength. More ATP = increased ability to continue performing short bursts of high output efforts (9) (10).

What’s actually helping you see improvements in your muscular strength and power could be correlated to an increase in type II muscle fibres and their size as well. Type II muscle fibres (or fast-twitch) are primarily responsible for providing bigger and more powerful forces, but for shorter durations and fatigue quickly. They are anaerobic in nature so they solely rely on ATP for energy production, as opposed to type I muscle fibres that run on a continuous uptake of oxygen. If supplementing creatine increases the number of type II fibres and their size, your contractile ability will skyrocket and therefore so will your strength. (11)

**Note: All subjects in studies testing the effects of creatine were also following a regular resistance training protocol at the time. Solely taking creatine without pairing it with some sort of training will not result in building muscle, improving your strength or the aggregation of type II muscle fibres. YOU have to work to put it to work.

So, where do I start?

How much to take and when.

Based on the majority of studies done on creatine, it’s been concluded that starting off with a dose of 5g daily is a great place to begin. If you eat an omnivorous diet, chances are you’re consuming about 1-2g a day and your creatine stores are sitting around 60-80%. So the purpose of supplementing it would be to increase creatine and PCr stores by 20-40% (12).

There has been some debate as to whether or not doing a loading phase is worthwhile. A loading phase involves taking a higher dosage of creatine for 5-7 days (typically 20g). This purpose is to fully saturate your creatine stores before shifting to a maintenance phase of 5g daily. The only proven benefit of doing a loading phase is that it tops off your creatine stores in a very short period of time. (13) (14)

If you’re newer to trying out creatine, starting off with 5g a day is a great place to begin. If you’re curious about trying out a loading phase, here are a few things to consider…

Creatine has been known to cause digestive distress to certain individuals. Taking your creatine along with carbohydrates, protein, and enough water could possibly alleviate these side effects. However, if you are someone that generally struggles with a sensitive GI, opting out of a loading phase might be the right call for you.
If you carry a lot of muscle mass and are an experienced strength athlete, starting off with a loading phase could enhance your training and recovery. In order to get the most from this technique, ceasing all supplementation for 2 weeks before starting your loading phase will increase your body’s responsiveness and sensitivity to creatine once you start taking it again (12) (14)

When to take creatine isn’t entirely clear but most studies have suggested taking it close to the time that you train (15). The existing data is somewhat contradictory and likely due to differing supplementation protocols, sample populations, and training protocols. Since there isn’t any solid evidence as to when you should take creatine to optimize its benefits, taking it at a time you will least likely forget is recommended to be as consistent as possible.

**As you scavenge the shelves at your local supplement store, be sure to look for creatine monohydrate. This is the only type of creatine that’s been tested and proven to provide the benefits listed above.

Email us to keep us updated in your creatine journey or if you have any questions for our team.

Citations:

Kurosawa Y, Hamaoka T, Katsumura T, Kuwamori M, Kimura N, Sako T, Chance B. Creatine supplementation enhances anaerobic ATP synthesis during a single 10 sec maximal handgrip exercise. Mol Cell Biochem. 2003 Feb;244(1-2):105-12. PMID: 12701817.
Clark JF. Creatine and phosphocreatine: a review of their use in exercise and sport. J Athl Train. 1997
Wu SH, Chen KL, Hsu C, Chen HC, Chen JY, Yu SY, Shiu YJ. Creatine Supplementation for Muscle Growth: A Scoping Review of Randomized Clinical Trials from 2012 to 2021. Nutrients. 2022 Mar 16;14(6):1255. doi: 10.3390/nu14061255. PMID: 35334912; PMCID: PMC8949037.
Francaux M, Poortmans JR. Side effects of creatine supplementation in athletes. Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2006 Dec;1(4):311-23. doi: 10.1123/ijspp.1.4.311. PMID: 19124889.
Velloso CP. Regulation of muscle mass by growth hormone and IGF-I. Br J Pharmacol. 2008 Jun;154(3):557-68. doi: 10.1038/bjp.2008.153. PMID: 18500379; PMCID: PMC2439518.
Burke DG, Candow DG, Chilibeck PD, MacNeil LG, Roy BD, Tarnopolsky MA, Ziegenfuss T. Effect of creatine supplementation and resistance-exercise training on muscle insulin-like growth factor in young adults. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2008 Aug;18(4):389-98. doi: 10.1123/ijsnem.18.4.389. PMID: 18708688.
Deldicque L, Louis M, Theisen D, Nielens H, Dehoux M, Thissen JP, Rennie MJ, Francaux M. Increased IGF mRNA in human skeletal muscle after creatine supplementation. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2005 May;37(5):731-6. doi: 10.1249/01.mss.0000162690.39830.27. PMID: 15870625.
Chilibeck PD, Kaviani M, Candow DG, Zello GA. Effect of creatine supplementation during resistance training on lean tissue mass and muscular strength in older adults: a meta-analysis. Open Access J Sports Med. 2017 Nov 2;8:213-226. doi: 10.2147/OAJSM.S123529. PMID: 29138605; PMCID: PMC5679696.
Cooper R, Naclerio F, Allgrove J, Jimenez A. Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012 Jul 20;9(1):33. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-9-33. PMID: 22817979; PMCID: PMC3407788.
Rawson ES, Volek JS. Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2003 Nov;17(4):822-31. doi: 10.1519/1533-4287(2003)017<0822:eocsar>2.0.co;2. PMID: 14636102.
Olsen S, Aagaard P, Kadi F, Tufekovic G, Verney J, Olesen JL, Suetta C, Kjaer M. Creatine supplementation augments the increase in satellite cell and myonuclei number in human skeletal muscle induced by strength training. J Physiol. 2006 Jun 1;573(Pt 2):525-34. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2006.107359. Epub 2006 Mar 31. Erratum in: J Physiol. 2006 Sep 15;575(Pt 3):971. PMID: 16581862; PMCID: PMC1779717.
Kreider, R.B., Kalman, D.S., Antonio, J. et al. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: safety and efficacy of creatine supplementation in exercise, sport, and medicine. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 18 (2017)
Hultman E, Söderlund K, Timmons JA, Cederblad G, Greenhaff PL. Muscle creatine loading in men. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1996 Jul;81(1):232-7. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1996.81.1.232. PMID: 8828669.
Harris RC, Söderlund K, Hultman E. Elevation of creatine in resting and exercised muscle of normal subjects by creatine supplementation. Clin Sci (Lond). 1992 Sep;83(3):367-74. doi: 10.1042/cs0830367. PMID: 1327657.
Ribeiro F, Longobardi I, Perim P, Duarte B, Ferreira P, Gualano B, Roschel H, Saunders B. Timing of Creatine Supplementation around Exercise: A Real Concern? Nutrients. 2021 Aug 19;13(8):2844. doi: 10.3390/nu13082844. PMID: 34445003; PMCID: PMC8401986.

CREATINE: What’s All The Hype About?