Should You Be Taking Creatine?
Creatine is one of the most popular fitness supplements on the market, and also one of the least understood. If you’re wondering if you should be adding it to your supplement stack, the short answer is: it's not for everyone, but depending on your fitness goals, it may be suitable for you!
What is Creatine?
It's an organic acid naturally found in your muscle cells. Your muscles use creatine for energy when you're lifting something heavy, or engaged in a high-intensity movement like sprinting or jumping.
You can get creatine through your diet (beef, chicken and fish have some), but you would have to eat a lot to get enough creatine. A creatine supplement helps fill the gap.
Who Benefits From Creatine?
Anyone who enjoys sports or fitness routines that require lifting or explosive movements will see a boost in performance when taking creatine. It’s less beneficial for endurance athletes like swimmers, but it can still be helpful!
What Does Creatine Do?
While many fitness supplements are marketed with unproven hype, creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements with documented benefits.
Creatine helps your muscle cells produce more energy, which translates into more stamina and power in the gym! It can also help extend the time it would normally take for muscle fatigue to kick in.
Creatine also helps you grow bigger, stronger muscles faster. It speeds up how quickly your body grows new muscle fibers, and it also plumps up your muscles with more fluids, which in turn increases your muscle size.
How to Take Creatine
It takes a while for creatine to build up in your body.
If you’ve never taken creatine before, take 20 grams a day for one week.
After this initial loading phase, you only need to take 5 grams of creatine a day. You can take creatine as a pill, or toss the powder into your shakes or smoothies.
Creatine is a great supplement to better performance. However, there are other gret supplements other than creatine that have other benefits. You can check them out here; Supplements, The Basics.
