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C R E AT I N E ?
Brad Pilon
Copyright © 2013 by StrengthWorks International Publishing, Inc.
The information within this book is meant for healthy adult individuals.
You should consult with your physician to make sure it is appropriate for your
individual circumstances. Keep in mind that nutritional needs vary from person
to person, depending on age, sex, health status and total diet.
If you have any health issues or concerns please consult with your
physician. Always consult your physician before beginning or making any
changes in your diet or exercise program, for diagnosis and treatment of illness
and injuries, and for advice regarding medications.
INTRODUCTION
problem.
In fact, a more accurate statement would be that muscles will increase in size
resistance training.
Now, I won’t bore you with any more protein studies as I’m sure you’ve heard
more than enough about eating protein to build muscle, however I will say that
We know that testosterone and other anabolic hormones build muscle, but
there use is illegal without a doctor’s prescription and are generally not an
option for the average person. Therefore, what I would like to show you is some
very interesting research on the one specific dietary supplement that is legal in
most countries that can actually increase the size of your muscles - good old
countries.
Many people think that it was the passing of the Dietary Supplement Health
and Education Act (DSHEA) back in 1994 that allowed the nutritional
From the pioneering research conducted by Dr. Eric Hultman and Dr. Roger
Harris, to the ongoing work being conducted by Dr. Paul Greenhaff and many
others, the scientific research behind the muscle building effects of creatine is
a belief that all supplements could work this well with no side effects and be
Creatine is truly the poster child for the supplement industry and how
published books, and for good reason - In almost every clinical trial on creatine
I have ever reviewed, the men (and women) taking creatine always gain
impressive amounts of lean mass and they have gained strength – a lot of it.
or changes to their normal diets. They gain weight and strength without any
extra calories or protein (creatine does not contain any useable calories). People
in creatine research trials gained muscle WITHOUT high protein diets. post-
workout protein meals, or massive amounts of calories – more proof that you
Now, it may seem odd that creatine could be considered a protein. Creatine is
our diets in most red meats (which is the main reason why it’s considered a
(creatine)
It was largely thought that the reason helped you gain muscle was simply by
adding water weight [Hultman E, 1996]. However, we know now this is not true,
and we know that creatine use is associated with an actual increase in muscle
fiber diameter [Volek JS, 1999; Tarnopolsky MA 2001]. So the weight added by
creatine is not simply ‘bloating’ or only water (as we will discuss later) but
The bottom line is that any supplement with a twenty-year track record of
If you measure the surrogate endpoints like amino acid flux or nitrogen
balance, creatine has no effect [Louis M, 2003]. But, when you measure the
true endpoint of increased muscle weight and muscular strength, creatine does
So while creatine may not actually ‘build new muscle’ in the classical sense, it
does increase the size and weight of muscles, and that by itself is an excellent
trials typically gain much more muscle than people in research trials who take
In general it seems that the use of creatine can add 2 to 5 pounds of weight in 4
to 28 days, and that this weight is mostly in the form of fat free mass. This
training alone.
For instance, in a trial published in 2000, 23 men taking creatine gained over
3.5 pounds of lean mass over 6 weeks. The impressive part is that they only
exercised their arms during this 6 week period! That’s right, 6 weeks of only
blasting their biceps and triceps and the men in this study still gained 3.5 a
pound of lean mass! In a measure of upper arm muscle area they gained over 2
players for 9 weeks. During this time these red-shirt freshmen were weight
training 4 times per week. At the end of the 9 weeks, the creatine group gained
In another trial using creatine combined with resistance training (this time in
older men in their 70’s), after 12 weeks of resistance training and taking
creatine (no post-workout protein) the creatine group gained over 7 pounds of
What you need to know about this study: It’s important to note that in this
study the subjects were of advanced age (70’s). This study was funded by
So to put it all into perspective, from what I can tell from reviewing clinical
research, working out alone should cause you to gain between 2-5 pounds of
you should still expect to gain around 2-5 pounds (you just might gain it
quicker). If you increase your overall protein intake you may gain more muscle
mass, possibly increasing the amount you gain over several months by as much
likely dependant on your training status and the design of your workout
program. Simply put, the better the workout program design, the better the
weight gain. This has even been shown in research where better-designed
workout programs have caused larger increases in lean mass [Kraemer WJ,
2003]. And, no matter how great your workout program is, adding creatine into
The interesting thing with creatine research is that it doesn’t matter whether
combination of the two. The research suggests that in any of these styles of
dosing creatine you end up gaining around 7-9 pounds. The protein and carbs
stated, “It is likely that a significant portion of any increases in fat free mass that
occurs with a supplement containing creatine, protein, amino acids and
What you need to know about this study: The quote from Chromiak comes from
a 2004 study that was funded by Numico USA. During the Early 2000’s
Based on my findings, I couldn’t agree more. In fact, Here’s a quick ‘insider tip’
for you – if a protein powder has a claim on its label that it ‘builds muscle’ look
in its ingredient list – chances are, you will find creatine monohydrate as an
ingredient.
evidence behind it to make this strong claim. Supplementing with creatine can
increase the size and weight of your muscles and cause an increase in overall
strength.
