When To Take Creatine: A Beginner's Guide

In the world of fitness and bodybuilding, Creatine is one of the most popular performance-enhancing supplements when it comes to packing solid muscles and gaining strength. In this complete guide on when to take creatine, you will read everything about creatine, the amazing benefits of creatine, and the best times and dosages of creatine.

What Is Creatine?

Creatine can be classified as a naturally occurring compound that can significantly boost physical and mental performance during short-term, high-intensity exercise by improving natural ability of the body to rapidly produce energy. This makes creatine an excellent choice when there is an urgent, high demand such as heavy weight-lifting session, a high intensity workout, or when exercising in the heat.

The primary purpose of creatine is to convert Adenosine diphosphate (ADP) into Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) that is the body's energy currency. By doing this, creatine helps replenish the energy of muscle cells to promote muscular strength. Creatine also demonstrates unmatched efficacy to improve brain function and reduce blood sugar.

Creatine supplementation can also be beneficial to treat epilepsy, traumatic brain injuries, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Also, creatine use can also be associated with improved intelligence and short-term memory, especially in older adults. Furthermore, creatine can reduce the risk of stroke-related damage. It supports heart health and reduces blood sugar levels. Creatine is also useful to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

One of the biggest benefits of creatine is its unique ability to significantly increase the phosphocreatine stores in the muscles. The compound is also useful to boost workload by enabling more total work or volume in a single session of strength or resistance training, which is a vital factor in long-term muscle growth.

In addition to these unique advantages, creatine can also improve the signaling of satellite cells that assist with new muscle growth and muscle repair. Moreover, the use of creatine is also associated with a considerable surge in the levels of hormones such as insulin-like growth factor-1. Also, creatine is renowned for lifting water content within the muscle cells that result in a cell volumization effect that translates to muscle growth.

Also, Creatine can be highly effective to stimulate hormonal responses and cellular pathways such as increasing levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor-1), resulting in new muscle development. Moreover, creatine allows you to maintain your workout performance set after set as it increases the regeneration of ATP.

If this is not all, creatine also demonstrates efficacy to increase total muscle mass by minimizing muscle breakdown. Creatine is also beneficial to reduce myostatin levels that could have otherwise resulted in slow or inhibited new muscle growth. Also, creatine use is also associated with an improvement in the symptoms of neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease while promoting nerve, muscle, and brain health.

Who Should Take Creatine?

Creatine is essential for everyone though some individuals require it more than others.

ü  Athletes, bodybuilders, and seasoned fitness enthusiasts require creatine for explosive power, strength, and muscle growth.

ü  Older adults require creatine for cognitive support and muscle preservation.

ü High-intensity trainers require creatine for weightlifting, HIIT workouts, and sprinting.

ü  Vegans and vegetarians require creatine for lower dietary creatine intake.

ü  Endurance athletes require creatine for energy support and muscle recovery.

ü  Individuals focused on cognitive function require creatine for potential brain health benefits.

ü  Fitness enthusiasts who want to gain solid muscle and strength require creatine for increased muscle mass, size, and definition.

ü  Individuals recovering from injuries require creatine for muscle repair and rehabilitation.

How Much Creatine Is Required Every Day?

The human body (depending on muscle mass) is required to replenish approximately 1-3 grams of creatine a day. Athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts who engage in intense strength, cardio, or resistance training may need to consume 5-10 grams of creatine a day. The general recommendations for creatine supplementation are between 0.1gm/kg of body mass every day or between 3-5 grams a day.

Creatine is a popular muscle-building supplement that can offer a wide range of performance and health benefits. These amazing benefits include improved muscular health and exercise performance, as well as improved mental performance, alertness, focus, concentration, and mental clarity. Several studies in the past have indicated that the use of creatine can stimulate significant muscle mass, size, definition, and strength gains.

Recommended Dose Of Creatine

A big majority of creatine users start using the supplement with a loading phase that generally stimulates a rapid increase in creatine's muscle stores. While not required it can still provide huge benefits. For this, they take 20 grams of creatine every day for 5-7 days (both on workout and non-workout days), ideally in 4 split doses of 5 grams each throughout the day. It is important to remember here that consuming a carb- or protein-based meal can greatly increase your body's ability to absorb creatine.

