How Creatine Helps You Building More Muscles and Maintain Strength?

Does Creatine Build Huge Muscles or Is It All Just Temporary Body Weight?

While looking for your bodybuilding supplement on the shelves of nutrition stores, you must have come across a pack of creatine.

Available in the forms of powder and liquid, creatine is a popular supplement for bodybuilders and athletes that helps in transforming your body.

What makes it so popular, is the fact that it has tremendous potential to uplift your muscles.

Though the supplement stands to be a safe product for bodybuilding, people are usually sceptical about it initially.

However, that’s mainly because people are usually not aware of what wonders creatine could do.

But we don’t want you to be confused about it in any way, hence the following blog clears away all the doubts about creatine.

Creatine For Muscle Gains and Strength

Muscle building and shredding revolve around cutting down calories and getting in more protein.

But, if you want to shoot up that muscle growth, then a dozen of supplements are ready to work it up for you.

Though the market has got tons of supplements, what goes the best for muscles is undoubtedly creatine.

Why?

Well, the answer couldn’t be any better than the following benefits that it brings for your bodybuilding journey.

Benefits Of Creatine on Your Muscles And Body

An important supplement to the bodybuilding industry has been used for ages for the following dynamic effects on your muscles:

#1. More Energy For More Workout

Our body uses ATP as its currency for energy to carry out different metabolic processes and muscle functions.

Though, your body can just hold up enough ATP for 8-10 secs of intense workouts.

But with creatine that could go up!

Creatine increases the phosphocreatine levels in your body which are then converted into ATP for your workout.

Surprisingly, just 6 days of creatine, and you can have enough ATP stores.

#2. Synthesis and Repair of Muscle Cells

Muscle cells are what decide the fat of your biceps and triceps.

According to researchers, creatine can work in several ways for your muscle cells:

• Volumizing your cells with more water
• Increase the levels of the insulin-like growth factor 1 for shooting up muscle growth
• Formation of new proteins for new muscle cells

It also curbs their breakdown during your workouts preventing you from losing the muscles.

Another crazy benefit that it has is the ability to push you through several weight-lifting sessions.

Did You Know?

Drinking a lot of water is KEY when supplementing with creatine. Creatine is not going to help you if the body isn’t properly hydrated.

#3. More Strength And Power

ATP is what you need to carry out high-intensity workouts.

Since creatine has an active role in the synthesis of ATP, it also has the ability to shoot up your endurance and power.

According to a study, which was conducted for over 4 weeks, using creatine showed:

• 17% improvements in participants of cycling sprint
• 8 kg improvement in the bench press
• 20% more workload and less weight

Another study also establishes the fact that taking creatine for around 10 weeks can even up your squat power by half.

Further, the third study that we bring to light showed the effects of creatine on college boys for 9 weeks.

The results were:

• An increase in bench press by 5.2%
• Power clean showed an improvement of 3.8%
• The squat power increased by 8.7%
• High-intensity workouts involving anaerobic peak power shot up by 19.6%

Most of these studies showed the positive response of creatine towards endurance and power.

#4. Gain In Muscles

A few supplements have the power to add up muscles when you combine them with exercises.

Luckily, creatine muscle growth has impressive gains.

According to a review of around 250 studies covering popular muscle-building supplements, creatine had the maximum score.

Another study conducted over a period of 8 weeks, showed that creatine had the potential to increase muscle mass.

For example, the study showed that the reduced myostatin post-bench presses clearly showed signs of muscle growth.

But what surprises us is that creatine not just has benefits for advanced athletes, but also for beginners.

It also works miraculously for women where research shows that creatine can help women increase their strength.

Further, a review of another 150 studies, shows the ability of creatine to increase by 2.2% of muscle mass.

Though the above benefits have got you by surprise, yes, that’s what creatine does!

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It couples up all those results that you were expecting from your other supplements and turns them into reality. But since we don’t let our readers just believe claims, we have also got up something more for you to trust creatine.

That’s of course through learning about every minute detail of how it works and what it actually is.

Powering Up Your Muscles With Creatine – What Is creatine In the body?

Creatine is nothing but an amino acid that is already present in your muscles and brain. In fact, almost all of our major organs like the liver, kidney, and pancreas synthesis creatine.

The basic function of this amino acid remains to be producing energy in the form of ATP.

But the energy release is pretty different from the one like glycogen.

To better explain the significance of creatine, consider it as fuel for your full body workouts.

However, creatine is more of a general source of energy giving you an ultimate blast during your anaerobic exercises.

This is why most bodybuilders have a diet rich in foods that contain creatine.

But that’s pretty not enough to meet up daily needs, and you need something bigger and better. That’s where the creatine supplements kick in.

They gather enough amount of creatine to bring in its benefits right into your journey of shredding.

So what actually does it do other than that marvellous muscle-building and strengthening benefits?

