These next few blog posts are going to cover supplements I personally take and ones I don’t take but do recommend if you are considering supplementing your diet. For this week, I will focus on creatine, specifically, creatine monohydrate.
The too long didn’t read (TLDR) of this post is as follows;
- If you have a serious pre-existing renal (kidney) disease consult a physician, also do your own research to determine whether or not you can or should take this (Added May 23, 2021).
- Those with diabetes should consult a physician as well.
- If you are a person of the normal population and are considering it, know that it is very safe and has been studied since 1926.
- You’ll want Creatine Monohydrate.
- Dosage is .03g/kg each day i.e. a 100kg person would take 3g a day, (most “users” take 5g a day for simplicity).
- Loading phase is unnecessary.
- If you ignore the above 2 points, don’t take more than 20g a day for extended periods of time.
- Most subjects with negative side effects could not be traced back to creatine directly as the subjects were taking other substances at the same time.
Please read on for my take on creatine supplementation.
So you’re thinking about taking creatine? Well I’ve got some great news for you here. First of all, it’s very inexpensive. We’re talking $20 a kg, or 200 days worth at 5g a day. Yeah, math happens sometimes in fitness. I digress. Secondly, and more importantly, creatine is a heavily studied and extremely safe addition to your diet that is known to have a positive impact on short-duration, maximum-intensity resistance training.1 The supplementing of creatine into your diet even has some therapeutic advantages for certain muscle disorders and the elderly who maintain some form of exercise.2 If you are worried about the risks of taking creatine, be comforted in knowing that studies go back as far as 1926 and no known detrimental effects are shown within the general population.3
The people who primarily consider using creatine are those who are looking to increase performance in maximal effort training or sports. By maximal effort I mean activities similar to powerlifting, olympic lifting, or just general strength training. It should be noted that there are benefits to individuals of both young and old ages that participate in resistance training and supplement creatine.
“Stout et al. (2007) recently showed that short-term Cr supplementation (14 days) is sufficient to improve resistance to fatigue and strength in senior subjects. Brose et al. (2003) reported superior muscle mass and strength gains in Cr-supplemented and exercise-trained elderly individuals when compared to those who were only exercise-trained. McMorris et al. (2007b) observed marked improvement in cognitive function in Cr-supplemented elderly people. Chilibeck et al. (2005) verified that Cr supplementation promotes additive gains to resistance training on bone mineral density in elderly subjects. Taken together, these findings stress the Cr supplementation ability to prevent/ attenuate several degenerative processes associated with Aging.” 2
That is multiple studies showing benefits of supplementing creatine into the diets of elderly subjects. So go get the elderly folks in your life hooked on this white powder, assuming they have no pre-existing renal conditions.
Studies have shown that creatine supplementation does not appear to have any significant effect on swimming, sprinting, or agility.1 If those are your primary focus with lifting weights as a supplement to the endeavour, then don’t worry about creatine. Taking it doesn’t appear to help or hinder. However, if you are training weights with the intention for maximal strength alongside the other endeavours, then consider supplementing creatine.
What does creatine do? In the muscle it bonds with phosphates and assists with replenishing the expended phosphate in the ATP ADP cycle. By saturating one’s creatine stores there are more available phosphates in the muscle. This in turn, makes more ATP available. If you look at the image below, it’s like having more batteries to work with and your body is a rail gun that depletes them with each shot. You know what, it’s actually more akin to a capacitor which discharges completely, but we’ll stick with the battery analogy for now. The more power supply you have, the more powerful the output.
How does one take creatine? The most common form is creatine monohydrate which comes in a powder form or capsule, and can be either bought online or in the fitness/healthy section of your local grocery store. You stir in a scoop of creatine, usually 5g, with water, coffee, tea, sports drink, pre workout, post workout, or any other drinkable liquid. Then you drink it. It’s flavorless and colorless so feel free to put it in almost anything you want. I don’t recommend mixing with alcohol as something just feels wrong about mixing my fitness life and anti-fitness life together.
Some people implement a loading phase of 20g a day for 5 days and a maintenance phase of 5g a day after, however this has been shown to be unnecessary. It will decrease the time it takes to saturate your creatine stores but when you consider that you are taking 20 days worth in 5 days. Well, you’re just using your creatine faster with no long term benefit. Just take 5g a day and don’t worry about it. If you need your stores saturated within the next 5 days, then you should learn how to plan ahead better. Slamming large amounts of creatine won’t have a significant effect on your performance in that short of a timeframe.
What are the risks? If you have a pre-existing kidney disease, don’t take it. If you’re diabetic or at risk for kidney disease, consult a physician. Otherwise we only have one instance of an individual who had a notable reaction and they were taking 20g a day for 4 weeks. That’s it. One guy. Go lay on your bed and you have better chances of being struck by lightning than having side effects to creatine usage (more tests are needed to verify this hypothesis). He was also taking 4 times the recommended dose for 4 weeks. And he made a full recovery. And it’s anecdotal which is the worst kind of example.
The only noted cases of side effects, outside of those with kidney disease, are anecdotal. Do you know the definition of anecdotal? Anecdotal – “(of an account) not necessarily true or reliable, because based on personal accounts rather than facts or research.” Per google.
Still, consult a physician if you have any doubts. This is your one body and the only shot you get at this life. So please be self-considerate with the decisions you make regarding things you put into your body.
If you would like to read further, I’ll link the research I used and provide my notes. I also encourage you to do your own research and make sure you are using reputable peer reviewed sources when possible. Big name and small name fitness websites may have information but it is unfortunately up to you, the reader, to determine the legitimacy of that information.
If you do decide to take creatine, take creatine monohydrate, 5g a day, forever.
- Hall, M., & Trojian, T. H. (2013). Creatine supplementation. Current Sports Medicine Reports, 12(4), 240-244. doi:10.1249/jsr.0b013e31829cdff2
- Gualano, Artioli, Poortmans, Lancha Jr. (2010). Exploring the therapeutic role of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids, 38:31-44. doi: 10.1007/s00726-009-0263-6
- H Kim, C. Kim, Carpentier, Poortmans. (2011) Studies on the safety of creatine supplementation. Amino Acids, 40:1409-1418. Doi: 10.1007/s00726-011-0878-2
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