Creatine is a naturally occurring substance found in and produced by the body. An average man would have around 120 grams of creatine stored mainly (95%) in his muscles. About 50% of this is produced by the body from the amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine, with the rest coming naturally from the diet. Website design By BotEap.comWhat are you doing?
Creatine is found primarily as creatine phosphate in our muscles. Its job is to regenerate ADP back into the body’s primary energy molecule, ATP. Since local ATP can only fuel intense muscle contraction for approximately 2 seconds, creatine provides the immediate backup energy to continue intense muscle contraction for approximately 15 seconds. After that, carbohydrates are required. Clearly then, creatine has a very direct impact on high intensity activity like weight training. Website design By BotEap.comBut the application of creatines to weight training only starts there. By loading muscles with creatine, the body is forced to dilute the intramuscular creatine phosphate concentration by absorbing water. The result is that the muscles swell; This typically equates to a lean mass gain of around 2-5kg in the first week with 20g or more per day of quality creatine monohydrate. This weight gain is maintained as long as creatine is. Website design By BotEap.comBut by diluting the concentration of creatine in the muscle, the body has also diluted the local stores of amino acids, enzymes, and other growth factors. As a result, the muscle rebalances the concentrations by absorbing additional nutrients, nutrients now available for the synthesis of new tissue. Website design By BotEap.comThe effect of creatines on actual and permanent muscle growth and performance is remarkably comprehensive. He:
supplies energy that leads to immediate strength gains that allow for more intense and productive workouts
swells muscle cells with fluid and nutrients, which is a powerful growth stimulus in itself (forces local production and release of mechanical growth factor, insulin-like growth factor, and others)
accelerates recovery and growth by increasing the local supply of nutrients and intracellular growth factors
creatine also increases the proliferation of muscle satellite cells that become new cells or add to existing cells Website design By BotEap.comAll things considered, creatine is an amazing product; Probably the only natural supplement promoted that ACTUALLY provides visible and significantly measurable gains, quickly. Website design By BotEap.comHow is it taken?
It is often recommended that creatine be ‘loaded’ at 30g/day for 7 days and then ‘maintained’ at just 5-10g/day thereafter. Our experience is that 20g/day, every day, is a silly and sledgehammer approach, but still a much more effective method for most people. Doses should be divided into 5g portions, ideally taken with carbohydrate-rich meals. Website design By BotEap.comSince muscle creatine uptake is greatly enhanced by insulin, it is recommended that creatine be consumed with a carbohydrate-rich meal. There are times when non-insulin dependent uptake can occur, but typically, without elevated insulin levels, creatine uptake peaks at around 30% and will not reach the level of intracellular creatine concentration possible with insulin. Website design By BotEap.comwhen to take
One misconception about creatine is that, being a source of energy, it can give your workouts an immediate boost. This is not true. Like carbohydrates, creatine must be stored in the muscle as creatine phosphate at the time of training. This takes more than a few minutes. To ‘load’ the muscles, creatine should be taken with meals throughout the day. Since insulin sensitivity is highest earlier in the day, the best absorption would theoretically occur earlier in the day. The reality is that it doesn’t make any noticeable difference. Website design By BotEap.comIn relation to exercise, it is best to take creatine before AND after training along with your post-workout recovery meal. Your ‘pumped’, insulin sensitive muscle will show better creatine transport and uptake and thus amplify the benefits described above. But, because it takes 90 minutes after ingestion for creatine to reach peak concentration in your blood, you need to take it before your workout so it’s in your blood afterwards. Website design By BotEap.comCreatine ‘transporters’
Creatine transport products began with EAS Phosphagen. In what was a stroke of marketing genius, EAS recognized that they could make ridiculous profits by loading a product with cheap glucose and selling it as the most scientifically advanced breakthrough insulin that potentiates blah blah blah. Other manufacturers quickly jumped on the bandwagon. Interestingly, no legitimate company has brought the price down to realistic levels yet? Maybe everyone is milking it for as long as they can? Website design By BotEap.comThe point is that creatine transporters work; but they ARE mostly cheap sugar, so the question of “value” becomes a blur. You can freely buy the same amount of ingredients for about 90% less, BUT in terms of results per dollar, few products come close. Also, many people take creatine with insufficient dietary carbohydrates and then wonder why it doesn’t do anything. Creatine transporters solve your problems. Website design By BotEap.comThe bottom line is that the choice is yours. Creatine transporters should be a totally unnecessary waste of money. A little diligence and commitment will save you a lot of money! But if you can’t commit to doing it correctly, creatine transporters will blow your mind (and your wallet), they really do work! Website design By BotEap.comBuffered Creatine (Kre-Alkalyn)
The latest creatine “technology” is buffered creatine. Marketing claims that creatine converts to creatinine in much less acidic environments than previously believed. They say that even water, with its PH of 7, is too low. As such, the water retention and stomach cramps that people sometimes complain about are due to excess creatinine in the stomach. Website design By BotEap.comBuffered creatine is highly alkaline and as such appears to resist conversion to creatinine. Our experience is that while Kre-Alkalyn is vastly superior to most creatines (good weight and strength gains without bloating), it is no better than GenTecs. GenTecs Creatine also does not seem to have the same negative feedback as many other creatines and is not buffered. GenTecs Creatine is also much cheaper than Kre-Alkalyn, like 1/10th of the price, but use more. We would definitely recommend Kre-Alkalyn over most other creatines (when available in Australia). But at the moment, you are not missing anything using GenTecs. Website design By BotEap.comliquid creatine
Some brands offer liquid creatine with the promise of better absorption. Unfortunately, creatine is not stable in solution and is rapidly converted to creatine’s byproduct, creatinine. Creatinine does not offer any of the performance benefits attributed to creatine, so these products are best avoided. Even if creatine could somehow hold its form in solution, liquid creatines are often in low doses, 100ml bottles with less than 1g of creatine per ml. This makes liquid creatines (besides being nearly useless anyway) more horrible priced than even the worst creatine carriers. Website design By BotEap.comMyths and other nonsense
Coffee does not appreciably affect creatine uptake any more than chromium helps. The coffee/caffeine myth arose because of a long overdue study conducted in 1996. From this study, it was postulated that the negative effect of caffeine on both insulin production and sensitivity might be responsible. In truth, the study was so silly that it didn’t really conclude anything and the effect of caffeine on insulin is not remotely significant enough to affect creatine uptake. Maybe it’s a big deal when looking at a coffee-soaked muscle cell in a petri dish, but in the real world it’s negligible. Website design By BotEap.comAnother myth, and personal annoyance, in the medical community is that creatine MAY have health risks because we don’t yet know if it doesn’t. Of course, nothing suggests that you should be at risk, but the medical community doesn’t have time for common sense. Website design By BotEap.comThe fact is that creatine is a substance produced by the body and found naturally in the diet. Supplementing with a little more won’t make you sick. You can’t ‘overdose’ on it. The body is capable of doing what it has to do with it unless you are already a very, very sick person! Website design By BotEap.comConclusion
Creatine seriously is the greatest supplement available. It offers ‘drug-like’ effects without the risk of adverse side effects (other than mild stomach bloating in a small percentage of people). It comes with our highest recommendation.