Creatine, Part 1

May 1st 2012

Creatine.

It is probably the most thoroughly studied dietary supplement in America, and yet easily still one of the most misunderstood. There is not one other supplement I can think of that invokes more wives' tales, urban myths, and just flat out general bullshit than Creatine does. I never understood why there is so much nonsense revolving around it but alas, I will try and debunk any sort of myths and misgivings in this blog entry. This blog will be divided into two parts because it is indeed quite large and I feel that it will be more digestible and accessible that way.

Part one will cover the following: 

• What is Creatine?
• What does Creatine do?
• Why you should take it

Part two will cover:

• How to supplement Creatine
• The different types of Creatine
• The potential side effects of Creatine supplementation

Part 1

What is Creatine?

2-(carbamimidoyl-methyl-amino)acetic acid is the chemical name for it. I'm sure that doesn't mean shit to anyone reading this, but it's there for scientific reference in case you need it. You're welcome.

Before Creatine was ever a DIETARY SUPPLEMENT, it was a natural amino-acid compound found in vertebrate's skeletal muscle. (vertebrates, you know, those fuckers who have Spinal Cords?)

Something important to understand about Creatine, is that EVERYONE HAS IT IN THEIR BODY. Forget the supplement for a minute. Creatine is a substance found in all of our bodies. Everyone from Phil Heath (current Mr. Olympia), to the old cranky old dude across the street who never mows his lawn and leaves weird notes on your car, and even the fat soccer mom who thinks whey protein powders are synthetic anabolic steroids, all of them use Creatine each and everyday.

Luckily for us, our bodies are able to manufacture Creatine from just three simple amino acids, L-arginine , glycine, and L-methionine. That reaction, combined with the amount of Creatine contained in the foods that meat-eaters consume most, namely beef, yields more than enough Creatine for a human to ever need for regular everyday life - in 2012 that is. Humans 50,000 years ago had to hunt for food by killing and chasing down animals multiple times everyday. They had to move and act quickly. Sometimes they had to sprint, or jump, or climb, needing quick energy on demand. Creatine fuels this type of energy. This is where additional Creatine comes into play. Read on to find out what Creatine actually does.


What does Creatine do?

Creatine could simply but effectively be described in my opinion as an energy donator. It converts Adenosine Diphosphate (ADP) into the more readily available, high octane, ass-kicking molecule known as Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). ATP is synthesized from the Citric Acid Cycle (or Krebs Cycle), which is responsible for relentlessly metabolizing energy in humans. ATP is unique in that it fuels your muscles for quick, short, and very powerful bursts of energy. The Krebs Cycle in tandem with Creatine metabolization will produce, on demand, the ATP necessary for whatever instant bursts you need it for. So, for that prehistoric caveman who needs to chase down Bambi or some fat wild hog, Creatine will help him enormously. Now normally, your muscles only have a few seconds worth of "quick-burst energy"aka ATP, but Creatine being the generous bastard that he is, will donate a Phosphate molecule to the still-cool-but-not-as-awesome ADP molecule to convert it to the readily available (you guessed it) ATP.



Why Should I take Creatine?

Okay. Let's talk about the benefits of supplementing Creatine in higher amounts than what one would attain from their normal diet. Really, the question here is, why WOULDN'T you? You've probably figured out by now why it could maybe be beneficial for someone on a strength training regimen to generate more quickly, and in higher frequency, instantaneous bursts of energy thereby minimizing recovery time, which could therefore enable you to LIFT MORE WEIGHT MORE OFTEN, RESULTING IN ACCELERATED STRENGTH AND MASS GAINS. If you haven't figured all of that out on your own by now, do the following:

1. Take your hand.
2. Clench your fist.
3. Shove fist into head.
4. Repeat.

I'm kidding don't do that. Oh you did it already? My bad. Keep going.

Yeah. So anyway. What about the rest of us in the gym who aren't out hunting wild hogs? (Except for me. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm out every Saturday night huntin' down wild hogs. SUUUWEEEET) If you've taken Creatine, you know that when you come off of a cycle, you "lose" some strength. Your bench might go down a little, your deadlift might go drop. You figure, "yeah that Creatine shit is good, but it just gives you fake muscles. It's just water." Yeah...no. Your numbers were "artificially" higher than what they should have been. Your bench increased by 20 lbs, where it would have normally only increased 5 or 10lbs. So before Creatine, your bench was at 135, you got it up to 155, now you're off of it and you can only get up 150. "WTF BRO I LOST STRENGTH THAT SHIT IS FAKE." Right. And you're retarded to boot. What a shame!

(For the record, I'm not using that word to in any way, shape, or form, make light of or insult anyone who is mentally challenged or handicapped, or anyone who knows of or is related to someone suffering from it. I for one admire and greatly respect the strength and will-power of all families who have a loved one suffering from such a condition. Support the struggles of the mentally handicapped and their families today by learning more and making a donation at http://www.aaidd.org/)

It is natural and almost expected for your numbers to drop a little bit. After all, your muscles were able to call upon more energy than usual, which gave them kind of an unfair advantage against gravity, wouldn't you say? So as cool as moving more weight is, there is another huge bonus to supplementing Creatine AFTER your training session as well. Creatine also has another function of lowering the "genetic speedbump" in our muscles known as Myostatin. Myostatin inhibits muscle growth. It's an anabolic police officer. Myostatin says to the muscles, 

"You guys can't get too big now. I don't want us to look like Barry Bonds, with that big head n' shit. Let's stay a normal size. I mean, what if we get chased by a Lion? We don't want you to weigh us down and make us lose some flexibility."

Myostatin protects humans (who aren't on any anabolic steroids or drugs) from getting too big and slow. In the event we are chased by that big fat wild hog (I can't get away from her, she really wants my shit), we need to be quick, flexible, and have average strength.

According to a study I will link here, (unfortunately you need to pay to view the FULL study, so the following is just the summary/conclusion), Creatine is the con-artist who pays off and bribes the cop (Myostatin) to turn the other cheek, if only temporarily.

Excerpt from the study:

The protocol consisted of 3 days per week of training for 8 weeks, each session including three sets of 8-10 repetitions at 60-70% of 1 RM for whole-body exercise. Blood sampling, muscular strength testing and body composition analysis (full body DEXA) were performed at 0, 4th and 8th weeks. Myostatin and GASP-1 was measured. Resistance training caused significant decrease in serum levels of myostatin and increase in that of GASP-1. Creatine supplementation in conjunction with resistance training lead to greater decreases in serum myostatin (p<0.05), but had not additional effect on GASP-1 (p>0.05). The effects of resistance training on serum levels of myostatin and GASP-1, may explain the increased muscle mass that is amplified by creatine supplementation.

Simply put, Creatine helps to inhibit Myostatin levels, which in turn equates to more muscle production.

Supplementing Creatine can result in more energy production during intense workouts, as well as more muscle production after your training by lowering Myostatin levels in the body. I really think it's a no-brainer for anyone who has ever picked up a weight to use a Creatine supplement. Your hard-work in the gym will be amplified by using it. As I said, why the hell WOULDN'T you take it?

Matty D 

Link to study
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20026378