Since hitting the market in the late '90s, this supplement has proven to be one of the most popular in the industry. The popularity triggered a great deal of scrutiny too and after a decade of research, it is safe to say this is one of the most useful products for an athlete to use over the counter. In study after study, researchers have found that loading creatine for 5-7 days, followed by a daily maintenance dose has been shown to:

· Increase muscle fiber size
· Increase maximum power and strength
· Increase work during high intensity exercise
· Increase Fat Free Mass
· Increased peripheral blood flow

This translates to bigger, faster muscles able to do more work. For athletes and bodybuilders alike, this means your body works better on creatine. On top of being incredibly effective, creatine is also generally considered safe!

To understand how creatine works in the body it is necessary to explain some of the physiology involved in exercise. Within our body we have hundreds of muscles made up of different fiber types based on their given job. In the human body there are 3 basic muscle types: Type I, Type IIa and Type IIb. Type I fibers are slow twitch. They use oxygen for energy, tend to be fatigue resistant, have a high concentration of mitochondria and capillaries, and have low power. Type IIa contract longer and stronger that type I for sustained periods of time, they use both oxygen and glycogen (stored carbohydrate) for energy. Think of these are the fibers you would use in a 400 meter race; an event that requires both speed and stamina. Finally, and these are the type creatine has the greatest effect on, the type IIb fibers. These fibers are recruited for maximum effort in a few seconds time table. They tend to be large size and store plenty of ATP and phosphocreatine (the stored form of creatine phosphate) as an energy stores for powerful muscular contractions.

By supplementing with creatine, we enable the body to store more energy within the muscle tissue which allows better performance in short term maximum effort situations of these type IIb fibers. To put it simply, you can do more heavy (or explosive) work using the extra stored energy within the muscles. Take for example an individual who can perform a 200 lb bench press for 3 repetitions. That same person on a creatine supplementation regimen may be able to do 4 repetitions with the same weight. While initially that may seem insignificant, it does raise the volume of the set from 600 lbs (200 lbs x 3 reps) to 800 lbs (200 lbs x 4 reps). Now consider being able to do that the entire workout. The net result of doing greater amounts of work is greater volume done throughout a workout. Since the body responds to greater amounts of stimulus by repairing muscles bigger and stronger, we can use the extra work potential to generate muscle gains.

While there are literally hundreds of studies on this supplement, most demonstrate significant increases in strength, size and stamina in the creatine supplemented groups vs. non-creatine or placebo groups and with little to no documented side effects. Of the most noteworthy is a 21 month study conducted by Dr. Kreider who examined Division 1a football players using a 5 gram per day dose and concluded the long term supplementation did not appear to adversely affect the players health status compared to players who did not. In fact, players using the creatine actually had fewer incidents of dehydration, cramping, and muscle pulls.

While the literature is across the board as far as dosages are concerned, most load with 20 grams per day for the first five days, then drop to a maintenance dose of 10 grams per day thereafter. While it is true that creatine is found in meat, it would take almost 4½ pounds of meat to ingest 10 grams of creatine (and that does not take into account that some would likely be lost in the cooking process). It is also important to mention that at this time there are many types of creatine available on the market today including liquid form, creatine citrate, and magnesium-creatine chelate but none have been shown in studies to perform better than creatine monohydrate powder.