Another 4 reasons to take creatine

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Creatine is one of the few strength sports supplements that lives up to its promises. In fact, the more research on creatine supplementation appears, the more attractive and interesting it seems to become. For example, did you already know these four possible benefits of creatine?

1. CREATINE SHORTENS OPTIMAL REST TIME BETWEEN SETS

It is well known that creatine use improves strength performance. But it also ensures that you don’t have to rest as long between sets.

A study by Taiwanese sports scientists shows that creatine supplementation shortens the optimal post-activation potentiation time [ i ] . Post-activation potentiation is the phenomenon whereby an athlete performs better in a certain activity if another (heavy) activity preceded it. For example, better performance during long or high jump by squatting before doing so. The phenomenon also occurs in strength sports: if you start your next set at the right time, your muscles will be somewhat stronger than before you started training. Post-activation potentiation has been studied for several decades, but it is still a difficult phenomenon for strength athletes to grasp. It is mainly something that you, through experience, should feel.

The Taiwanese determined the optimal post-activation potentiation time by having their subjects first squat for one repetition with their maximal weight, and then have them jump as high as possible. Then it was checked how many minutes after the squat they made their best jump. Some of the athletes then took creatine for six days, the other part received a placebo. The post-activation potentiation time was then measured again. The results: in the placebo group the post-activation potentiation time hardly changed, in the creatine group it decreased significantly by more than two minutes.

The research suggests that muscles recover faster during exercise if you use creatine. That could also mean that you can ‘just’ rest a little shorter between sets than you normally do. Precisely estimating your optimal post-activation potentiation time is very difficult. You could also maintain your normal intra-set rest times and then reap the rewards during the set. But all this is somewhat speculative, because so far it concerns only one study that specifically investigated the relationship between creation use and rest times.

2. CREATINE HELPS WITH YOUR BULK

Bulking means eating more than you strictly need, with your body using the excess energy (the calorie surplus) to build muscle mass. For a natural bodybuilder, it is sufficient to eat 10 to 20 percent above the maintenance level in bulk.

Now the body can do different things with a calorie: burn the calorie, store the calorie as fat or use the calorie for muscle protein synthesis. Simply put: a calorie that is not burned turns into fat or into muscle cell protein. This creates a distribution of nutrients towards fat mass on the one hand and muscle mass on the other. We also speak of nutrient partitioning, or energy partitioning.

Research suggests that creatine supplementation can also help with nutrient partitioning [ ii ] . In the study in question, glucose levels were measured in athletes who had consumed carbohydrates after training. It turned out that those carbohydrates were better absorbed by the body in creatine users and used to repair and grow muscle cells. This is probably because creatine enhances GLUT-4 activation. GLUT-4 receptors sit on muscle cells and act as gatekeepers for the carbohydrates and amino acids in your blood. By enhancing their sensitivity, more nutrients can be transported to muscle cells for growth and repair.

For good nutrient partitioning, it is of course the most important that you send sufficient training stimuli to your muscles. Because without growth incentives, extra calories cannot be used for muscle growth anyway. In addition, the ratio of macronutrients must be in order (many proteins and carbohydrates, relatively few fats). But once your training and nutrition are optimized, you may be able to put the finishing touches on creatine.

3. CREATINE PROTECTS MUSCLE MASS DURING ENDURANCE EXERCISE

Creatine supplementation may also have an advantage for endurance athletes, or for bodybuilders who do cardio. There are a handful of studies showing that creatine reduces muscle breakdown as a result of training, especially endurance training [ v ][ vi ][ vii ][ viii ] .

The conclusions of some of these studies:

Creatine supplementation tended to decrease muscle glycogen and protein degradation, especially after endurance exercise. [ v ]

Creatine supplementation reduced cell damage and inflammation after an exhaustive intense race. [ vi ]

Creatine supplementation has a protective effect on muscle injury induced by strenuous contractile activities. [ vii ]

Possible consequences of this are that you recover from your workouts a little faster and/or that the risk of muscle breakdown as a result of frequent endurance training is reduced.

Remarkably, this possible muscle-protective effect of creatine has not (yet) been convincingly demonstrated in the context of strength training. Two studies contradict each other on this point [ iii ][ iv ] .

4. CREATINE STIMULATES FAT BURNING

Creatine supplementation in combination with resistance training has been scientifically shown to increase lean body mass in adults over 50 years of age [ ix ] . Despite no statistical difference, adults taking creatine lost about 0.5 kg more fat mass than those taking placebo. Only one such study has been done, so it is not said that creatine also contributes to fat loss in persons younger than 50 years.

We advise to take creatine in the cut anyway. After all, creatine contributes to your training performance, which is necessary in the cut to maintain your hard-earned muscle mass. The fact that creatine in itself may stimulate fat burning, albeit modestly, is a nice bonus.

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