Creatine: Everything You NEED to Know Before Taking

When it comes to muscle building supplements, there are perhaps none better than creatine. In this video, I’m going to cover everything you need to know about creatine before taking it. We’ll go over all of the rumored side effects as well as the realistic boost to performance and muscle size that you can expect from using it.

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It helps to understand what creatine actually is however. One thing it is not is a steroid. Many people believe that because it shares a similar outcome to steroids in terms of muscle size and strength that it is the same thing. That is not true at all. The magnitude of the outcome isn’t even close and the mechanism is not either.

Creatine works as a supplement by entering the muscle cell where it can bind to a phosphate. This phosphocreatine molecule represents the turbo boost that allows your body’s muscles to operate at a high level. In the normal body, when your muscles use up ATP they begin to tire out and lose their ability to contract forcefully. The creatine enables your muscles to regenerate this energy faster and therefore do more work in every workout – leading to bigger muscles in the long run.

Creatine also acts by attracting water into the muscle cells. The more hydrated muscle cell is one more capable of muscle growth just like a plant grows better with water.

Like any popular supplement however, there are many myths that have concerned parents asking the right questions.

For example, there is a belief that creatine can cause kidney damage. This comes from the increased presence of creatinine in the blood, a creatine breakdown byproduct, which usually would be an indicator of impaired kidney function. That said, when supplementing with creatine, your body is understandably producing more creatinine which leads to this finding.

Likewise, there is a lot of concern about creatine supplementation causing baldness. This was based off a single study done on male rugby players that found a big spike in their DHT levels (a hormone associated with male pattern baldness) when using creatine.

The more common questions surrounding this popular muscle building supplement are things like:

– how much creatine to take?
– what type of creatine is best?
– the best time to take creatine?
– should you load creatine or not?
– can you take creatine forever or should you cycle it?
– can I get enough creatine through my diet?

Each of these questions is answered in depth in the video but here is a helpful quick summary for you.

The amount of creatine to take is going to depend on what type of creatine you are taking and the size of the person taking it. New research suggests that the more you weigh the higher the dose that may be needed to have the best effect. For example, a 200 plus pound person would benefit from perhaps taking closer to 8-10 grams per day rather than the 5 grams per day that seems to work for lighter individuals.

When it comes to the type of creatine there really are two most relevant: creatine monohydrate and creatine hcl. The difference here is simply what the creatine molecule is bound to.

Because creatine hcl has a higher ability to dissolve in water and be absorbed by they body you can dose with lower dosages and still get the same effect. This is roughly 2-3 grams per day. Creatine monohydrate however has lower absorbability and requires higher dosing along the lines of the 5-10 grams per day mentioned above.

The best time to take creatine is not really specific. The key is that you dose it consistently each day.

Using a loading phase with creatine monohydrate or creatine hcl is not necessary as long as you have the time to build up to saturation levels in your body.

Evidence shows that there are no concerns about having to cycle on or off the supplement as it is inherently one of the safest supplements you can put in your body with the greatest amount of research to support its safe use, even in teens and young athletes.

The task of getting enough creatine through the foods in your diet just isn’t practical. Though present in meats like steak, chicken and fish like herring, there is no way to get enough of it to see the benefits in an economical way due to the costs of these foods and the need to take it every day.

Supplementing with creatine monohydrate or creatine hcl is and always will be the only reasonable way to see the many benefits in strength and size that creatine is known to provide.

If you’re looking for a high quality micronized creatine monohydrate you can find it at athleanx.com among the other premium quality supplements carried. The creatine hcl is also available within our preworkout formula.

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