In reality, many people are taking creatine, but most people know little about creatine and have only heard about its effects. I hope that after reading this article you will have a comprehensive understanding of creatine and help you uncover the doubts in your mind.
Many gold medal winners in the 1996 Summer Olympics took creatine. Why? The reason is simple. It helped a lot to improve their athletic ability. In 1832, a French scientist first discovered creatine, but it was not until 1923 that scientists discovered that more than 95% of creatine is stored in muscle tissue. The first article reporting the effects of creatine on bodybuilding training was in 1926. Although we've known about creatine's existence for many years, it was only at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain that the world was made aware of its extraordinary effects.
Scientific research shows that creatine is the most basic supplement for bodybuilders. On the one hand, creatine can significantly increase muscle circumference in a short period of time; on the other hand, creatine can provide a strong guarantee for high-intensity training, improve exercise levels, and accelerate recovery. Creatine can also prolong the retention time of energy produced by protein synthesis in muscles, and at the same time, it can also reduce the breakdown of protein in the body. This is because creatine can store a large amount of water in muscle tissue, which can promote intramuscular growth. Creatine has been proven in many scientific studies to improve energy levels, strength levels, endurance and recovery time.
1Q: Is creatine a steroid?
Answer: After you understand the concept of steroids, you will be able to distinguish between creatine and steroids. Simply put, steroids are synthetic androgenic hormones, and creatine, as you will learn below, is not a steroid.
2Q: What is creatine and how is it produced?
Answer: First of all, let me tell you that creatine can be produced naturally in our bodies. Crude acid, glycine, and methionine can produce creatine through our liver, pancreas, and kidneys. . When creatine reaches muscle tissue, it is converted into creatine phosphate, a high-energy metabolite that is used as the energy source for muscle movement, ATP (adenosine triphosphate). We also need to know that more than 95% of creatine is stored in muscle tissue, and the remaining part is stored in the brain, heart, and other parts of the body. Unlike steroids and other drugs, creatine is found in many foods (salmon, tuna, beef, etc.), so international sports organizations have never included creatine in banned substances.
3Q: What exactly does creatine do?Function?
Answer: The main function of creatine is to increase the creatine phosphate system in the body to provide energy for muscle movement. This is a difficult concept to understand. First, I must emphasize that muscle fibers store ATP (adenosine triphosphate). The energy generated by ATP is only enough to cause muscle contraction for three seconds, and even very high-level bodybuilders can extend it to 5-6 seconds. So what does it mean for the body to store so little energy? Of course it does. This is the source of our body's explosive power. Sprinters will deeply understand why explosive power is so important. In current real-life training, three seconds is simply not enough! Therefore, our bodies must find a way to continuously generate energy to complete long-term muscle contraction.
Phosphagen: In order to continuously replenish ATP, muscle cells contain a high-energy phosphate compound called creatine phosphate. More specifically, the compound contains phosphate. Enzymes released by your muscle cells cause the phosphate to break away from the creatine phosphate molecule, which is then converted into ADP and finally reformed into the high-energy molecule ATP. Simply put, when your body uses ATP, it separates the phosphates to create the energy needed for movement, and what's left is called ADP. Our muscle fibers contain a lot of creatine phosphate to produce the ATP needed for exercise. Your muscle cells release enzymes to separate creatine from phosphate, which releases energy. The phosphate molecule then combines with ADP to create ATP. Phosphagen can provide 10-20 seconds of energy so bodybuilders can continue training at high intensity.
4Q: How are muscles used in exercise?
Answer: Very simple, muscle can strengthen your muscle phosphate system, which can be used to accomplish many things. Can enhance your explosive power. The vast majority of athletes experience strong explosive power after taking creatine; it allows you to withstand greater intensity training and extend training time. It not only gives you greater endurance, but also allows your body to withstand heavy weight stimulation, so that your muscles will become bigger and bigger. (Note: Interestingly, muscle has also been found to buffer the formation of lactic acid in some studies.)
5Q: Does creatine have side effects? Is it safe?
Answer: As mentioned earlier, muscles are not hormones. Therefore, it does not have any side effects and is not an illegal steroid. There are many studies showing that creatine is a safe supplement. According to statistics, Americans consumed 500,000 kilograms of creatine in 1999! This statistic alone shows that muscle is a safe and effective supplement. Not only that, but MuscleBone, the best-selling supplement for a decade, has never been reported to have any side effects.
Who canTaking creatine?
Firstly, anyone who wants to build muscle and improve endurance should give creatine a try; secondly, anyone who wants to increase muscle mass, recover quickly, and lose excess body fat should also give creatine a try; and finally, anyone who engages in high-intensity physical activity should give creatine a try. People should try creatine.
6 Question: I am a woman and I also want to take creatine, but I don’t want to have muscles like men.
Answer: If this is the case, I suggest you not eat like a big man. Creatine will help improve the quality of your training, but only calories will make your muscles develop! Creatine is a good helper for building muscle, but the only way to build muscle is to increase caloric intake. However, creatine will cause your body to store a lot of water, which will make you look bloated. If you don't want to see such an effect, it is recommended that you don't take creatine.
Q7: I don’t do exercise, do you think creatine can help me build muscle and help lose weight?
Answer: Of course not. If you don't exercise, I don't know what kind of supplement will work for you! Creatine can provide more energy to the muscles in a short period of time, but if you don't use the energy, it is really a waste. Big waste. If you take creatine, you should make your training intensity higher to give full play to its effects, so as to achieve the effect of building muscle.
Q8: Creatine can indirectly increase weight, so can I continue to take it during fat loss?
