utside of protein, Creatine Monohydrate is one of the most studied and understood supplements we have as a society.
In 7 years of gym ownership, I have been asked about this product quite a bit and I have recently restarted taking creatine myself to see how it affects me now that I am not competing in CrossFit.
What is Creatine?
Creatine is a form of energy that is naturally made in your body (about 95% of it) and the other 5% comes from your diet when you have red meat, fish, and animal milk.
Creatine Monohydrate is the supplement that people take when they exercise frequently and/or don’t get enough from their diet. Often taken in 5g doses daily, ideally 1 hour before exercise.
My experience with Creatine
I used to take it to try to put on muscle pass more quickly as studies at the time showed small gains were helped by taking it. I never really saw those gains, so I stopped taking it.
Recently I started taking a 2g dose every morning because one of my friends and former coach, Alex, didn’t want to take hers. I hate wasting things so I decided to give it a go. The thing that I’ve noticed is that I have significantly longer lasting energy not only in the gym, but mentally.
Days that I don’t take it, I tend to lack that second wind in the afternoon to get stuff done and I break more in MetCons. Over the past 2 months, I’ve been a slightly more productive and have more energy to sling Tormund around (his favorite game is WWE Wrestling).
What does the science show?
If you look for meta-studies (studies observing the findings of many studies in a particular area of interest) in the NIH catalogue, you’ll find this:
1) If you take creatine to see significant strength and muscle size gains over others and have a diet that involves some meat, you will just see a gain in water weight and that’s it.
2) Studies that study the effects of mental benefits of creatine reflect the results I experienced. These studies were done off of a 5g dose.
3) Vegan athletes were the exception to #1. Vegan athletes did see strength and muscle size gains over the control groups consistently.
So, Should You Buy Some?
One of my gym owner friends screams from the roof tops that everyone should be taking it. If you asked me after my first experience, I would have said no because I already ate enough meat to get the muscle size and strength benefits, nulling the affect I was going for.
After this second attempt with creatine I would say it depends. I personally am seeing great benefit and if you struggle with what I struggle with, try it for a month. If you see benefits, then keep going. If you don’t, then don’t get another container of creatine.
And if you’re Vegan and want to build strength faster…could be worth a go.
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