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The first time I ever heard of Creatine I was in the 7th grade. I did not know much about and only heard about it because a kid older than me on the football team was taking it. He said it was the reason he was so ‘Jacked’ at the age of 13. Just like every other 7th grader at the time, we immediately equated creatine to steroids.
Because of this, I had a negative perception of what creatine was, until I started taking it in high school. After doing some research, I quickly found out that why taking creatine was not a bad thing and there are plenty of health benefits to taking it, especially if you are an athlete or workout a lot.
So what is creatine:
Creatine is an amino acid in your body which converts creatine to phosphocreatine and stores it in your muscles, where it’s used for energy. Many athletes used creatine to help improve athletic performance and increase muscle mass.
Here are some of the health benefits of creatine:
1) Creatine supplies energy to your muscles: This is the main reason why individuals that take creatine see such great results. The more energy going to your muscles, then the longer someone can lift then the stronger you can get. Its simple! You wont fatigue as early and the recovery process is faster.
2) Boosts Testosterone: A research team from New Jersey did a study about the effects of creatine on an individuals testosterone levels. What they concluded was that creatine helps to increase your resting testosterone levels. This is beneficial to the user because it will help maintain or increase ones energy, strength, endurance, mental sharpness and sex drive.
3) Increase of Muscle Mass: Creatine is one of the only supplements proven to actually increase muscle mass. A research team from Washington State University did a study on how creatine increases the mass of an individuals muscles. What the study concluded was that creatine targets myogenic satellite cells, which are important maintenance and regeneration of skeletal muscle. Creatine increases the rate in which these myogenic satellite cells reproduce resulting in bigger muscle mass for the individual at a quicker rate.
Some of the Side Effects.
There is a lot of controversy pertaining to creatine. It has been linked to liver damage, kidney damage and also dehydration. This is true but at the same time all of these can be prevented if creatine is taken correctly. An individual should never take more then 20 grams of creatine at one serving. People often take more then they are suppose too and this is where the liver and kidney damage come from.
Also since creatine absorbs water in your body, a person taking creatine should always drink more then 64 ounces of water a day to stay hydrated. Creatine is just like anything else in this world, it is good for you until you start to abuse it!
Final Takeaway
I would recommend creatine for anyone trying to build strength and lean muscle mass because it does work and you will see results.
Terrific job bobby once again just a fantastic post. I take creatine every time I lift weights and honestly don’t think I could get the same satisfaction with my workout without it. Not saying I’m like addicted or anything, I’m just saying the boost and energy it provides makes it almost a necessity after using it a couple times. Creatine is a great supplement for stamina in the gym as well as muscle growth afterwards and it was great learning more about it.
Now this is interesting, this is the first time I have ever heard of something like this. I can’t really put an opinion about creatine, but with the information provided it really does seem like a more better alternative way than steroids and also better benefits. With drugs in general I will still put a big IF on it just because their could always be something that lies dormant that shows up later in life.
I thought your blog was very interesting. For the longest time, I had heard that creatine did not so much strengthen your muscles, but more so just bloat them with water weight so that it would look like you had huge muscles. I also wasn’t aware that there were so many dangers to taking creatine if you do not take it in the correct proportions. I was wondering if you had any statistics that illustrated how many, on average, of people who lift consistently use creatine?