American Fitness Professionals & Associates

By: Mark Occhipinti, M.S.

Creatine Monohydrate seems to be the latest way to put on quality muscle- or is it?

It seems that when we load Creatine into our system that after roughly three days the strength level skyrockets, and recovery seems to happen quicker with an increase in energy. Great! The problem arises when you discontinue using creatine. You lose the gains in strength and size you have made. WHY? Most athlete’s are using creatine according to the manufacture’s recommendations.

That is the first mistake

The second mistake is that most individuals take creatine randomly, without any rhyme or reason. There are a few basic points of bio-chemistry and human physiology that are important to remember when taking supplements such as creatine.

Creatine is a naturally occurring element found in the uncooked flesh (muscle) of animals, fish and in human muscle. During exercise, small amounts of the muscle’s creatine stores are depleted. Creatine phosphate contributes a significant role in the resynthesizing ATP during bouts of short & intense exercise. Creatine supplements have demonstrated the ability to increase the total creatine content of the muscle on an average of 20 to 30 percent.

Several studies suggest that an intake of 20 to 25 grams of creatine monohydrate taken each day for 5 to 6 days improves muscular performance in high intensity exercises that require high levels of strength & power (resistance training, sprinting, rowing sprints). Research seems to show that the ingestion of creatine expands the muscle cell allowing more nutrients and fluid to pass through it.

This means that the cell can recover more quickly from stress loads, and grow (hypertrophy) faster due to the fact that more than the average amount of nutrients are passing through the cell. The scientific studies further demonstrate that under certain conditions, creatine supplementation can enhance performance in high intensity, short duration activities.

The conclusion can be drawn based on this information then that an athlete can train at higher intensity levels, thus adding strength, power and possibly muscular size over a period of time. Creatine supplementation leads to weight gain in most participants, but is the weight gain due to increases in short term creatine loading within the muscle or water retention, both interstitial and subcutaneously?

The long term effects of creatine supplementation have not been studied.
Almost all published studies have been 30 days or less in duration.
All studies so far have involved only adults. Consuming large quantities of creatine (greater than 30 grams per month) may encourage fat to accumulate in the liver.
Stomach cramping and/or diarrhea have been noted as adverse side effects of creatine supplementation.

So, let us go out quickly to our favorite steak house and consume a plate full of steak Tar-Tar. Good try, unfortunately,
Creatine is denatured (broken down through cooking) and rendered basically useless.
Now that we have better understanding of Creatine there are some simple Do’s & Don’ts for getting your money’s worth when using this product:

** Do not mix Creatine with any citrus juices (example: orange, grapefruit juice). Ciritus juices destroy Creatine. Instead use apple, grape, or cranberry as they seem to produce the best results.
**Creatine seems to work for only 14 days. (Taking it continuously is a marketing ploy.) So cycle it on for 14 days and off for 14 days.
** Loading Phase: 5 days at 5 grams 2 times per day.
*****************************Off Days:

No Creatine.**************************