Now, you may be wondering ‘if all the results come from the creatine alone,
then why is everyone always talking about taking creating WITH something to
A quick search of the US patent data base shows that there are hundreds of
blueberry extract, this would mean that no one else can sell creatine combined
with blueberry extract. So you can bet your bottom dollar I’m going to do
Despite all of these patents, if you review the research and ignore the
advertising it seems logical to say that if you are interested in gaining muscle
mass then simply taking creatine monohydrate is your best option. After all,
why eat tons of extra calories or excessive amounts of protein or pay for special
types of creatine if they don’t make a difference (and instead may even increase
New ‘fancy’ forms of creatine are coming out every day, Usually
accompanied by the claim that they have somehow improved on one of the
actually myths.
This means that close to 100% of the creatine you ingest will eventually make it
to your muscles.
temperatures. Even when mixed with water, creatine degrades very slowly, and
can be kept dissolved in water in your fridge for several days before you lose
excellent support from both clinical research and anecdotal evidence from
users, the market has still seen dozens of ‘new’ types of creatine appear over
the years.
To date, I have not seen any of the ‘fancy’ creatines out perform good ol’
creatine monohydate. From all the different salts of creatine such as creatine
ester or even creatine alcohols are currently available in the USA and Canada.
While it is assumed that the human body will transform these molecules into
creatine upon intake, there are no published data available confirm this
expectation.
The bottom line is that the vast majority of research showing benefits of
creatine supplementation was completed using creatine monohydrate. And to
beat’ and I can see no reason to spend extra money on some of the fancier
creatine forms.
NEW THEORIES ON HOW CREATINE WORKS
Recent research has shed some light on why creatine may be so effective,
and it will probably come to no surprise to you that it involves the effect that
In this study, 41 men ranging from 19 to 28 years old (our proverbial sweet spot
their workouts.
The creatine group (group 1) did a traditional loading phase where they took 5
grams of creatine 4 times per day for the first 7 days of the study. After the
supplement.
The carbohydrate group (group 3) did not receive any creatine or extra protein
The final group, was the control group and received no supplements, nor did
they workout.
The men in the first three groups trained 3 times per week for a total of 16
weeks. ALL of these workouts were leg workouts. So these men trained legs 3
days per week. Muscle biopsies were taken at weeks 0, 4, 8 and 16 so that the
researchers could measure the changes that were occurring inside the subjects
muscles.
What was found shouldn’t be too surprising – The creatine group saw the best
increase in the size of their muscles, at weeks 4, 8 and 16. What’s very
interesting is that the creatine group also saw the largest increase in satellite
cells and number of myonuclei per muscle fiber (remember – muscles need new
nuclei in order to grow). The group not receiving creatine or protein saw no
increase in myonuclei, but still did see a transient increase in muscle size (in
line with our theory that the existing nuclei you already have do have some
capacity to increase their domain and thus muscle size) [Kadi 2004]
muscles. So it happened quicker than in the other groups, but still had a
defined limit.
It has long been accepted that the main action of creatine in the body is to
is the energy source that your muscles use during short-term exercise (around
Based on this theory it’s long been accepted that the way creatine works is by
allowing you lift more weight in the gym, and do more volume (more sets and
reps) and that was how it increased lean body mass. In other words it allowed
you to do more work in the gym and that is why your muscles grew larger.
While this explanation is most likely true to some extent, the actions of creatine
on satellite cells provides a much more feasible and complete explanation for
the amount of protein signaling molecules in your muscles. Proteins like mTOR
are extremely important to the muscle building process, acting as a relay that
gets the muscle building signal from your body to the nucleus of your muscles
fibers, thus allowing for growth to be initiated. Scientists have found that
creatine may not increase the sensitivity of mTOR, and it also may not actually
‘activate’ mTOR, instead (and this could even be better for your long term
muscle gains) creatine may increase the amount of signaling molecules in this
pathway leading to the idea that creatine can cause a ‘better’ or ‘louder’ muscle
use; the argument that it is ‘mostly water weight’ is a bit misleading. It’s
misleading because your muscles are ‘mostly water weight’ to begin with.
