By Alejandro Olmedo
In the world of sports, professional athletes have always been seeking new ways to enhance their performance, traditionally through training and nutrition. But a third and more scientific method (which can be considered a subdivision of nutrition) has been on the rise, supplementation. Supplementation is essentially dense nutrients that have been stripped from any other unwanted nutrients. As you can imagine, there are countless products that use this apparatus, but only a few have had enough extensive research to demonstrate benefits to athletes, one of them being creatine. In fact, creatine is one of the most extensively researched supplements with over 500 certified studies made by scientists from around the globe.
First off, creatine is not a foreign substance to your body, nor is it a steroid. It is, in fact, introduced to your body through the consumption of red and white meats such as beef, lamb, chicken, and tuna. For reference, a single pound of tuna contains 4 grams of creatine, but one spoon-sized scoop of a generic supplement contains 5 grams of creatine. Now, please don’t go eat a pound of tuna, as mercury poisoning may catch up with you after a while.
So what does creatine do, and how does it do it? Creatine promotes lean muscle mass, stamina, increases strength, and speeds up muscle recovery, music to any athlete’s ear. This is all done by its ability to conserve phosphocreatine in muscle cells. When you begin to strain your muscles, ATP is broken down to produce the energy needed for any type of workout (ATP is what converts your food to energy). The second phosphocreatine is introduced to this equation, an abundance of ATP is manufactured and quickly begins its process of energy production. Taking a step back, your body is now capable of enduring more strain on the muscle, thus, increasing muscle size and endurance. There has been some talk suggesting its drawbacks, such as kidney and liver problems, but so far, they have not been backed by existing scientific studies.
Once you’ve showered (hopefully) and gone to bed, unused phosphocreatine absorbs water, a process known as fluid retention, a.k.a “water weight”, which enlarges the size of your muscle as you rest. Stepping away from the strength point of view, creatine has been proven to lower blood sugar levels, enhance memory, improve brain and spinal injury, and reduce feelings of dizziness. It is crucial to understand that 3-6 grams daily is the recommended amount, any ingesting any more can cause stomach pain to occur. Remember - “too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.”
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