Creatine monohydrate -- a combination of three amino acids -- commonly occurs in your regular diet if you eat red meat. You also produce approximately 2 g of creatine a day, most of which winds up stored in your skeletal muscles. Creatine remains an essential part of powerful muscular contractions, and supplementation may assist you with numerous athletic activities. Consult a health care practitioner before beginning any strength training program.
Creatine
Creatine -- a combination of the amino acids L-arginine, glycine and L-methionine -- is not classified as an essential nutrient because you can produce it on your own. It does assist with all types of muscular contraction, as the cycle that produces adenosine triphosphate requires creatine to function. At times of consumption of your adenosine triphosphate reserves, creatine supplementation can allow you to keep pushing through an exercise where you might otherwise fail.
Strength
Your ability to produce high-intensity muscular contractions, such as when you engage in resistance training, remains limited by your production of adenosine triphospate. Creatine monohydrate supplementation may assist with this. In a study published in the 2000 issue of "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise," creatine supplementation increased the strength of the supplemented group when compared to the control group, which did not receive creatine.
Speed
While creatine supplementation will not directly enhance your speed, it may enhance your ability to train at high intensities and recover between sprints. Improving your ability to perform interval training boosts your lactate threshold, or the rate at which your body can clear waste products from your muscles, allowing you to continue exercising. In a 2002 study in "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise," creatine supplementation was shown to improve sprint interval training.
Muscle
Gaining muscle assists with the performance of many sports and so does gaining weight. While no supplement can take the place of a balanced diet, creatine supplementation may aid you in your quest for additional lean body mass. A meta-analysis of 100 studies was published in the "International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism" in 2004. Review of these studies showed that creatine supplementation increased size and lean muscle mass in every study.
References
- "Textbook of Biochemistry with Clinical Correlations"; Thomas M. Devlin; 2010
- "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise"; Effects of Oral Creatine Supplementation on Muscular Strength and Body Composition; M.D. Becque, et al.; March 2000
- "Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise"; Effects of Creatine Supplementation on Muscle Power, Endurance, and Sprint Performance; M. Izquierdo, et al.; February 2002
- "International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism"; Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Body Composition and Performance: a Meta-analysis; J.D. Branch, et al.; June 2003
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