A Case for Creatine

If I were ever to endorse any one supplement, and only one supplement ever, it would be creatine monohydrate.  No fillers, no "junk," just pure creatine monohydrate.

Why?

Because it may be one of the only true "supplements" that has ever been proven effective (and significantly so) at allowing both men and women (independent of any other variable, dietary or otherwise) to more quickly build muscle.

Do a quick search of creatine monohydrate on Google Scholar if you don't believe me.  There are truly countless studies out there which yield consistent results regarding its effectiveness.

Moreover, supplement companies know this, and marketers and supplement producers take great care to ensure that you don't realize that creatine is truly one of the only effective and worthwhile ingredients one can put in a product.  This is because creatine, when bought alone and its pure state, is very cheap (I was able to buy a 400 days supply of the stuff for just $40).  Thus, its potential to produce a significant amount of revenue for supplement companies is somewhat thwarted.  However, if supplement companies put creatine into a "performance enhancing product," replete with a host of added ingredients (many of which are pure junk despite what the colorful packaging may say), they can turn an honest $10 product into a $30-$80 dollar act of thievery.

Why It Works

Brad Pilon*, in his book How Much Protein?, has this to say about creatine:

Here’s a quick ‘insider tip’ for you – if a protein powder has a claim on its label that it ‘builds muscle’ look in its ingredient list – chances are, you will find creatine monohydrate as an ingredient.

As far as I am aware, creatine is one of the only ingredients that has enough evidence behind it to make this strong claim (131).

Brad then goes on to describe the theoretical process for why creatine may be so effective.

Let me summarize as concisely as I can.

Imagine if your muscle fibers were like a chain of interlocking rubber bands.  Each individual rubber band represents a nucleus, and the elasticity of the rubber band represents the potential domain which the nucleus controls.

Now, we can cause this chain to increase in size in 2 possible ways.  1) we increase the size of the rubber bands' domains.  2) we increase the number of rubber bands.

In terms of muscle growth, the muscle fiber itself is essentially one cell.  This one cell, however, contains countless nuclei which are "in charge of" a given domain or area of the muscle cell.

When we lift weights, we cause damage to be done to the cell, thus, setting off a complex cascade of chemical events which will, hopefully, lead to an increase in the size of the muscle fiber.

Like the metaphor above, the muscle fiber can increase in size in 2 ways.  1) the domains themselves can increase in size.  2) more nuclei can be added to the muscle fiber.  In the case of 1, only limited growth can occur.  There is a limit to how far the domain of a nucleus can spread before more nuclei are needed to further facilitate growth.  Thus, if we want to achieve greater growth, we need to up-regulate the process by which more nuclei are added to the muscle fiber.  We need more satellite cells (essentially stem cells found in muscle) to integrate themselves with the muscle fiber.

Post workout, both 1 and 2 occur naturally in response to the survival stimulus afforded by lifting weights.  Now, we of course need dietary protein and sufficient calories and carbs to support this effort, but such things are only the building blocks necessary to fuel this effort.  Creatine is the only supplement currently known that will actually enhance the muscle building process by further increasing satellite cell activity post workout beyond the activity already induced by weight training itself.

Thus, creatine helps you to build muscle faster than you otherwise would be able, because it permits a greater number of nuclei domains to develop on the muscle fiber (protein powders don't do that!).

Note, however, that I say "faster" and not "more."  The only thing really proven to give you "more" is intravenous testosterone (aka steroids), and these come with a host of issues that I think we should rather not like to deal with.

Creatine will speed up the muscle building process, allowing you to build muscle faster, but not more muscle in the sense that it will not allow you to exceed your genetic potential for muscle growth (sorry!).  It will, however, bring you to your potential genetic limit much faster than otherwise.

Side Effects

There are a few side effects associated with creatine; however, these don't really present much of an issue at the clinically effective dose required to actually experience the muscle building effects of creatine.  The research seems to suggest than no more than 3-6g of creatine, taken once every day, is needed.

Some people suggest using a "loading phase" for the first 5-7 days of supplementation during which time you consume upwards of 20g per day.  I tend to think this step is unnecessary in the long term, however, since daily supplementation of 5g from the outset of supplementation will effectively "load" your muscles, but over the course of a couple weeks rather than 5-7 days.  I'd personally rather just save my money and keep things simple by taking 3-5g every day.  That's just me though.  If you would want to use the loading phase, be my guest, but don't think that you need to.

Additionally, for the best effect, some research seems to suggest that post workout supplementation with creatine is more effective than pre, but not by much.

I also recommend drinking plenty of water (upwards of a gallon) per day while taking creatine.  Really, you should already be drinking a lot of water in the first place, but be sure that you especially take care to stay hydrated while taking creatine.

Conclusion

Just get some creatine monohydrate already!  If your on a budget, the stuff is cheap.  Even better, its cheaper than protein powders, and way more effective than them at building muscle.