Following the loading period, creatine is best consumed in daily dosages of 3-5 grams so that high levels of creatine within the muscles can be maintained. This maintenance phase can be followed for a long time (6-12 weeks). In case you don't want to engage yourself in the creatine loading phase, you may simply take 3-5 grams of creatine every day for 4-6 weeks at least. Remember, the intake of creatine may pull water into the muscle cells. Therefore, it is highly recommended to take creatine with a glass of water. Ideally, you should consume an extra 16-20 ounces of water every day as a good rule of thumb as a starting point. Moreover, you should also make it a point to stay well hydrated with fresh juice or coconut water throughout the day.

Common recommendation for a cycle:

Week 1: 1 Scoop of Creatine + L-Citrulline in the morning daily. (5g Creatine / 3g / L-Citrulline)                
               1 Scoop of Joint Support in the morning.
               1 Scoop of Creatine + L-Citrulline in the evening. (5g Creatine / 3g / L-Citrulline)

Weeks 2-4: 1 Scoop of Creatine + L-Citrulline in the morning daily. (5g Creatine / 3g / L-Citrulline)               
               1 Scoop of Joint Support in the morning.

Weeks 4-8: 1 Scoop of Creatine + L-Citrulline in the morning daily. (5g Creatine / 3g / L-Citrulline)               
               1 Scoop of Joint Support in the morning.
                NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) 800mg daily. 

Creatine can be used before, during, and after a workout depending on your workout routine and personal preferences. However, it is always good to stay consistent with the dosage and dosage timing. It can be mixed with breakfast or coffee. You can alternatively opt to mixing creatine with a protein shake or a post-workout meal.

Creatine can be used by both men and women. However, extra care and diligence must be followed by individuals who have been previously diagnosed with severe and debilitating health conditions such as diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, or stroke. Pregnant, breastfeeding, and lactating women should NOT use creatine before a medical practitioner or healthcare provider has approved its use after a comprehensive evaluation of medical history and reports.

Under no circumstances, creatine should be abused or overdosed in hopes of quick results. Immediate medical intervention must be sought in case you experience any side effect after using creatine. Moreover, the use of creatine should be avoided unless the doctor or healthcare provider has approved the use after you have experienced any adverse effect.

Can Creatine Be Taken On An Empty Stomach?

Creatine has a relatively high safety profile and it can be taken on an empty stomach, although a big majority of creatine users prefer taking creatine with food. Creatine may be combined with Taurine, L-Arginine, protein powders, and other post-workout supplements.

Can Creatine Be Taken Immediately Before Bedtime?

Yes! Creatine is highly safe and does not interfere with sleep. Therefore, it may be consumed immediately before bedtime.

Conclusion

Creatine is one of the most researched, safest, most effective, and complete value-for-money health supplements you can take. It helps you pack solid muscle mass, size, and definition while improving strength, endurance, energy, and power output. Creatine also improves physical and mental performance by improving alertness, focus, concentration, memory, intelligence, and helps you hit the gym harder and longer without experiencing fatigue.

We hope that this blog on everything about creatine, the amazing benefits of creatine, and the best times and dosages of creatine was useful to you in countless ways.

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References

1. Willoughby, D. S., & Rosene, J. (2001). Effects of oral creatine and resistance training on myosin heavy chain expression. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 33(10), 1674-1681.
2. Willoughby, D. S., & Rosene, J. M. (2003). Effects of oral creatine and resistance training on myogenic regulatory factor expression. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(6), 923-929.
3. Greenhaff, P. L. (2001, September). Muscle creatine loading in humans: Procedures and functional and metabolic effects. In 6th Internationl Conference on Guanidino Compounds in Biology and Medicine. Cincinatti, OH.
4. Steenge, G. R., Simpson, E. J., & Greenhaff, P. L. (2000). Protein-and carbohydrate-induced augmentation of whole body creatine retention in humans. Journal of Applied Physiology, 89(3), 1165-1171.
5. Green, A. L., Hultman, E., Macdonald, I. A., Sewell, D. A., & Greenhaff, P. L. (1996). Carbohydrate ingestion augments skeletal muscle creatine accumulation during creatine supplementation in humans. American Journal of Physiology-Endocrinology And Metabolism, 271(5), E821-E826.
6. Vandenberghe, K., Goris, M., Van Hecke, P., Van Leemputte, M., Vangerven, L., & Hespel, P. (1997). Long-term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training. Journal of Applied Physiology, 83(6), 2055-2063.
7. Candow, D. G., Chilibeck, P. D., Chad, K. E., Chrusch, M. J., Davison, K. S., & Burke, D. G. (2004). Effect of ceasing creatine supplementation while maintaining resistance training in older men. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 12(3), 219-231.