Thursday, April 16, 2020

How Creatine Monohydrate Can Increase Muscle Mass, Boost Memory and More!



Creatine Monohydrate 

I am not a personal trainer that believes in pushing supplements onto my clients. In fact, I tell clients you really don’t need any supplements. Very few supplements have the scientific backed benefits that creatine monohydrate has.

What is Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine monohydrate is a substance found in your muscle cells that helps the muscles to produce energy, while doing high intensity based physical activities such as weightlifting. To put it simple it gives your body extra energy, when it comes time to use your muscles.

Creatine can help to improve health and athletic performance by boosting the amount of phosphocreatine stored in the muscle. Additional stored phosphocreatine can then produce more ATP which is the key energy source for intense exercised and weightlifting

ATP is the body’s energy currency, when you have more ATP the body can perform better during exercise (1).

The Benefits

  •       Increased energy means you can increase the volume of your workouts. In turn boosting your muscle growth
  •      According to this study, it can increase satellite cell signaling. Which can help aid in muscle recovery and new muscle growth (2)
  •      Studies have shown a rise in anabolic hormones, such as IGF-1 after taking creatine (3) (4) (5)
  •       It may reduce muscle breakdown, in turn you may keep more your total muscle mass (more research is needed, attached is the study.) (6)
  •      Studies are showing creatine can lower myostatin levels. Elevated levels of myostatin can slow or totally inhibit muscle growth. Lowing these levels can increase muscle growth potential. (7)
  •      Taking a step away from exercise. Creatine as been shown to increase phosphocreatine in the brain which has been shown, to improve brain health and prevent neurological disease (8) (9) (10) (11)
  •      Vegetarians diets often don’t get close to enough creatine since they avoid eating meat, this should help muscle growth and brain health dramatically in vegetarians.

Increased Cell Hydration

I wanted to make a special section for this. Creatine increases the water content within your muscles which causes a cell volumization effect that may play a role increasing muscle size. This however will be in the form of water retention, not actual muscle growth.

This is my personal experience with creatine. When you first start to use creatine for a  first few weeks, until your reached full absorption creatine can slightly dehydrate you. When are you are slightly dehydrated you more susceptible to cramping. I urge you if you are using creatine for the first time to drink extra water and don’t us it right before a workout instead do it after working out.

Different Types of Creatines Other Than Monohydrate

The Creatine I Personally Use
The most well researched creatine remains to be monohydrate. Supplement companies are constantly making various versions with promises to be the next best type of creatine while jacking up the price tag on it. The research always proves false on these hyped creatines.

Don’t get scammed by supplement companies falsely claimed overpriced creatines. Creatine monohydrate is the best creatine and has remained so for years with science backed studies. Best of all it is cheap.

Final Notes

Creatine is one of the cheapest most scientifically backed supplements you can take. It supports quality of lift in older adults, brain health and exercise performance.  Creatine monohydrate is still the best version.

Sited Sources

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