Creatine in endurance sports | How useful is creatine?

Creatine in endurance sports

Although creatine increases the performance of the muscles in the short term and leads to an increase in muscle volume over a longer period of time, it can still be beneficial for endurance athletes.Due to the increased amount of creatine in the muscle, less lactic acid is released, which can reduce potential muscle soreness after training. The water retention in the muscle caused by the creatine increases the total weight, but can be seen as an additional fluid reservoir, especially for endurance athletes who dehydrate quickly. Since creatine improves muscle protein synthesis, taking creatine can also help regenerate damaged muscles and shorten break times.

The increased supply of ATP in the muscles has a positive effect on interval training and can also increase performance there. All this shows that creatine can also be used in endurance sports. There, however, it has mainly regeneration-promoting effects and is not primarily aimed at improving performance.

How often and how long should creatine be used?

When using creatine, there are different dosage options that are more or less suitable depending on age, sex and training goals. Therefore, before starting the intake should be analyzed what purpose the use of creatine should serve. The slow load variant is 3 phases of creatine intake.

The loading phase lasts about 4 weeks, with two single doses of 3g creatine per day. In the maintenance phase, which also lasts 4 weeks, the amount of creatine depends on the personal weight. 0.03g of creatine per kilogram of body weight should be taken.

The last phase is the weaning phase, in which the intake of creatine is continuously reduced over 4 weeks. The Fast Load Supplementation is also divided into the same phases. In the loading phase, 0.3g of creatine per kilogram of body weight is supplied over 7 days.

The maintenance phase then goes over 6-8 weeks. Here the dose is reduced to 0.03g creatine per kg body weight. The weaning phase also lasts 4 weeks, whereby the creatine quantity is slowly reduced.

Here, 3g of creatine per day are taken continuously. The loading and weaning phase is completely omitted with this method of intake. This topic may also interest you: Side effects of creatine

• Slow Load
• Fast Load
• Permanent intake