Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that is comprised of the three amino acids called arginine, glycine, and methionine, and it is used primarily as a performance enhancing supplement. Creatine can be synthetically manufactured and sold commercially in liquid, pill, and powder forms, with the most popular form of creatine being powder. Creatine works by providing extra molecules of creatine phosphate to your skeletal muscles, which allows your muscles the ability to produce energy needed for muscle contraction more rapidly, thereby increasing the amount of work your body can perform during exercise. The effectiveness of creatine is based on the levels of creatine phosphate found in your skeletal muscles. Creatine loading, followed by a six to eight week maintenance phase, appears to effectively saturate your skeletal muscles with creatine phosphate and maximize creatine's performance enhancing effect.
Creatine Loading
Creatine loading is a concept that involves consuming large amounts of creatine over the course of a week. The purpose of creatine loading is to maximize the amount of creatine that is taken up by your muscles. Saturating your muscles with creatine can help increase your intermuscular concentrations of creatine phosphate. A study published in the July 1996 issue of the "Journal of Applied Physiology" found that ingesting creatine powder at a rate of 20 g a day for six days increased muscle concentrations of creatine by about 20 percent. Creatine powder should be mixed with water in four doses of five grams each and ingested with food throughout the day for about a week to achieve adequate muscle saturation.
Workout Days
After the initial loading phase of creatine powder, it is recommended that you decrease the amount of creatine you ingest daily to five to ten grams a day, depending on your exercise schedule. On days when you exercise, it is recommended that you ingest about five grams of creatine powder with water before your workout and five grams after your workout . This is to ensure your body maintains maximum levels of intermuscular creatine phosphate, which can diminish with exercise.
Non-workout Days
After the loading phase, your intermuscular creatine levels will decline unless you continuously consume smaller amounts in order to maintain elevated levels of creatine in your muscles. Even on days when you do not exercise, your body will use the excess creatine from your skeletal muscles during normal everyday activity. Supplementing with three to five grams of creatine on non-workout days has been shown to adequately keep intermuscular creatine levels elevated throughout the maintenance phase.
Cycling Off
After about six to eight weeks of creatine supplementation, it may be beneficial to cycle off, or cease, supplementation. Although there is no conclusive evidence to suggest any long-term negative effects of continuous creatine supplementation, your body may develop an intolerance to the synthetic creatine you are ingesting. Creatine powder intake can be stopped for four to six weeks so that your body can normalize the natural production of creatine by your pancreas. The process can be repeated, beginning with the loading phase, for another six to eight week cycle.
References
- "Journal of Hyperplasia Research"; Creatine: A Meta-analysis; JD King; 2005
- "Journal of Applied Physiology"; Muscle Creatine Loading in Men; E. Hultman, et al.; 1996
- "Essentials of Sports Nutrition and Supplements"; Jose Antonio, Douglass Kalman, Jeffrey R. Stout, and Mike Greenwood; 2008
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