Benefits of Creatine..

Creatine is a great supplement for anyone looikng to make an performance advancement, whether it be to lift heavier,develope more power for speed, or to develope more muscle (which will ultimately raise metabolism to support bodyfat reduction). Creatine had some bad press a few years ago, which is a pity because it is a natural occuring substance in the body (ie. not bad at all!). People just tend to smear things they dont yet understand.

Creatine is produced in the liver, pancreas and kidneys. When creatine reaches your muscles it turns to Creatine Phosphate (phosphocreatine). You may have heard me harp on about Glycogen, the fuel tanks we have in our muscles (what you deplete during ketosis). When you feel a burning sensation during exercise, this is lactic acid, a by-product of Glycogen producing energy. But what about the first 6-8 reps you do that dont burn? Before we use glycogen, we use an immediate form of explosive energy (like to jump out of the way of a car!), called ATP or Adenosine tri-phosphate (hope I spelt that right). When you start alift (say squats), you’ll use your ATP first, and which point then phosphocreatine kicks in to regenerate ATP. When that runs out you switch to glycogen (which is less efficient, so when you feel the burn you’ll notice you slow down).

So creatine doesnt give you an extra few reps at the end, it gives you the ability to generate more power for a few extra reps at the start.  So, by supplementing yourself with an abundance of creatine, you will allow yourself more nergy to make heavier lifts/more explosive movements leading to increased speed/muscle size or strenght (depending on how you’re training).

The recommended dose is about 10gms a day, taken everyday 30 mins before training. Take this with water if trying to lose bodyfat, or with high GI carbs if aiming for muscle gain (lucozade etc). Some forms of creatine (it will say on the tin) require you take do a 4 day to a week loading phaze, where you saturate the muscle with creatine by taking 20-30gms a day befor training.

I would recommend creatine to anyone looking to break though a training plateau (find theycant advance), or for faster muscle/strenght gains. However this supplement does effect the liver, so it musct be taken cyclically (8 weeks on/ 8 weeks off etc).