What is Creatine?

Creatine Monohydrate is an exciting, effective, and extremely popular sports supplement. Creatine is produced naturally by the body. It can also be taken as a supplement and is presently available in a variety of forms including powder, liquid, effervescent powder, and pill form.

Most experts agree that the powdered form of creatine monohydrate is usually superior. And indeed, it is the powdered form of the supplement that has the most significant scientific data to support its effectiveness.

Technically, the chemical name of creatine is methyl guanidine-acetic acid. That’s a mouthful. Structurally, creatine is actually fairly basic. It’s made up of the amino acids Arginine, Glycine, and Methionine. In our bodies, the liver can combine these three amino acids and form creatine.

Where is Creatine found?

Creatine is also naturally available in certain foods including red meats and fish, though it is rare to consume any more than 2 grams per day of creatine from food sources. Vegetarians and others on specialized diets may consume far less.

How can Creatine help me?

Research suggests that Creatine provides energy for the muscle cells. It’s important to understand that creatine helps with a certain type of energy. It seems to effect short bursts of energy, exactly the type of bursts you experience with intense exercise such as weight lifting.

Creatine refuels and regenerates ATP stores in the body; this in turn allows you to train harder through the exertion of more energy. Training harder ultimately leads to the development of additional lean muscle mass.

There is other important and sometimes overlooked mechanism through which creatine supplementation works. Research suggests that supplementing with creatine can super-hydrates the muscle cells. Additional water is pulled into the muscle cell thereby increasing its volume or size. Increased cell volume means larger muscles.

The mechanisms of creatine haven proven to be valuable in counteracting not only the natural muscle wasting processes associated with aging, but also some of the negative and often dramatically serious muscle wasting effects seen with such diseases such as HIV. By helping to increase overall lean muscle mass, creatine supplementation by older individuals as well as individuals living with diseases that specifically effect the muscular system may lead to significant improvements in quality of life.

Creatine Monohydrate Links

• How to Choose the Best Creatine
• Advanced Creatine Cycling Schedule
• Creatine FAQs
• Creatine Beyond the Basics
• Additional Creatine Information
• Creatine Products