Should you be taking a creatine supplement?
Creatine is a 100% natural substance. It is in many of the foods you eat every day such as beef, salmon, and tuna. It can be especially hard to get the amount of creatine the body can use during a strength session when you are on a calorie-restricted diet as well. Let’s face it, if you are working out, hopefully, you are watching what you eat. All that a creatine supplement is doing is compounding a lot of that natural substance into a little bit of food so that your body can benefit in a bigger way from the creatine you are consuming.
How Does Creatine Work?
Creatine goes to work inside your muscles. It is a combination of arginine, glycine, and metholanine, three amino acids that help the body to produce energy. It is best used for lifting weights or performing explosive activities or sports with jumping, sprinting, or pushing. Football players and basketball players are known to take creatine before a game to give them that little extra edge to their game. Creatine will also help your body to gain lean muscle mass since it helps your body to synthesize protein and increase muscle fibers during a heavy lift. It will provide a quick burst of energy when you need it most to complete that last set. It only takes one extra set to make a big difference in the long run when you can repeatedly increase the number of reps you complete [1].
You can use creatine to build lean muscle mass, but you can also use it to burn fat and increase your fitness level. You know how you feel after a really hard workout that you gave your all? The rest of the day can be a little sluggish. Creatine helps the body to recuperate faster and helps you get over that post-workout fatigue faster. This means more energy throughout the rest of the day. Who doesn’t want that? Creatine is completely safe to use for an extended amount of time and there are absolutely no side effects; just a smoking hot body.
References
- How Creatine Can Transform Your Workouts – Bauer Nutrition. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://bauernutrition.com/blog/how-creatine-can-transform-your-workouts/
