Benefits Of Creatine For Athletes

Benefits Of Creatine For Athletes

Benefits Of Creatine For Athletes

Introduction

Creatine is a popular supplement for athletes, but it's not just for weightlifters. Creatine monohydrate has been proven to help build muscle mass, boost strength and power, and improve athletic performance. In this article we'll explore some of the benefits of creatine monohydrate for athletes who are serious about improving their performance.

benefits of creatine for athletes

Creatine monohydrate is a very popular and effective supplement - especially for athletes.

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that is produced in the body and plays an important role in energy production. Particularly for sprinters and other speed power athletes, creatine monohydrate helps your ATP-Creatine Phosphate energy system generate and maintain energy availability for explosive athletic performance. You can think of the ATP-CP energy system as your gas tank for the most intense, explosive athletic movements such as a short sprint or a heavy lift.

 

Creatine can be synthesized from amino acids, but it’s most commonly found in meat and fish. Creatine supplements are often used by athletes to increase muscle mass and strength, improve performance, and reduce fatigue during training sessions or competitions. Not everybody can afford to eat a ton of meat every day, so creatine supplementation offers a convenient way to ensure your creatine stores are full without breaking the bank.

Creatine monohydrate is one of the most popular forms of creatine available on the market today; it has been proven to enhance muscle growth when combined with exercise program designed specifically for this purpose such as strength training. Creatine monohydrate is the most studied, readily available, and cheapest form of creatine.

Where To Buy Creatine Monohydrate

There are a wide range of places where you can buy creatine monohydrate. Here are a couple good sources for ordering creatine online.

Studies have proven that it helps you grow and maintain muscle mass, build strength and boost power.

A study published in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research found that creatine supplementation may benefit athletes by increasing their ability to maintain lean mass during training sessions without gaining fat mass over time.

The researchers also found evidence that suggests creatine could improve performance in endurance sports like cycling or swimming because it helps you maintain an aerobic metabolism while performing at high intensity levels for long periods of time.

One meta analysis, titled Creatine Supplementation and Lower Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses, concluded the following:

“Creatine supplementation is effective in lower limb strength performance for exercise with a duration of less than 3 min, independent of population characteristic, training protocols, and supplementary doses and duration.”


When combined with strength training, it can help you build up to 8% more muscle mass in just 12 weeks.

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance found in meat and fish, but you can also buy it as a supplement. It's safe to use and has been used by athletes for many years to help them build stronger muscles.

A studied titled Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance found that creatine supplementation plus resistance training led to an average increase in muscle strength of 8% greater than resistance training plus a placebo. 

Similarly, weightlifting performance was found be 14% better in the creatine supplementation group compared to the placebo group. This result did vary among the study participants, but there was a consistent improvement in nearly all study participants.

When taking creatine monohydrate, you’ll notice an increase in strength and endurance as well as a boost in performance when using this supplement on its own, but it can also be combined with other supplements like vitamin D3 (which is important for healthy bones) or fish oil capsules (which contain omega-3 fatty acids).

Creatine enhances athletic performance by helping you produce more energy and improving your recovery, so you can train more effectively.

Creatine can also help you produce more energy and improve your recovery, so you can train more effectively. As a result, it may enhance athletic performance by helping you produce more ATP (the body's main energy source) and increasing the amount of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) available in the muscle cells. This makes creatine an important component of many weight-training programs that emphasize strength training.

A study titled Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle power, endurance, and sprint performance looked at the effects of creatine on maximal strength, power output during repetitive bouts of effort, and repeated sprint ability.

Researchers found that creatine supplementation increased body mass, the number of repetitions performed to fatigue, average power output in a repeated bench press test, and the half squat. They also found that subjects repeated sprint ability and countermovement jumping ability were improved even after performing a fatiguing set of half squats.

Creatine supplements not only help athletes in their performance, but can also help everyday people perform daily tasks more effectively. Whether it be going for a brisk walk, vigorously cleaning your house, or while working a labor-intensive job, creatine can help you have enough energy and mental focus to get your work done.

