What is Creatine and What Does It Do?

A big majority of fitness and bodybuilding enthusiasts count on creatine supplements to improve exercise performance, muscle mass, and strength.

This is primarily because creatine has an exceptional safety profile and is one of the world's most tested and popular sports nutrition supplements.

What is Creatine?

Creatine is a popular fitness and bodybuilding supplement that can significantly improve athletic and gym performance in countless ways.

The primary role of creatine in high intensity exercise is to dramatically enhance the phosphocreatine stores in muscles.

These additional stores are then used to produce more adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that increases strength, reduces fatigue, and improves body composition. 

Creatine supplements help you gain solid muscles and experience an improved sense of overall well-being in different ways:

• Boosted workload: Creatine supplements are second to none when it comes to enabling more total volume or work in training sessions that is a crucial factor to induce muscle growth in long-term.

• Reduced myostatin levels: Elevated myostatin levels in the body can considerably slow down or inhibit the growth of new muscles. Creatine supplements can reduce myostatin levels so that it becomes easier for you to gain new muscles.

• Supports many muscle functions: Creatine is an exceptional supplement to add muscle mass. It boosts the formation of protein that, in turn, helps in creating new muscle fibers. It also increases the levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) that improves muscle mass.

• Speeds muscle growth: The use of creatine for just 4-8 days is associated with significant increases in the levels of lean body weight and muscle size. Creatine supplementation is also associated with growth of muscle fibers by signaling biological pathways.

• Lowers blood sugar levels: Creatine can increase the function of glucose transporter type 4 (GLUT-4) that is entrusted with the task of supplying blood sugar into your muscles. This, in turn, lowers blood sugar levels.

• Reduces tiredness and fatigue: Creatine supplements are known to minimize the levels of tiredness and fatigue. The use of creatine can reduce dizziness, fatigue, and tiredness by as much as 60-70 percent. It is also associated with enhanced energy levels during sleep deprivation.

• Safe and easy to use: Creatine has been researched for more than two centuries. Several studies have supported its exceptional safety profile for long-term use.

Creatine supplements are also known to prevent skin aging and signs of aging (wrinkles, visible pores, uneven skin tone, dullness of skin, fine lines, age spots, rough skin texture, and blotchiness).

They are also helpful to improve cognitive ability, help people with multiple sclerosis to engage in exercise, and treat muscle diseases. Since creatine supplementation is associated with muscle building, it can be an excellent choice for people who are diagnosed with muscular dystrophy.

If this is not all, creatine supplements can even feed your muscles during explosive and strenuous exercises like sprints, heavy lifts, plyometrics, and high intensity interval training (HIIT) routines.

The best thing is that creatine can even help you build and maintain muscles even with zero training.

Furthermore, creatine supplementation helps you recover quickly between sets that, in turn, helps you experience faster gains in terms of both body strength and muscle size.

It also slows down the loss of bone mass as you age and helps you experience faster growth of muscle fibers when complemented with resistance-based exercise.