A Very Basic Creatine Blog

The teenage athlete today; from a training, sport practice, competitive season, and social pressure perspective looks dramatically different than when I was in high school.

With more kids early specializing in one sport with the goal to play at the highest level possible, there is a greater demand placed on the body at a young age. With this I am constantly asked questions about supplements that will aid in recovery and performance. By far, the most asked about is creatine. I have heard it all!

Is it like taking steroids?
Is it bad for my kidneys?
Will my hair fall out?
Will I look bloated?

And the most asked question…….. Should I (or my kid) be taking creatine?

Given that I am a simple performance coach, I will not tell someone that they should be taking any supplement. That being said, (spoiler alert) I am a huge fan of creatine.

There are a lot of old wives tales and myths about creatine, but the truth is that creatine is by far the most researched performance supplement out there. So, the purpose of this article is to share with you how creatine works, why it works, the myths associated, as well as how to dose so that you can make an educated decision on whether or not creatine is for you or your youth athlete.

So What Is Creatine Anyway and How Does It Work?

Alright, time to work through the boring sciencey stuff, but I promise this helps make sense of it all. Creatine is actually in your body naturally. It gets stored in your muscles along with a phospho group, making it phosphocreatine. When our muscles do work, such as pushing heavy weights in a squat or bench press, they need energy from somewhere to accomplish the task demanded. Our muscles utilize this organic compound (also stored in our muscles) called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). When our muscles use ATP, the process results in ATP losing 1 phosphate group, turning it into adenosine diphosphate (ADP).

During intense exercise we use a lot of ATP, but the rate in which we need it compared to at rest upticks dramatically (up to 1000x). This means we need to be able to regenerate more ATP FAST. Remember the phosphocreatine that's also stored in our muscles? Well luckily for us, phosphocreatine is quick to donate its phosphate group. ADP then becomes ATP, and now you are prepared to do more work in a very short amount of time.

The mechanism described above is the most obvious and straightforward for the efficacy of creatine. We should touch on some other lesser known reasons.

1)When we use ATP, a hydrogen ion also gets released in the process. The more hydrogen builds up as a result of high intensity exercise the more acidic we get resulting in acidosis. Acidosis is associated with the onset of fatigue during exercise. When phosphocreatine donates its phosphate to ADP, it also eats up hydrogen. This helps to delay the onset of fatigue that accumulates as a result of high intensity movement.

2)Creatine Supplementation is also associated with increasing body mass. Typically after 1-2 weeks of supplementation it’s not uncommon to see 1-2kg of bodyweight added. As creatine gets absorbed into the muscles, it will also draw water into the cells. Why is this a good thing? A lot of coaches will commonly say to a player ‘I need you to put on weight’ and creatine can easily do that fast. The confidence as a result in aesthetic appearance and visuals on the scale can be a huge factor. There are other mechanisms in which creatine directly affects muscle growth in the long term but we won’t get into those in this blog.

3)Your brain is always working. Whether you are thinking about what you're going to do that day, overthinking as you're trying to sleep, or trying to remember how and when to use that formula on your math final; your brain needs a massive amount of energy. Guess what? Though it only accounts for about 5% of the total storage in the body, creatine in the brain is a crucial energy source for healthy brain function. If we add in modern day stressors like lack of sleep, stressful tests, social media, or heavy screen time, brain energy consumption can shoot way up. Therefore, supplementation of creatine can be beneficial to brain function. Creatine has been shown to help increase test scores, improve long term memory, decrease mental fatigue and more!

That's Cool But Isn't It Bad For My Liver and Kidneys?

This section I am going to keep short, sweet and to the point. Essentially the concern comes with a biomarker called Creatinine, which is a breakdown of the product of creatine. It is used as a marker of kidney function, in normal circumstances that is. However, that test fails to take into account someone who is taking copious amounts of creatine.

Luckily there are a lot of studies, some even up to 5 years in length, showing that creatine does not appear to affect kidney function negatively in healthy individuals. That being said, if you do have kidney and liver issues, check with your doctor before supplementing.

So How and How Much Do I Supplement?

If you decide you want to supplement, please make sure the creatine powder you purchase is only creatine monohydrate.

Now that that's out of the way, the goal of supplementation with creatine is to saturate muscle creatine stores in the body. How do you do this? Well there are two methods to the same outcome, it just depends on time and how well your stomach can handle it.

Loading: This involves taking very high creatine doses over a span of 4-7 days in a row. This is usually somewhere between 20-25g per day spread out over 4-5 doses (For the love of God please do not take 20-25 mg at once). After this initial loading, you enter the maintenance phase and only need to take 3-5g per day in one dose. If you need to maximize results within 7 days, then loading would be a good option. Just keep in mind that creatine can cause some gastrointestinal discomfort and can be exacerbated with high doses.
Long Game: Research shows that taking 3-5g per day can fully saturate creatine stores in the body after about 3-4 weeks of consistent supplementation. If you have time and do not need to maximize results right away, this option works well and can be much easier on the tummy.

The next thing to look at is when to take it in the day. There could be greater benefit in taking it post training session, but really it does not matter. The main consideration you should look at is when you are taking your caffeine. There is some research showing that caffeine can negate the ergonomic effects of creatine. This could be due to a few reasons but most likely because of increased gastrointestinal discomfort (Caffeine can also cause discomfort and when taken together this could be worse), and it's sure hard to perform at your best with an upset stomach. So if you are taking caffeine on a daily basis, just separate the doses. For example, if you love your coffee in the morning, take your creatine in the afternoon or evening.

Thanks For Reading

Is it a must to supplement creatine? NO. That being said, it can definitely be a good option for many. My goal for this article was two fold. First to clear any misinformation you might have heard on the subject, and secondly to answer the burning questions I hear on a daily basis from most of my clients.

If you want to take an even deeper dive, you need to read this great article by Eric Trexer, Not Another Boring Creatine Guide. Eric and the rest of the team at Stronger By Science are amazing resources for reliable, evidence based information.

Take care my friends!

Nathan ObrigewitschJanuary 30, 20221 Comment