What is a Creatine Supplement and how to use it

June 4, 2017

So, what IS creatine

Creatine is an endogenous produced non-essential amino acid (this means our body makes it, we do not need to take it from food) which acts in our metabolism as an energy recycler in both muscle and brain tissue. To understand this process and how to use a creatine supplement, we need to learn where does muscle energy comes from; ATP usage and glycogen breakdown to produce more ATP, which is the basic energy currency in the body.

Most of the body’s creatine stores are found in skeletal muscle (working muscle for athletes) and it is synthetized in the liver and kidneys. What it does is it works as phosphocreatine, giving one phosphate group to ADP, the non-reactive form of ATP, converting it to ATP though a small energy expenditure, resulting in a big energy source for the working muscle.

What is creatine used for

Creatine is used primarily to increase the strength of the muscles in a short period. It is also used to have more explosive workouts, increase the volume of the muscle by recruiting water inside the muscle cell and, to perform better in high-intensity sports that benefit from using creatine. Examples of these sports are:

  • Football
  • Contact sports (box, muay-thai, MMA, etc.)
  • Rugby
  • Basketball
  • Hockey
  • Sprints & Athletics

How to use a creatine supplement

The suggested way to consume a creatine supplement is to first have a loading stage that lasts 5 days, taking 20 grams a day space by 3 – 4 hours (the active lifespan of creatine in the metabolism) and from then, taking 05 grams a day, every day. What this does is it saturates the body’s creatine reserves, making it always available to be used for any of its functions.

Loading stage:

From day 01 to day 05, you should take 05 grams of creatine with water of juice, 04 times a day. E.g. 05 grams with breakfast, 05 grams with a middle morning snack, 05 grams with a middle afternoon snack and 05 grams before bed.

Maintenance stage:

From day 06 forward, you should take 05 grams a day, every day at any time, preferably in the mornings, as soon as you wake up.

Creatine is a really well researched supplement that has a lot of time in the market, so it is not considered to be harmful, but still, I strongly recommend that you consult your doctor/certified nutritionist before taking this or any other supplements.


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