Curcumin. Goji berries. Raspberry ketones.
It seems like there’s a new superfood or superfood supplement storming the market every other month.
Let me give you a little nutrition secret:
There’s no such thing as a superfood. (Nope, not even kale.)
There are foods that are more or less useful for certain health outcomes and fitness goals, but there are no foods that will individually cure cancer, prevent heart disease, fix your blood sugar, or help you drop belly fat.
Achieving those kinds of goals are more about overall diet choices as a whole, not simply adding some greens powder to an otherwise unhealthy diet.
There is one supplement, though, that is 100% legit, 100% proven to do exactly what the sellers claim, and 100% safe for most people to take:
CREATINE.
If you are at all serious about training, building muscle, getting stronger, and retaining muscle mass, you need to be taking creatine.
Here’s the science behind why:
💪 Creatine is already naturally found in your muscle cells. It’s kind of like an amino acid in structure, and your body actually produces it by combining two amino acids. Most of the creatine in your body gets stored in your muscles, and how much your body naturally produces and stores is dependent on a bunch of things, like how much meat you eat, your muscle mass levels, your hormone levels, and your training habits.
💪 Think of creatine as a little back up energy for your workouts. Our bodies use stored creatine to produce ATP, an energy molecule that gets broken down during strength training. If we can store more creatine, we can produce more ATP, and we can perform better in the gym—more reps mean more work done, and more work done means more muscle mass and strength gains.
💪 Creatine also affects the processes our bodies use to recover from training. It increases cell hydration levels, reduces levels of the protein myostatin, boosts anabolic hormone levels, and can prevent muscle breakdown, all of which helps us recover from training better.
In other words, creatine will make you more awesome in the gym, and it will get you more awesome results, too.
Some folks have the misconception, though, that creatine isn’t safe, that it isn’t appropriate for women, or that creatine will make you big and bulky.
None of those is true.
In fact, creatine is the most studied sports supplement out there, with no adverse side effects shown in any long-term study, and study after study has confirmed its effectiveness. Many studies have even shown it to be useful in helping restore brain function in older people or in people with underwhelming natural creatine stores.
Creatine, however, is not a steroid, so it will not make anyone, man or woman, grown big, bulky muscles and is therefore appropriate for both the average trainee and genuine meatheads like me.
You should especially consider supplementing with creatine if ANY one of these apply to you:
✔️ Already train 3-4 times a week
✔️ Wish to see better results from your training
✔️ Are a vegetarian or vegan
✔️ Are in danger of losing muscle mass because of aging (hi, that’s all of us)
✔️ Wish to get fitter faster
✔️ Wish to perform better while training
✔️ Just want to be awesome and strong
The easiest and cheapest form to use is creatine monohydrate, which is readily available from many reputable supplement manufacturers. The standard creatine dosage for men is 5g per day, and anywhere from 3-5g per day for women. Ask you trainer if that dosage fits your individual needs, and just as with all supplements, even the safest ones, if you have a preexisting liver or kidney issue, you’ll want to run it by your doctor first.
I put my creatine right in my workout shake each day, and if I have no shake, I do it the hardcore way and down it off a spoon. Creatine monohydrate is tasteless, so you won’t even know it’s there. You can also take it before you train—in fact, if you take a preworkout supplement, it may already have creatine in it. All that matters is that you take it consistently, no matter what time of day you do so.
Creatine won’t make you feel any different overnight. But after a while, once you’ve built up your stored levels, you will notice things.
👊 You’ll get an extra rep with a weight you used for fewer in the past.
👊 You’ll add just a little more to the bar.
👊 You’ll feel like you’ve got more to give even on your final sets.
👊 And you’ll recover from all that extra work and volume even more efficiently than before.
That’s not just a win.
That’s a win-win-win-win.
Only creatine can do that.
About the author
Kristen Perillo
Kristen Perillo is a teacher by day, trainer and nutrition coach by night. She's also a Star Wars nerd, writer, dog (and cat) mom, peanut butter junkie, and Seinfeld devotee. Fitness has done nothing but make her life better, and she is privileged to show other people that it will do the same for them.
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