In today’s society, a lot of emphasis is placed on how you look. Almosteverybody wants that “perfect body”. But with all the things peoplehave to do, not many are willing to put in the time to get it. So there must bean easy way to get it. Right? Not too long ago people were experimenting withanabolic steroids.
They injected horse testosterone into their veins to increasethe amount of muscle mass produced from lifting. But after a while, someprofessional athletes and high profile people started showing the side effectsthat are associated with them. For example, Lyle Alzado, a popular star in theNFL, developed a brain tumor and died. This scared a lot of people and therecreational uses of steroids decreased.
With the dangers of steroids well knownpeople started looking for other substances to give them an edge. Bee pollen,carnitine and chromium picolinate, were among the things people tried. Of coursenone of these worked. But now there is a product on the market that has beenproven to significantly enhance athletic performance in the areas of power,strength, and muscle mass. This substance is Creatine Phosphate.
ABOUT CREATINEWhen you exercise you obviously burn energy. There are many things involved inthis process. The energy that you burn is called Adenosine Triphosphate, ATP. This molecule has very high energy bonds between the phosphates and the rest ofthe molecule. Your body breaks these bonds releasing the energy for use andchanging the molecule to ADP (di-phosphate). Since the body has a relatively lowsupply of ATP, it needs to convert the ADP back into ATP.
Creatine helps tospeed this process along. Creatine is an amino acid made in your liver andstored in your muscles. In the diet it is found in milk, steak, and some fish. Although scientists have known about it for about 160 years, studies on it havehave just started to be done.
CREATINE SUPPLEMENTATION *Picture* After thepublication of test results in 1990, the area of creatine supplementation hasexploded. Now almost everyone knows what it is and someone who is using it. Aswas stated earlier, creatine helps speed up the process of converting ADP backinto ATP. So it is logical that if you increase the amount of creatine youshould increase the conversion rate. The daily requirement of creatine is abouttwo grams. Most of the creatine supplement products recommend taking ten timesthat amount for the first week or so to saturate your muscles, and five grams aday to maintain it.
In most published studies the logic is correct; if youincrease dietary creatine you increase stored creatine. DOES IT WORK? With theincrease of stored creatine there should be an increase in conversion time. Inmost of the studies that I have seen this is true. There is also a relationshipbetween the amount of hydration in a muscle cell and the amount of work it cando.
Creatine makes the cell retain water and therefore should increase theamount of work individual cells can do. But this is not all that it does. Inmany studies, along with increased recovery time, creatine showed to increasemuscle mass, explosive power and strength. In one study groups of athletes puton five to seven pounds of lean muscle mass in a month. These results were farbetter than athletes receiving a placebo in the same study.
Some critics statethat the increase in muscle mass is mostly water, but there are studies that saythere is an increase in the size of Type II muscle fibers. With the increase inmass there should be an increase in power. In the same study the athletes saw athirty percent increase in bench-press. With an increase in strength andrecovery time there is an increase in overall explosive power. IS IT FOR ME?Although creatine supplementation has shown results in particular areas, itdoesn’t help everyone. The supplements are pretty expensive and with therecommended dosage, they go pretty fast.
If you are not serious about trainingor are a weekend warrior you may see results but you will pay for them. But ifyou are seriously into bodybuilding, creatine will help you see gains. Also,athletes that perform short burst sprints with little recovery time will benefitfrom creatine. Basketball and football players in particular.
But if you are anendurance athlete such as a marathoner or a sprinter there are studies that showthat creatine supplementation may slow you down. Some think it is from theweight gained. There are also people who are immune to its effects. They areofficially called “nonresponders”.
These people are studied little andit is not known why they are immune or who these people are. IS IT SAFE’sincestudies on creatine loading have only been going on for less than a decade, itis still unknown what long term effects the extra creatine will have. Someresearchers fear that, with the amount of extra creatine contrived through thediet, the body might stop producing it. The only way we will find out thenegative effects of long term use is time.
The sales of creatine supplements arevery strong, so a lot of people are using it. After a decade goes by we mightfind out the hard way that it is dangerous.
