Athletics and weight training supplements come and go; any health food shop or large gym is likely to offer a substantial range of powders, pills and other substances which promise to improve your training results in some way or other. Muscle building, weight gain, re-hydration – the number of dietary aids is substantial and occasionally a little overwhelming.
So in this article we’re going to dispense with the brand names and take a look at a naturally occurring substance which had been used for some years now by athletes and body-builders to improve their performances. Creatine is a substance that is produced naturally in the human body (and in fact any vertebrates) and helps to supply energy to the body’s cells. Muscle cells are the primary recipient of creatine which is transported around the body by the blood. Around 95% of the body’s creatine is stored in skeletal muscle.
The Creatine molecule
Creatine was discovered and named (it’s derived from the Greek word for meat) in 1832 by a French chemist named Michel Eugène Chevreul. About 50% of the body’s creatine originates from ingested food, especially meat, which meas that vegans and vegetarians have less naturally occurring creatine than meat-eaters.
Athletes and body-builders began to switch on to the benefits of creatine supplements in the early 1990s. For these sportspeople, the benefits of creatine were several times those of a very high protein diet, i.e. an ability to train harder for longer than would have been possible before and therefore a contribution towards gaining muscle mass.
Over the last twenty years of creatine use, it has become a supplement widely used by ordinary gym-goers. It’s very safe; it’s very hard to ingest too much as excess creatine just gets excreted in the normal manner. Occasional concerns have been expressed over the years about allergies and hydration problems but the most extensive research over the last two decades has shown that taking 5g – 20g per day orally is almost completely safe.
If you’re thinking about taking the next step forward, creatine could be the answer.