In the body, creatine combines with the chemical compound phosphagen to form phosphocreatine (PCr). During explosive exercise — like a heavy set of squats or a 60m sprint — the body uses creatine to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP) for energy. Your muscles need ATP for high-intensity performance, PCr helps the body generate it. This enables you to perform at high intensity for longer. By boosting your body’s available PCr stores you can hit those all-important extra reps. Supplementing with creatine, combined with resistance training and eating enough protein, has been proven to improve ability to grow muscle mass by increasing physical performance.4 In fact, the evidence suggests those supplementing can gain nearly twice as much muscle mass as those who don’t.5 Essentially, increased creatine storage means you can push out extra reps and improve recovery between sets. Over time this leads to more muscle gain. Creatine also has osmotic properties: it draws water into muscle cells causing them to swell. It’s been suggested this swelling acts as a signal to trigger muscle protein synthesis, the process of building muscle.6 A study comparing muscle mass gains in response to resistance exercise, suggested supplementing creatine led to more muscle growth in the upper body than the lower body.7 It’s thought this was due to the muscle fibre type composition. Upper body muscles contain more type 2 muscle fibres (the kind used in fast, powerful movements such as weightlifting). These fibres can absorb more creatine. Another study looking at the effects of a resistance training programme combined with creatine supplementation showed that over the course of eight weeks, vegetarians gained on average 2.4g of lean body mass compared to 1.9kg in meat eaters.8 FOR MASS FOR STRENGTH & PERFORMANCE Studies looking into the effect of creatine on one-rep max (1RM) bench press performance have shown an increase between 3% and 45%.9 Good news for anyone looking to hit a new PB. It’s also been shown to be particularly beneficial for weightlifting — a review paper showed those supplementing creatine combined with resistance training increased performance by 26%. In those without, performance only improved by 12%. It’s easy to see the difference this can make come competition day.9 More generally, creatine can help improve strength across many other common gym exercises, such as squat, leg press, leg curl, leg extension and shoulder press, with a 10-week study showing improved strength performance in all of these. 10 RECOVERY AND GLYCOGEN REPLENISHMENT Muscle glycogen stores can fall by up to 40% after a heavy weight session.10 But fear not, creatine can help restore this.The ability to restore glycogen is an important aspect of recovery, as it allows a quicker return to high-intensity training.11 BACK TO MENU
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