Introduction
Creatine is a substance that occurs naturally in the body and regulates the supply of energy to the muscles. Especially in muscle building and endurance sports, creatine is used as a supplement to increase performance and speed up muscle building. Although creatine has been used in this context for many years and is not considered a doping agent, there is always criticism and the question of how sensible the use of creatine in different sports really is.
Is taking creatine useful?
Creatine has many positive effects on the human body. These are not limited to the muscular level, where creatine increases performance and muscle strength, but also extend to other areas of the body. Taking creatine has a positive influence on brain performance, improves concentration and increases stress tolerance of people who are under particular psychological and emotional stress.
Bones and cartilage are better supplied with nutrients by creatine, which makes creatine a useful addition to therapy, especially in the case of bone fractures or in the treatment of osteoporosis. This shows that creatine covers many other areas besides sports and can be considered a useful dietary supplement. The people who use creatine are divided into responders, who respond well to creatine intake, and non-responders, in whom creatine has virtually no effect. In the latter case, the use of creatine does not make sense logically. By and large, the question of whether it makes sense to take creatine cannot be answered in general terms, but must always be clarified individually.
Creatine for muscle building
To understand the effect of creatine in relation to muscle building, it is useful to first understand the process of muscle building itself. Every muscle in the human body consists of so-called muscle fiber bundles, which in turn consist of muscle fibers, which in turn are composed of smaller fibers, the myofibrils. Regular training improves the coordination between the different muscle fibers.
With further training, the so-called hypertrophy effect sets in. This means that the muscles begin to grow. This growth is caused by the storage of proteins in the muscle fibers.
In order to train the muscle at all, movements of the muscle are first necessary. During the movement, the muscle is tensed, it contracts. Energy is required for this contraction.
There are natural energy suppliers in the body. The main energy for muscle contraction is supplied by the molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Creatine is jointly responsible for the formation or regeneration of this ATP.
During muscle contraction, ATP is split, releasing the energy required for contraction. Under normal circumstances, only a certain amount of ATP is available in the muscle cells of the body. When the ATP is used up, we feel this because the muscle tires.
Without creatine, it takes some time for new ATP to form. Athletes now take advantage of this function when building muscle. By supplementing with additional creatine, more ATP is produced in the muscle cells so that performance is increased and longer training is possible.
By taking creatine, the creatine level in the muscle is increased by up to 20 percent. The effects of creatine in muscle building are therefore a faster fiber contraction, or a shorter relaxation time during a contraction, which allows a higher intensity of exercise. Furthermore, shortened recovery times of muscle cells due to larger amounts of ATP, as well as larger muscles due to water retention, since creatine binds water in the muscle cells, are among the positive effects. Correctly used, creatine can improve the training effect and positively support the muscle building. More information on this topic can be found under Creatine for muscle building