Answer: Creatine allows your body to store a lot of water, which is a good thing! But in fact, even during fat loss, your body still has a lot of water. I don't think there is a necessary connection between taking creatine and body fat. If it helps you, it's that creatine can help you retain more muscle during fat loss. In my opinion, there is absolutely no need to stop taking creatine during fat loss. However, be sure to stop taking creatine 2 weeks before a race so your body doesn't store large amounts of water. Other than that, creatine will only be beneficial for your fat loss efforts.
9Q: Can I use creatine and protein powder together?
A: If you cannot take protein and creatine at the same time, then you may be a vegetarian. If so, then you may need to consume approximately 40 grams of creatine per day from food! Furthermore, if creatine leaves Without protein, the effectiveness of creatine will not be great. The problem is that we have to constantly put the muscles in a state of maladaptation, which is the key to building muscle. Creatine only works indirectly. If you can't provide the protein needed for muscle growth and recovery, then what's the point of training?
10Q: I am taking creatine now, but I only started taking half the prescribed amount because I felt it would make me angry and sometimes cause hallucinations. What should I do?
Answer: I think one is because your creatine contains caffeine or ephedrine, and the other is because the quality of your creatine is very poor. Let me stress again, creatine is not a hormone! It will never make you feel the way you describe.
11Q: Have you ever felt that creatine doesn’t have much effect? I want to gain muscle through hard training, so I don’t want to take creatine.
Answer: I don’t agree with you! If you don’t take creatine if you have the conditions, it may be your loss.
Q12: Is there any way to maximize the effect of creatine?
Answer: This is a very good question. First of all, if you don't drink a lot of water, the effects of creatine will not be realized. If you want to get the best results, you must drink plenty of water!
Secondly, if some supplements are properly matched and taken together, they will have complementary effects and achieve the best results. For example, when losing fat, ephedrine and caffeine are taken together; creatine and glutamine; in addition, creatine and high-quality carbohydrates are also a very good combination. They can store a large amount of water in the body. portion, but this method is recommended after training.
Q13: How can we take creatine correctly to achieve the best effect, and how much should we use?
Answer: In order to obtain the best effects of creatine, the creatine stores in the body must reach a saturated state. The storage period of creatine is generally 5 days, taking 4-5 times a day, totaling 20-25 grams. This method can make the creatine in the body saturated in the fastest time. Next, just take 5-10 grams every day to keep creatine in a saturated state in the body. After the storage period, if you take more than 10 grams of creatine per day, it will be absolutely wasteful, and the excess creatine will be excreted from the body.
14Q: In order to get better results, do I need to take creatine and carbohydrates together?
Answer: When we digest carbohydrates, the pancreas secretes insulin. The simpler the carbohydrate, the higher the insulin levels. Insulin brings nutrients to muscle tissue and plays a large role in muscle recovery. If you take creatine together with simple carbohydrates, it can speed up the absorption of nutrients into muscle tissue. However, insulin can also cause fat to be stored in the body, so it is recommended that you consume a large amount of carbohydrates during breakfast and after training.Water compounds, because a lot of fat will not accumulate in the body during these two periods.
15Q: I heard that creatine can be taken at the same time as caffeine. But I have read an article saying that caffeine can hinder the absorption of creatine by muscle tissue. Which one is correct?
Answer: That was a very controversial article published in 1996. However, if you read the article carefully, you can see that caffeine has no effect on tissue absorption of creatine. A 1998 study showed that creatine is rapidly absorbed when taken alone or even with caffeine.
16Q: I drink creatine in the morning, but I usually only get thirsty after a few hours. Is this good?
Answer: Creatine is not very stable when dissolved, so it is recommended that you try not to take too long an interval.
Q17: Should creatine be taken in cycles?
Answer: My suggestion is a storage period of 5 days, then 5-10 grams per day, a cycle of 4-6 weeks; you can also use a 1-2 week cycle. Many athletes think this is a better approach. However, many athletes use a 5-day storage period and 4-6 week cycle method, and this method is now more popular.
18Q: Is the storage period of creatine necessary?
Answer: The storage period of creatine is not required. Research shows that the storage period of creatine can quickly saturate creatine levels in the body, and you can also saturate creatine levels in the body in 1 month instead of 5 days. The problem is that most people don’t have the patience to spend a month doing this.
Q19: Creatine can improve muscle strength, so the heart is also a muscle, can it also make people's hearts beat more powerfully?
Answer: Laboratory studies have shown that the hearts of animals do contain creatine, but not as much as in skeletal muscle. Relevant medical reports have also mentioned that the heart muscles of people with long-term heart disease contain relatively less creatine. It seems that taking creatine is beneficial to the normal work of the heart.
20Q: There have been many reports in the past that creatine is related to muscle cramps? Are these studies still ongoing?
Answer: Over the past few years, many scientific studies have shown that taking creatine does not cause muscle cramps in athletes. In fact, recent research confirms this.
21Q: What is the difference between creatine powder and creatine capsules?
Answer: Powdered creatine may be better absorbed than capsule creatine, because the tablet capsule has a covering on the outside, and this covering must be digested first; also, creatine is taken by the gram, if you If you take it a day, you may have to take 20 1-gram creatine capsules, which is particularly inconvenient.
22Q: I am losing fat now. I am worried that creatine contains calories?
Answer: No. Creatine contains no calories at all.
Summary:
Creatine is like a classic novel, it has passed the test of time, but many people have never read it. I hope you can try it when you have the conditions, but you must establish a correct view of supplements and bodybuilding diet! Because bodybuilding is good and supplements are also needed, but the two are not to check and balance, but to complement each other!< /p>