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Not Getting Results From Your Creatine? Then Your Not Using It Properly.

Posted on April 14, 2014

Not Getting Results From Your Creatine? Then Your Not Using It Properly.Dividerimage

Creatine supplements are popular with people involved in a selection of sports, from athletes to body builders. It is often taken to help to increase performance, aiding endurance and strength. Creatine may also be beneficial to other groups such as vegetarians, the elderly and youngsters. Although creatine supplements are widely used, it is also produced in the body and the main source of creatine is meat. Many people choose to take creatine supplements to aid nutrition and health as well as increasing sporting performance.

How Creatine Works

Creatine works in several ways including the following. Firstly creatine works by improving the growth and strength of your muscles along with your performance as an overall athlete. Creatine creates a boost in fast burning energy that causes an increase of PCr within muscles, allowing for quicker recovery between sets of exercise like sprinting or lifting weights. Creatine can also lead to improved performance (like sprinting faster) or the ability to finish a greater number of repetitions leading to gaining muscle strength. 

Another way creating works is through increasing the volume of muscle cells. This means that the cells of muscles fill with water. Creatine is a protein, it extracts water from blood and the external area outside the muscle cells and puts it into the muscle via osmosis. This causes weight gain. The growth in the volume of cells means the cell membranes stretch, resulting in long-term growth and strength for people’s muscles through greater protein synthesis.

Creatine also works by increasing how many satellite cells there are in muscle fibres. Satellite cells are like muscle stem cells, and muscles grow and increase strength is by the adding muscle satellite cells to current muscle fibres. This means increasing athletic power and muscle strength.

Did you know that creatine works by increasing the growth factor insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I)? This is important in starting the processes in muscle cells that enhance the growth of muscles and strength. 

Creatine works to assist performance, there is evidence that using creatine in the short term, can increase maximum power and performance by between five and fifteen percent in repetitive work of a high-intensity anaerobic nature. There is evidence of a smaller increase of one to five percent in single or one-off work. Studies into the use of creatine in endurance sports is less promising because athletes involved in long distance sports tend to perform at a specific intensity rather than relying on the intra-exercise synthesis of additional creatine phosphate molecules. While creatine will increase power during short sessions of high-intensity aerobic exercise it, has no significant effect on aerobic endurance.

Loading creatine for better results

It is recommended that you take a loading phase during the first week of use of about 15 to 25 grams per day for one week. This means spreading your five gram servings evenly every day. Some people miss this initial loading phase or only take smaller doses of five grams per day, but that means loading will take three to four weeks so that your system will reach saturation levels. There is also a maintenance phase which comes after the one week loading phase and requires about five to ten grams a day.

When to take creatine to maximise effectiveness

People who require maximum effectiveness from their creatine like competitive body builders, take their creatine just before and after working out. It works at almost any time of the day so simply take it when you need it. Some people take it after a workout with a high carbohydrate after workout shake. Most people usually only take creatine for six to twelve weeks before having a month off. They then start taking it again. 

Are different types of creatine better for certain purposes?

Creatine comes in several forms including creatine monohydrate, creatine HCl, creatine nitrate, and kre-alkalyn just to name a few. Creatine monohydrate is the long term stayer but is best loaded for maximum effectiveness. Other forms of creatine will be beneficial to strength and power output, and may have additional benefits depending on there added compounds (e.g. creatine nitrate may also exert a muscle pump).

In conclusion

If you are wanting to improve your athletic performance especially in high intensity sports like athletics, body building and wrestling then using creatine in recommended doses could be an excellent option. Taken before and after workouts, creatine can produce a significant improvement in your athletic performance. 

References 

Mens Health http://www.menshealth.com/spotlight/muscle/creatine-101.php

Nutrition Express http://www.nutritionexpress.com/article+index/sports+nutrition/creatine/showarticle.aspx?id=61

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine

Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine_supplements

Muscle and Fitness http://www.muscleandfitness.com/supplements/build-muscle/everything-you-ever-wanted-know-about-creatine?page=3