When To Take Creatine: Timing Is Everything

Popular supplements can often fall victim to their own success because people misunderstand them, or forget these ‘super products’ aren’t without limitations. Creatine has earned a well deserved reputation for doing wonderful things, but it too needs to be used properly. Knowing when to take creatine is an enormous part of the benefits you can hope to yield from it. Without knowing the best time to take creatine and understanding why, you may find yourself dismissing creatine as ‘useless junk’ and missing out on the potential benefits of this amazing supplement. In this article I hope to educate you – and more importantly, convince you – of the best time to take creatine, so it doesn’t just work for you – but really works for you.

Why timing is crucial to making creatine work properly

First it’s important to understand how creatine works. When we perform anabolic exercise, our muscles use an energy supply called ATP. When ATP is burned, it loses a phosphate molecule and becomes ADP. Creatine when stored in the body is creatine phosphate, and, it donates a phosphate molecule to ADP allowing it to become ATP once more so it can be used as energy again. Therefore, the more creatine we have in our muscles – the more efficient and effective this ADP to ATP conversion process is; the longer it lasts, and the better our performance.

The problem is, unless you know when the best time to take creatine is, you’ll have a hard time getting it into the muscles to start with. That’s why you need to take advantage of a special time when your muscles are hyper-susceptible to taking in almost any kind of energy they can get their hypothetical hands on: post workout.

Just as post workout is the most important meal of your day because your muscles are crying out for replenishment, it’s also the most important time to take creatine, for the same reasons. Taking creatine post workout will make your muscles soak it up like a sponge – which is exactly what you want.

If that weren’t enough, studies have shown that creatine absorption can be boosted up to a massive 60% from the same dosage – simply by taking it with the simple sugar dextrose. This happens because insulin is an excellent nutrient transporter and taking in sugar will cause an insulin surge – which the muscles in their post-workout state are all to happy to accept.

Some creatine brands come pre-mixed with dextrose and other ingredients, though studies comparing their effectiveness versus the traditional pure creatine and separate dextrose mixture are thin on the ground.

Many people opt to take creatine with grapefruit juice post-workout and are happy with the results. I still suggest anyone try it with dextrose though, as these things are always worth testing to see if the grass is indeed greener.

Other good times to supplement

When you first wake:

Now you know why creatine works so well when taken post-workout, what about the other ‘most important meal of the day’ – breakfast?

Just as your muscles are starved of nutrition and are extra open to feeding post-workout, the same happens after you’ve been sleeping (and starving) yourself for 7 hours. Not only will your muscles be more open to food, but, creatine, too.

But, knowing when to take creatine is only half of the story, you also need to know when not to take it…

Pre-workout:

Surprisingly, taking creatine pre-workout is a bad idea. From the outset, logic seems to say taking it before a workout would be good for energy levels, but, I’ll explain why just as with a lot of things relating to the body, things aren’t always as they seem.

Here are several reasons why taking creatine before a workout is a bad idea:

1. Firstly, the benefits to taking creatine before a workout are zilch. Creatine levels should already be full, and, taking more will be redundant.
2. Secondly, let’s assume in the unlikely event you are lacking in creatine pre-workout. When you take it, not only does it need to be converted into Phosphocreatine which takes time, but, you don’t have the lay of the land with regards to changes in body fluids. What I mean is, as creatine causes bodily fluids to be forced into muscles, it depraves vital organs such as your heart, brain and kidneys of fluids – which is certainly dangerous during exercise. And – chances are, you won’t have a clue you are dehydrated nor to what extent you are dehydrated until you are feeling the effects of dehydration, by which times its too late. If you are unsure about your creatine levels pre-workout, I advise you to forget taking a dose before, work out, and then possibly take a larger dose post workout.
3. Studies have conclusively shown that creatine is best taken with simple sugar dextrose. Trainees or trainers of any experience will seldom recommend taking in any amount of simple sugar before a workout, as they are notorious for causing spontaneous blood sugar crashes, which will not only ruin your workout, but, possibly be dangerous.

Conclusion:

As this article illustrates, when it comes to our bodies, common sense is sometimes the mother of all f… well, you get my point! I hope that I’ve given you what you came here for and that you now have a better understanding of when to take creatine and when not to, and why. I now see no reason why timing should let you down.

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 19th, 2009 at 8:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.