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Creatine Monohydrate Fact Sheet, FAQs & Product List
Welcome to Muscle and Strength's Creatine Monohydrate Guide! Creatine monohydrate is the most effective and scientifically proven bodybuilding supplement available. Hundreds of studies have been conducted on creatine monohydrate and they all conclude that creatine monohydrate improves explosive power, strength, muscle size and increases weight. Below you'll find everything you need to know about creatine monohydrate. If you're looking for creatine supplements, check out the creatine section in the our store!
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What Is Creatine Monohydrate?
Creatine monohydrate is the most effective and popular supplement used by athletes to increase lean muscle mass, strength and energy. The human body naturally makes creatine to supply energy to the muscles. Creatine is made in the liver, pancreas and kidneys and is transported to the body’s muscles through the bloodstream. Once it reaches the muscles, it is converted into phosphocreatine (creatine phosphate). This high-powered metabolite is used to regenerate the muscles' ultimate energy source, ATP (adenosine triphosphate).
Creatine is 100% natural and is found in small amounts in some foods. Some foods that contain creatine are red meat, salmon, herring and tuna. The amount of creatine in these foods is minimal, and most (if not all) is lost when the food is cooked.
The best source of creatine monohydrate is creatine powders. These supplements are 99.9% pure creatine and only a small daily dose is required to raise the creatine levels in muscle tissue.
How Does Creatine Monohydrate Work?
As mentioned above, when creatine monohydrate is taken it travels to the muscle cells via the bloodstream. It is then converted to creatine phosphate. Creatine phosphate’s role is to replenish the body’s reserves of ATP, the muscles’ ultimate energy source for short, explosive bursts of energy.
The moment you pick the weight up of the rack, your body calls on its ATP stores to power the muscles. After 5-10 seconds, the energy from ATP has been used. Your body then turns to creatine phosphate, which is quickly converted to ATP and used as energy. This process only takes a fraction of a second.
If the body does not have an adequate amount of creatine phosphate available, it turns to glycogen. The problem with glycogen is, it takes much longer to be converted into ATP (around 20 seconds).
So if the muscles are completely saturated with creatine through supplementation with creatine monohydrate, more creatine phosphate will be available resulting in more energy, increased weight and raps, and increased lean muscle growth.
Who Can Benefit From Taking Creatine Supplements?
Creatine is the most widely used supplement by athletes, and first started to be widely used to enhance performance in 1992. In fact, three out of four Olympic gold medalists in the 1996 summer Olympic games used creatine!
Bodybuilders get the most benefit out of using creatine monohydrate. The increased energy that creatine provides means bodybuilders have more explosive energy when training, which means pushing out more reps, which leads to increased lean muscle growth.
Almost anyone who is active can benefit from creatine monohydrate. Women looking to increase muscle tone, sprinters, footballers, wrestlers – anyone can benefit from the incredible results that creatine monohydrate can provide.
Creatine also has an almost instant effect on weight gain. After the first 2 weeks of taking creatine and weight training, it’s not uncommon to gain 1-3 pounds in bodyweight! This is due to increased water retention in the muscles caused by raised creatine levels through supplementation.
What Are The Recommended Creatine Monohydrate Dosages?
Excellent results have observed when taking creatine monohydrate in two ways.
- Creatine loading:
Creatine loading works saturating the muscles with creatine in the first 5-7 days and then maintaining the creatine levels in the following weeks. So in the first 5-7 days, 20g of creatine monohydrate is taken (4 x 5g servings) with a non-acidic fruit juice or dextrose. The dosage is then reduced to 5-10g per day taken post workout and before bed. - Gradual approach:
The gradual approach skips the loading phase and moves straight on to taking 5-10g per day.
Both of these methods have been proven to be effective, so it’s down to personal preference.
A simple carbohydrate taken with creatine monohydrate is known to greatly enhance the absorption of creatine. According to Green et al. (American Journal of Physiology), ingesting a carbohydrate solution (sugars) with creatine promotes a 60 percent greater increase in total creatine concentrations in the muscle, compared with taking creatine alone. [1] So far, there are no peer reviewed journal articles which disagree with Green's findings.
Does Creatine Monohydrate Have Any Side Effects?
No side effects from supplementing with creatine monohydrate have been recorded in any research. Creatine is totally safe, and effective. Like any supplements, it’s not recommended to over-supplement with creatine monohydrate. Once your muscles are saturated with creatine, you only need to take 5-10g per day. Any more than that will be excreted.
How To Optimize The Uptake Of Creatine
You can increase the update of creatine by creating an insulin spike. Insulin is an extremely anabolic hormone and can transport nutrients throughout the body quickly and effectively. The easiest way to create an insulin spike is by using creatine products that are mixed with simple carbohydrates like Nutrex Volu-Gro and Gaspari SizeOn. Or, another method is mixing your creatine monohydrate supplement with dextrose. You need to take about 70g of destrose to get a good insulin spike.
CREATINE MONOHYDRATE FAQ:
- Does creatine monohydrate have to be cycled?
Some studies report that creatine monohydrate must be cycled. Others report that cycling is not necessary. We recommend you cycle creatine. Load for one week, maintenance for six weeks, and stop taking for two weeks. Repeat. - Is it necessary to load creatine monohydrate?
Studies have shown that the loading phase is not essential when taking creatine monohydrate. However, studies have shown that the muscles reach saturation levels faster if the loading phase is used. It may take up to four weeks to saturate the muscles if the loading phase is not used. - Can I take creatine monohydrate with my other supplements?
Yes, in fact it’s recommended that you mix creatine monohydrate in with your post workout shake. The ideal post workout shake mix would be dextrose (simple carbohydrates), whey protein, creatine and glutamine. The insulin spike created from dextrose will help move creatine to the muscles much faster. - Can I take creatine monohydrate when losing weight?
Creatine can help you train harder and has no calorific value, so yes, you can take creatine when trying to lose weight. - Should I take creatine monohydrate before or after my workout?
There are 2 schools of thought on this topic. Some people believe that you should "load" our muscles with creatine before you train. While others believe that (providing you're taking 5-8g of creatine monohydrate per day) you already have enough creatine in your muscle cells already and that you should replenish the stocks by taking creatine immediately after you train. There have been no studies to prove either way is better, so for convenience, most people take it post workout. A good post workout shake should consist of whey protein, glutamine, simple carbohydrates, and creatine. - Can I take creatine with any fruit juice?
No, you must only use non-acidic fruit juices. Grape juice is the best choice. You can also take it with simple carbohydrate supplements like dextrose.
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[1] (Green A.L., Hultman E, Macdonald I.A, Sewell D.A., Greenhaff P.L. Carbohydrate ingestion augments skeletal muscle creatine accumulation during creatine supplementation in humans. Am J Physiol 1996 Nov;271(5 pt 1):E821-6.)
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