Wait, are we expecting more from creatine?

Of course yes, there are a lot more benefits of creatine than just amplifying your muscles.

What else with creatine other than muscles?

The previous section highlighted one of the key functions of creatine, but there is still more to explore.

Though what exactly can creatine do apart from uplifting the intensity of your workouts?

As creatine works towards giving you a smooth pumped-up muscle, it also gives out some sidekicks like:

Fighting the oxidants

Recently studies found creatine also protective from oxidants and free radicals.

A healthy level of creatine in your body actually performs like glutathione (the famous antioxidant)

Cognitive Health

Muscle fatigue has already been dealt with, it’s time to combat mental fatigue. Well, that’s what our creatine superheroes do all the time.

They empower your brain to perform well and stay healthy.

Apart from these two unexpected benefits, they have also got some supporting benefits for the muscle boost:

• Better metabolism
• Higher rate of calorie burn
• Leaner gains
• Speedy recovery rate
• Weight loss

So, creatine is pretty much a good option for a ripped body loaded with crushing benefits.

But since many supplements offer such claims without the actual working process, we don’t want you to think of it in the same way.

Creatine has actually got a role in your body and it plays it fantastically as you can see through its working mechanism.

How Does Creatine Work To Build Muscle And Strengthen It?

The basic source of energy for your body is ATP.

Your body mainly burns calories to produce this ATP to meet up the energy requirement.

But since, this energy currency is used by every reaction going through your body it often gets used up quickly.

Produced by the hydrolyzation of a phosphate group, ATP hence needs to reform which is done through ADP.

Now that’s where creatine has its role.

It donates a phosphate to the ATD and forms energy. This allows you to train harder and work more for your muscles.

So you see, creatine actually pumps up the muscles indirectly.

The more creatine your body has the more muscles you gain.

But that doesn’t mean you can add up as much creatine as you want to your diet.

There is a specific recommendation for the dosage for gaining maximum muscles. Going overboard with the dosage can actually be harmful and dangerous.

Creatine – Usage, Sources, And Safety

The dosage of creatine usually depends on the amount of creatine already present in your body and your goals.

For instance:

• For a healthy and fit body with normal creatine levels you need – 1 to 2 grams of creatine a day
• Bodybuilding goals require 5 grams of creatine a day (unless you already have a good store of creatine in your body)

Now the question is how to achieve these ideal doses to gain the maximum benefits.

There are two solutions for that:

• Diet
• Supplement

People who require 1 – 2 grams of creatine a day can achieve the mark by just changing their diet.

#1: Diet Rich in Creatine

Your body synthesizes 1 – 2 grams of creatine when you have enough creatine sources on your plate:

For 1 gram of creatine, your diet must contain:

• 1 average steak
• ½ salmon filet
• 2 chicken breasts

Have you been trying to gain muscles for a long time?

If so, then you must probably know that training yourself is only half of the equation.

In order to boost your workout outcomes, you need to take a healthy diet food with a significant portion of nutrients.

Try the nutrients for muscle building, as consuming unhealthy foods can be counterproductive to your bodybuilding goals.

#2: Supplements

Though our body naturally produces 1 to 2 grams of creatine with the right portions on the plate.

But when you require more creatine to gain maximum muscle gains, you might have to switch to supplements.

Further, a vegan diet has less capacity to provide you with enough creatine.

Hence, people following this diet should also turn towards supplements.

However, when taking the best creatine supplement, you must be aware of the right dosage and the time to take creatine.

When should you take creatine?

As creatine usually works for a short time, taking its supplement is best 30 minutes before your workout.

This would help release it in time for a powerpack performance.

But don’t exceed the dosage above 5 grams and we also suggest you gradually come down to 3 grams as your creatine levels go up.

Not following this could put you at risk of the dangers of creatine.

Creatine Side Effects – Is It Safe?

There are two groups of opinions regarding creatine. While one group swears by it, another one is still confused about its side effects.

There have been many misconceptions about the amino causing problems with your kidney, and other tissues causing:

• Dehydration
• Stomach cramps
• Nausea

But there haven’t been any such pieces of evidence of these effects.

Further, all of the studies that were conducted never pointed out such effects.

However, researchers and experts do highlight the importance of short-term and long-term use.

It is always advised to go for short-term usage of the amino acid as long-term usage can interfere with your health.

Conclusion

Bodybuilders often swear by creatine claiming it to fuel their muscles and performance.

In fact, creatine has also got numerous studies bewildered by the benefits it bears for athletes.

Though it might not be as useful for endurance as long-distance runnings, definitely work for building muscles.

However, while using the supplement you must keep in mind that creatine doesn’t work the same for everyone.

The results usually vary from person to person.

So, start taking creatine supplements today in order to boost your performance in the gym.

Also, you may read Crazy Bulk Results reviews regarding the best supplements for achieving a stronger and more muscular physique.