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What is Creatine
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What is Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine monohydrate is the king of the creatine supplement world. It is the most inexpensive form of creatine, and has been studied exhaustively. The reason why it is so popular is because it works. No other legal non-hormonal bodybuilding or sports supplement can come close to the potency of creatine monohydrate.
Creatine monohydrate is 88% pure creatine bound with 12% water and without a doubt is the most widely used supplement by athletes, and first started to be widely used to enhance performance in 1992. In fact, three out of four Olympic gold medalists in the 1996 summer Olympic games used creatine.
But bodybuilders get the most benefit out of using creatine monohydrate because the increased energy that creatine provides means bodybuilders have more explosive energy when training, which means pushing out more reps, which leads to increased lean muscle growth.
Almost anyone who is active can benefit from creatine monohydrate. Women looking to increase muscle tone, sprinters, footballers, wrestlers – anyone can benefit from the incredible results that creatine monohydrate can provide. Taking creatine should always be done with care and attention to cycling, etc.
Creatine also has an almost instant effect on weight gain. After the first 2 weeks of taking creatine and weight training, it's not uncommon to gain 1-3 pounds in bodyweight. But you should know that this is due to increased water retention in the muscles caused by raised creatine levels through supplementation.
When starting off with creatine for the first time it is highly recommended that you do loading. Loading works by saturating the muscles with creatine in the first 5-7 days and then maintaining the creatine levels in the following weeks. So in the first 5-7 days, 20g of creatine monohydrate is taken (4 x 5g servings) with a non-acidic fruit juice or dextrose. The dosage is then reduced to 5-10g per day taken post workout and before bed.
Another way to take creatine is with the gradual loading phase which is just as effective. The gradual approach skips the loading phase and moves straight on to taking 5-10g per day.Both of these methods have been proven to be effective, so it's down to personal preference.
A simple carbohydrate taken with creatine monohydrate is known to greatly enhance the absorption of creatine. According to Green et al. (American Journal of Physiology), ingesting a carbohydrate solution (sugars) with creatine promotes a 60 percent greater increase in total creatine concentrations in the muscle, compared with taking creatine alone. So far, there are no peer reviewed journal articles which disagree with Green's findings.
What is Creatine