The best creatine for me is not necessarily the best creatine for you. In this article, I’ll unwind the tangled threads of this debate and throw some hard facts and common sense into the mix. By the end of this article you will have a much better understanding of what creatine to go for and why, and what to do if it doesn’t work for you.

What’s good for the Creatine Fiend…

…isn’t necessarily good for everyone else. And what’s good for you isn’t necessarily good for me. For me, pure, undiluted creatine monohydrate powder is the best creatine. I’m lucky – this type of creatine is the one which has had all the major studies carried out on it, is the ‘gold standard’ of creatine, and has generally proven to be the most effective when compared to others.

But, don’t freak out.

As I’ve said, just because it’s the best on paper, and works well for me, doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be the best for you or work well for you. Some creatine mono users may experience gastrointestinal discomfort and very little in the way of positive effects because of resulting poor absorption. In this case, an alternative creatine can be tried and I would recommend the first to be tried be micronized creatine monohydrate powder which may absorb better, or failing that, creatine monohydrate capsules. Around 15% of people also won’t respond to creatine supplementation period, and at the moment there isn’t any concrete explanation as to why, but these people are known as non-responders.

The best working creatine supplements are… creatine!

What if I were to tell you that the most valuable form of gold was gold that has been alloyed with 50% tin so was actually 50% less pure than 24-carat gold? You’d (hopefully) tell me that’s ridiculous and to get the hell out of it. It’s no different with creatine. Creatine works through certain mechanisms that no other supplements do (see here), so if you want to derive the unique benefits of creatine, you have to choose the purest creatine you can. Creatine which has been cut with other ingredients (even fancy sounding ones) is inferior creatine, that’s all there is to it.

The takeaway point here is, if you want to give yourself the best shot of making creatine work for you, don’t buy one with a ton of other ingredients in, buy the purest you can. If you want creatine, buy creatine. The purest stuff is often the cheapest creatine, too.