Q15 Creatine

Question 1

Mechanism

Answer 1

Creatine is naturally stored in muscles as phosphocreatine and helps produce ATP during heaving lifting and high intensity exercise

It’s role is to convert ADP back into ATP

Improves body composition by:

• enabling greater work load/intensity of training = muscle growth
• increased satellite cell signalling = aids muscle repair and new growth
• increases anabolic hormones = growth
• limits muscle protein breakdown
• increased water content of muscle cells = cell volume plays a role in muscle growth

Question 2

Dose/ Timing

Answer 2

Creatine monohydrate powder

20g per day for 5-7 days in loading phase

• approx 0.3g/kg
• split into 5g servings throughout the day

Maintenance phase 3-5g per day

Can take 3-4 weeks to reach maximum content in muscles

Ingesting with carbs and protein = greater retention

Question 3

Positive Circumstances

Answer 3

Performance of high intensity and/or repetitive exercise is generally increase by 10-20% (Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition)

Increased muscle mass and strength during training

Enhanced recovery: increases glycogen synthesis and reduced muscle damage

May be beneficial to vegetarians who generally have lower creatine stores

No evidence that muscle creatine stores fall below baseline after cessation of supplementation

Question 4

Negative Circumstances

Answer 4

Creatine has osmotic properties and so retains water with storage
- this causes weight gain, not optimal for sports which are power to weight dependent

20-30% of people do not respond to creatine loading

Concerns for people with pre-existing liver and kidney issues