Creatine has many benefits for athletes who are serious about improving their performance.

Creatine is one of the few natural, safe and effective substances that has been used by athletes for decades. It's not just for bodybuilders and gym rats that benefit. As an athlete, it can help you build muscle, improve your performance, and have more energy in general.

  • Creatine helps you build muscle: When you take creatine supplements, it gives your muscles extra energy to work harder and help them grow faster.
  • Creatine helps you recover from workouts: When training intensely or playing sports such as basketball or football (or even just running), it's important to give yourself time off between workouts so that your body can recover fully before starting another round of exercise. This is especially true if the exercise consists of high-intensity activities like sprinting! Creatine can help replenish stores of energy for these high intensity activities.
  • Creatine helps increase strength: By increasing creatine stores in muscle through creatine supplementation, you can train harder and recover faster, allowing for greater gains in strength compared to if no creatine was ingested. The strength enhancing and recovery enhancing qualities compound on one another such that you can train at a higher intensity level, recover better, and see greater gains in performance over the long term.
  • Creatine helps your brain function better: Many report experiencing nootropic-like effects from taking creatine. This is because your brain, which uses more energy than any other organ in your body, relies in-part on creatine to function properly. If you want to be at the top of both your physical and mental game, creatine is a great option for you.

How Much Creatine Should You Take?

For the typical athlete, 3 to 5 grams of creatine monohydrate per day should be a sufficient dose for improving athletic performance. Some advocate for a loading phase, where you ingest up to 20 grams per day broken up into smaller doses for 5 days.

Loading is not required, but it may accelerate the increases in muscle creatine stores and thus bring faster improvements in strength. Some users complain of stomach discomfort and water retention during a loading phase, in which case it would be wise to simply take 3 to 5 grams per day and skip the loading phase.

Either way, within a month you should start to see results from creatine supplementation. Once your muscles have had enough time to take up creatine in the muscle cells, you should have consistent and long lasting benefits for as long as you take creatine.

Does Creatine Need To Be Cycled?

Many athletes wonder if creatine monohydrate needs to be cycled on and off over time. Some supplements may require this sort of thing, as the effects may wane with chronic use and thus require a break to let the body readjust.

With regards to creatine, athletes do not need to cycle on and off. Athletes can take creatine for as long as they prefer, and they will continue to benefit from the strength enhancing and recovery oriented benefits of creatine ingestion.

If athletes compete in sports which require them to cut weight or keep their body weight within a narrow range, it may be wise to reduce creatine ingestion during competition periods. By taking a smaller dose of creatine you can still maintain some levels of creatine in the muscle, while also reducing the risk of retaining water or holding excess body weight.

Conclusion

In conclusion, creatine monohydrate is a great supplement for athletes who want to maximize their performance. It can help you build up your strength and power, as well as boost athletic performance. It also has other benefits such as improving muscle mass growth, enhancing recovery between workouts or helping with overall endurance. There are many pros to taking this supplement including increased energy levels and improved fat burning capabilities!

References

  1. Lanhers, C., Pereira, B., Naughton, G., Trousselard, M., Lesage, F. X., & Dutheil, F. (2015). Creatine Supplementation and Lower Limb Strength Performance: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analyses. Sports medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 45(9), 1285–1294. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0337-4
  2. Izquierdo, M., Ibañez, J., González-Badillo, J. J., & Gorostiaga, E. M. (2002). Effects of creatine supplementation on muscle power, endurance, and sprint performance. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 34(2), 332–343. https://doi.org/10.1097/00005768-200202000-00023
  3. Rawson, E. S., & Volek, J. S. (2003). Effects of creatine supplementation and resistance training on muscle strength and weightlifting performance. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 17(4), 822–831. https://doi.org/10.1519/1533-4287(2003)017<0822:eocsar>2.0.co;2
Back to blog