NUTRITION FOR SPORTS PERFORMANCE: Creatine
WHAT IS CREATINE:
Creatine is one of the most studied supplements on the market, it is safe, very cheap per serve and will give you more bang for your buck compared to many other supplements that are falsely advertised and miss used, and it has shown to benefit athletic performance.
Creatine is a naturally occurring non-protein amino acid that is found in skeletal muscle tissue (and the brain) , most commonly found in red meat and seafood but is also produced by the body
It is stored in the muscles as phosphocreatine, this will provide energy to recharge our energy stores through intense exercise and produce more ATP. 95% of creatine is stored in the muscles as phosphocreatine, this will provide energy to recharge our energy stores through intense exercise. During short/quick durations of explosive, high intensity exercises, such as sprinting, jumping or lifting weights etc. the body uses an immediate energy system (ATP-PC system) to fuel your muscles.
Creatine Monohydrate is the most studied version of creatine (if supplementing this is the version I recommend to take to improve performance).
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS:
Source: Volek JS, et al. Performance and muscle fiber adaptations to creatine supplementation and heavy resistance training.Trusted Source Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 1999.
As shown in this graph, supplementing with creatine along with training can increase muscle size.
some other notable benefits include:
Enhances strength and hypertrophy
Increased maximal power and strength on single and repeat sets of muscle contractions such as bench press (can increase bench press and other muscle contractions by 5–15%)
Improves speed
Enhance fatigue resistance (decrease recovery times and can do more for longer)
Helps your body produce ATP faster, which will improve training capacity which can lead to more muscle growth, allowing the athlete to perform at a higher peak power (e.g. could be a few seconds difference in fatigue from weight lifting, allowing you to lift heavier for longer). This increase in performance then leads to an increase in strength and helps build muscle mass supporting other training adaptations.
Increases fat free mass
The more creatine that is available, the more energy is able to be produced (ATP). This rapid production of energy when training enables greater high intensity performances, giving greater stimulus to the body, and overall increases training adaptations
Increased time to exhaustion and work capacity to fatigue meaning you can train for longer
It can enhance muscle glycogen supercompensation (hold more glycogen in the muscles for energy)
increase recovery
WHO SHOULD CONSIDER CREATINE SUPPLEMENTATION?
Vegans and vegetarians
Sportspeople undertaking resistance training programs to increase lean muscle mass
Sportspeople participating in sports with repeated brief, high intensity efforts with short recovery periods (e.g. sprinters)
Sportspeople participating in sports with intermittent work patterns (e.g. team sports)
When you supplement with the appropriate amount of creatine, the amounts stored in your muscles increase to reach a ‘saturation level’ which can provide you with high intensity fuel for longer than you would be able to achieve without supplementation.
When supplementing with creatine you are increasing the stores of phosphocreatine in your muscles anywhere from 10%-40% allowing your body to work at a higher intensity for a longer period of time.
Creatine breaks down during exercise, and eventually runs out. It can be regenerated to use again during rest but the more you have, the longer you can train at high intensity before fatigue. Better training = better results! Although some comes from diet, its really hard to eat enough meat to saturate your muscles with creatine, so supplements are an easy way to do this (this is also why vegans and vegetarians could benefit from supplementation also).
DOSAGE:
Sometimes it is recommended to ‘Load’ creatine with 20g per day over a 4 dosages for 5 days, but this isn’t necessary- but it can help you achieve saturation quicker.
3-5g per day of Creatine Monohydrate is preferred for maintenance. Timing doesn’t really matter as the end goal over all is saturation.
ANY DOWN SIDES?
Acute loading is typically associated with a small weight gain which may be counterproductive to athletes competing in sports where power-to-weight ratio is important (This however is excess water that is stored in the cells of the muscles)
Anecdotal reports of muscle cramps, strains and tears but little evidence to substantiate an increased risk of these events.
So all in all creatine is a very safe, cheap, with very little downsides. It will give you more bang for your buck.
Here are some or the resources and studies I used if you are interested in reading further.
https://www.sportsdietitians.com.au/factsheets/supplements/creatine-athletes/
https://idealnutrition.com.au/creatine/
https://www.eleatnutrition.com/blog/creatine
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3407788/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/creatine-phosphate
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12184144/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10449017/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17986903/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12701815/