Human muscle is anywhere from 75 to 80% water. And the amount of water
Saying creatine adds water weight is very similar to saying creatine adds
muscle weight.
When scientists looked at actual muscle fibers it was found that Creatine
supplementation was able to increase muscle fiber size. Even if this increase in
muscle) it’s important to realize that this was in the actual muscle fibers. This
means the diameter of the muscle fiber was increasing – it wasn’t just water
around the muscle, or in between the fibers but an actual true increase in
Finally, this increase in muscle fiber hydration has been speculated to decrease
The argument that the weight added by creatine is ‘mostly water’ seems to be a
and there may be a slight anabolic and even fat burning advantage to having
at least partially responsible for the ‘activatation’ of satellite cells we see with
creatine use.
length of a muscle fiber. The best example would be to think of a ruler. The
ruler would represent your muscle fiber, and each ‘inch mark’ would be a
satellite cell. The space between each inch would be the area that each specific
satellite cell would be responsible for. This area is called the myonuclear
domain.
When creatine hydrates a muscle this myonuclear domain increases, but each
nucleus can only handle so much domain, and once the domain becomes too
larg then another nuclei will be needed to split the domain into so that each
nucleus can properly oversee all of the metabolic happenings of that specific
area. Therefore, it is completely plausible that simply by chronically hydrating
an actual muscle fiber, creatine is able to force the activation of satellite cells to
An increase in the water weight of a muscle itself may be the key to the muscle
It is believed that you begin to see the benefits of taking creatine once
your internal stores are maximized, and once your internal levels of creatine
ingest the more your serum levels increases. However the rate of creatine
uptake and storage into your muscle cells may be maximized at a serum
While early research on creatine suggested the need for a loading phase –
taking 5 grams of creatine 4 times per day for the first 5 days of use, the more
stores. The benefit of loading is that it gets you to the maximal internal levels
However, the research showing that 3 grams of creatine for 30 days was enough
to maximize muscle stores was conducted on ~70 kilogram men (about 155
pounds). So men heavier than this weight, or with more Lean Body Mass then
would be considered average may have to take a higher dose for this affect to
occur. The safest bet would be 5 grams per day for well muscle men.
Realistically, over the course of a 12-16 week weight training period, you will
supplementation.
Finally, with regards to the use of creatine for muscle building – there are a
number of important facts that you need to know if you plan on optimizing your
creatine intake.
It is true that resistance exercise enhances the rate of creatine uptake into
muscle cells, but this is ONLY true for the muscles that were actively engaged
during the workout. In other words creatine uptake in the muscle is specific to
creatine transporter, which enhance its maximal capacity [Robinson TM, 1999].
This line of research shows us a new way we could use creatine monohydrate to
reach our goals. If your goal is to maximize the size of a specific muscle or
group of muscles you could try training that muscle group 3 to 4 times in one
week, while at the same time doing a loading phase with creatine monohydrate.
This theoretically should then provide those specific muscles with a creatine
We know that the elevated creatine levels that occur after creatine
seems to continue for a period, and the increase in lean body mass also seems
Based on the above information, it would be best to only attempt this approach
once every 6 weeks, and only taking creating during each loading phase.
If your goal is overall gains in lean body mass then you could try a whole body
approach. Research has shown that creatine uptake can be increased by near
that this level can be reached with a dose of ~100 grams of dextrose (Sugar) or
get a whole body balanced muscle growth then you should take your creatine
‘whole body’ uptake of creatine monohydrate. At the very least this should
could simply take 5-10 grams of creatine, once a day, either with food, or after
your workouts.
It is important to remember that we have not seen any evidence that these
In other words, in almost every research paper studying the benefits of creatine,
the subjects were using creatine for the very first time. If the people in a
creatine trial were to enroll in a second research study examining the effects of
creatine on muscle building I would be very surprised if they were able to gain
This may reflect a limit to the ability of creatine to increase muscle size via
satellite cell incorporation, or it may have been a limitation of the way we have
been using creatine – perhaps not allowing enough time inbetween doses or
cycles.
While we don’t really have a consensus as to the perfect way to take creatine,
we do know that there are multiple ways to use creatine to build muscle, and
CONCLUSIONS
Creatine is a dietary supplement that is legal in most countries, has
It has countless imitators and ‘improvements’ all of which seem unnecessary for
the most part. It seems to work through several mechanisms, from supplying
It can be dosed differently depending on your needs and there is even the
possibility that how we use creatine (taking a little bit every day for months on
end) may not be the optimal way to use creatine to change the look of our
bodies.
The bottom line is that is a cheap, effective supplement than can come in both
pill and powder form that seems to have the ability to increase the size your
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