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In the first issue of the Supplement Series, you learned how to select safe, quality supplements.

Today, we’re talking about my favorite supplement: creatine monohydrate.

Creatine is an amino acid that is naturally found in animal meat (especially red meat).

It’s one of the most thoroughly researched supplements one can buy. Years and years of data back it as a safe and effective compound. 

Even better, it’s inexpensive, easy to use and doesn’t pose any risk of overdosing / using too much.

If you’d like to enhance your physical and mental performance this year, here’s what you need to know about creatine.

Physical Performance

Creatine is best known for boosting strength and exercise performance.

Numerous studies found that creatine supplementation increased muscle size during training periods of 4-12 weeks. Those supplementing with creatine averaged an additional 2-4 pounds of mass compared to those not using it. Additionally, creatine improves fitness capacity during high intensity exercises such as running internals, circuit training, or resistance training. 

Creatine works by helping the muscles recover faster between exercises, which allows you to train harder, run faster or complete more reps each workout. 

This is important to note! Creatine is not what directly makes you stronger or more powerful. 

Creatine simply provides extra energy to your muscles so that you can lift more weight, do more reps or sprint extra meters. Those extra reps are what make you stronger, leaner and more powerful. 

In summary, if increasing and maintaining strength, fitness and a lean body composition is a goal of yours, consider adding creatine to your daily routine.

Mental Performance

Creatine increases energy supply to your neurons (the “messenger” cells in your brain and nervous system).

An increase in neuronal energy appears to boost short term memory, intelligence and reasoning abilities. Interestingly, these cognitive benefits were most notable in older adults or people who were sleep deprived. This suggests that creatine may help keep your mental performance robust and sharp even if you aren’t sleeping great, as well as combat some of the cognitive declines that normally occur with age.

Research is currently ongoing to see if creatine will help with other cognitive functions such as long-term memory, spatial memory, attention span, reaction time, mental fatigue or medical diagnosis such as dementia or cognitive impairments.

That all being said, creatine isn’t just for bodybuilders or gym rats. Growing evidence is demonstrating that it may help you think more clearly, sharply and productively day in and day out.

How To Use Creatine

Creatine is extremely easy to use. It’s a powder that easily mixes into water, protein shakes or smoothies and is basically tasteless (no big “yuck” factor). 

3-5 grams each day is the suggested dose (that’s about 1-2 teaspoons).

Now, there are many different “blends” or variations of creatine on the market. I suggest you stick with creatine monohydrate as it is the variety that is the least expensive, the most researched and appears to deliver results just as good (or better) than the special, high-price, “super” blends that companies market. 

Here’s the brand I’m currently using. It's NSF certified, 3rd party tested and affordable. (FYI, I’m not paid to promote this product / this is not an affiliate link).

That’s all for today, see you next week.

Joseph

This is the second issue in the Supplement Series.

Read Issue #1: The Golden Rules Of Safe, Quality Supplements