cut and paste job
Christian Finn's Facts About Fitness
Creatine supplements: What works and what doesn't?
Most people wanting to build muscle, at one time or another, have either used or toyed with the idea of using creatine supplements. Unfortunately, in an industry dominated by hype and half-truths, independent and unbiased information about creatine is extremely hard to come by.
Pick up any health and fitness magazine, and you'll probably see numerous advertisements for the latest range of creatine supplements, with each new product promising to be more effective than the last. Unfortunately, because most magazines are either owned or supported financially (in the form of advertising) by supplement companies, getting to the truth can be extremely difficult.
Does the type of creatine you use really make that much of a difference? Can the benefits of creatine supplements like CELL-Tech® or Meta-CEL™ really justify the extra cost? Are the stories about creatine and its alleged side effects that appear in the popular press based on fact or fiction? And is there any truth to the rumor that creatine makes fat loss more difficult?
Creatine supplements
Discovered in 1832, your body forms creatine from three amino acids (glycine, arginine, and methionine) [2]. Once synthesized, creatine is transported to the muscle, heart and brain, where it's used as an energy source.
How does creatine work?
To understand how creatine works, it's important to know a little about where your body gets its energy from. Just like different countries throughout the world use different forms of currency, your body has its own energy currency. Known as adenosine triphosphate (or ATP for short), it provides energy for every move you make and every chemical reaction that occurs in your body.
ATP is constantly broken down and "re-created". Energy is released when one of the phosphates that form ATP is "broken off". During high-intensity exercise (such as a 60-meter sprint), the stores of ATP are depleted rapidly, and a quick method of reattaching the phosphate is required.
That's where creatine comes in. When your body stores creatine, some of it is attached to a phosphate group. Whenever ATP "loses" a phosphate, creatine "donates" one of its own to support the resynthesis of ATP.
The fatigue you experience during short bouts of high-intensity exercise (such as a 60-meter sprint) is linked with an inability of muscle to maintain a high rate of ATP resynthesis from creatine phosphate. In other words, if ATP is broken down more quickly than it can be resynthesized, you'll run out of energy.
Creatine supplementation increases the levels of creatine in muscle. Short-term creatine supplementation (15-30 grams per day for 5-7 days) increases total creatine stores by 15-30% and creatine phosphate levels by 10-40% [11].
Christian Finn's Facts About Fitness
Creatine supplements: What works and what doesn't?
Most people wanting to build muscle, at one time or another, have either used or toyed with the idea of using creatine supplements. Unfortunately, in an industry dominated by hype and half-truths, independent and unbiased information about creatine is extremely hard to come by.
Pick up any health and fitness magazine, and you'll probably see numerous advertisements for the latest range of creatine supplements, with each new product promising to be more effective than the last. Unfortunately, because most magazines are either owned or supported financially (in the form of advertising) by supplement companies, getting to the truth can be extremely difficult.
Does the type of creatine you use really make that much of a difference? Can the benefits of creatine supplements like CELL-Tech® or Meta-CEL™ really justify the extra cost? Are the stories about creatine and its alleged side effects that appear in the popular press based on fact or fiction? And is there any truth to the rumor that creatine makes fat loss more difficult?
Creatine supplements
Discovered in 1832, your body forms creatine from three amino acids (glycine, arginine, and methionine) [2]. Once synthesized, creatine is transported to the muscle, heart and brain, where it's used as an energy source.
How does creatine work?
To understand how creatine works, it's important to know a little about where your body gets its energy from. Just like different countries throughout the world use different forms of currency, your body has its own energy currency. Known as adenosine triphosphate (or ATP for short), it provides energy for every move you make and every chemical reaction that occurs in your body.
ATP is constantly broken down and "re-created". Energy is released when one of the phosphates that form ATP is "broken off". During high-intensity exercise (such as a 60-meter sprint), the stores of ATP are depleted rapidly, and a quick method of reattaching the phosphate is required.
That's where creatine comes in. When your body stores creatine, some of it is attached to a phosphate group. Whenever ATP "loses" a phosphate, creatine "donates" one of its own to support the resynthesis of ATP.
The fatigue you experience during short bouts of high-intensity exercise (such as a 60-meter sprint) is linked with an inability of muscle to maintain a high rate of ATP resynthesis from creatine phosphate. In other words, if ATP is broken down more quickly than it can be resynthesized, you'll run out of energy.
Creatine supplementation increases the levels of creatine in muscle. Short-term creatine supplementation (15-30 grams per day for 5-7 days) increases total creatine stores by 15-30% and creatine phosphate levels by 10-40% [11].