How Creatine Works - What It Does & How
Creatine is probably the most popular sporting supplement, and not without good reason: it works extremely well. But, while you may know that it works, you may still be left scratching your head wondering how creatine works, exactly. In this short article I’ll tell you what creatine really is, how it works in your body, and what it will do for your performance and results when used correctly.
Let’s start from the beginning…
What creatine is…
Creatine is an amino acid created by our bodies from the following other amino acids:
- Argenine
- Methionine
- Glycine
Our bodies make creatine, but we can enhance the amount of creatine present in our system by eating creatine-containing foods such as beef or fish, or in our case, creatine supplements. Now for the mechanics of it…
How creatine works in your body…
In short, creatine (stored in the body as Phosphocreatine/creatine phosphate) works to maintain levels of ATP. ATP is an essential energy source for every aspect of the body, not just for muscles. When we train or perform anaerobic exercise, ATP is the fuel which we burn. It burns fast and doesn’t last long.
Once ATP is used for energy, it loses a phosphate molecule and becomes ADP. That’s where creatine comes in. Creatine donates a phosphate molecule to ADP making it ATP again, allowing it to be used as energy once more. That’s how creatine works. We’re now coming to the final and all important part which explains what’s in it for you.
What benefits you can get from correct creatine usage…
There are 3 main ways creatine will benefit you. They are:
- More explosive power: Because ATP is crucial to anaerobic exercise, more ATP means more available for instantaneous energy release. This means you can sprint faster, jump higher, lift heavier, etc.
- More training volume: Don’t misinterpret this – this simply means greater volume under anaerobic conditions. Studies show creatine benefits do not transfer over to aerobic activity.
- Recover quicker: Being able to recover quicker during exercise means you can have more intense sessions and/or increase volume. Plus, being able to recover quicker means more complete recovery (and muscle growth) between training – and quite possibly, opens the door up for additional training.
Conclusion:
I’ve seen many articles on the internet which are way off when it comes to explaining how creatine works and, even what creatine is. I hope this article has cleared up some of those misconceptions and has been useful to you.
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