There are many gym supplements to maintain healthy muscles. One of the top supplements for muscle growth is creatine. Supplementing with creatine is a telling tale of improved exercise performance and endurance.
Creatine also helps in building muscles, and if you are the one, doing weighted crunch and other fitness moves then, you need creatine for visible results. We discuss this topic in detail today.
Protein or Creatine, Which one is Good for Muscle Building
Creatine contains three amino acids, arginine, glycine, and methionine, which are naturally produced by our body. Amino acids are required to increase protein production in our body.
This is the basic difference between creatine and protein. Bodybuilders require both, as they do intense weight training, continuously stressing their muscles.
We can say, creatine is a trusted source to aid protein production in your muscles, and you know why protein is required for sustained muscle health.
Related Article: Know the difference between Creatine and Whey Protein
Does Creatine Helps in Muscle Building?
To answer your direct question on muscle building using creatine, it is a clear yes. Why, if you still need to know.
- More muscular endurance
- Improves muscle power and performance
- Creatine makes your lean muscles tissues more metabolically active, therefore helping you work harder in the gym as you gain more muscles
Related Article: Which Creatine is Best for Building Muscle?
How Creatine Actually Works in Muscle Building?
We have so far spoken about the multiple benefits of creatine such as endurance training, fat free mass, strength, power, and resistance.
It all happens through increase in levels of creatine storage in our body, and making way for faster production of ATP (energy) during high intensity exercises. It all works to provide energy to living cells in your body and muscles.
Related Article: How Creatine is made? Know the Answer
Creatine is present in your body in phosphorylated form or the free form. The majority portion is phosphocreatine (required for regeneration of ATP).
Three amino acids (glycine, arginine and methionine) are required for creatine synthesis. This can be sourced from meats, eggs, and fish up to a certain level. Vegetarians may still find it difficult to meet their requirements during intense workout schedule.
This is where creatine supplementation steps in, and helps in increasing the phosphocreatine and creatine level up to 40%.
Does it Build Muscles Faster?
It does, for two reasons. One it helps replenish ATP (a bio-chemical required to provide energy to the living cells in your muscles). If you have more energy supply to your muscles, it means you are able to exercise more.
It also means there is less risk of muscle damaging, faster muscle repair and recovery. In addition to enjoying the benefit of working out harder, it keeps your muscle active during the rest of the day.
Second, it improves your metabolic rate. It is likely that you have replaced carbohydrates in your diet. Creatine is a good fuel source of ATP, and therefore, you are never short on energy to work out faster.
A very important point (to build muscles faster) is to know how much creatine to consume. Please remember that you need to saturate the creatine level in your body for best effects. Don’t worry; there is no side effect of creatine either.
The loading phase in creatine can be typically defined as taking 20 grams of creatine in a day, continuously for 5 days. It can be divided into 4 or 5 grams single serve in a day. If you are looking for faster results, you can begin with loading phase.
It is still not mandatory. Only if you are looking for shortcut, you can cut to the loading phase to increase the phosphocreatine within the muscle, and as result boost your ATP synthesis, during weight training and anaerobic exercising.
After you are finished with the loading phase, follow the maintenance dose of creatine. You can continue taking 3-6 grams of creatine in a day.
Related Article: Why to Use and How to Use Creatine Monohydrate Powder
Which Creatine is Best for Muscle Building?
1) Creatine Monohydrate
It is the gold standard of creatine and can be sourced through supplements. It is a nutrition sports ergogenic (performance-enhancing substance).
There are many creatine types which aid muscle-growth. I will talk about them in brief.
2) Creatine Citrate
It is a kind of citric acid, and is considered to be more water soluble than creatine monohydrate. As far as its benefits are concerned, it is at par with creatine monohydrate, nothing less and more.
3) Creatine Ethyl Ester
It is a form of creatine which is easily absorbed by your body. But, it is not as effective as creatine monohydrate.
4) Liquid Creatine
Same is the case with liquid creatine, another type of creatine. It has suspended creatine particles in liquid, but is again, less effective than monohydrate.
When you consume these two form of creatine, the nutrition substance breaks down in to a by-product called creatinine, which is already being produced in our body at a constant rate.
5) Micronized Creatine
It is the processed form of creatine powder to give you small granules of monohydrate. It has the same properties as creatine monohydrate and is more soluble in water.
6) Buffered Creatine
It is a creatine type with a higher pH level. However, it has still not proven its worth to outperform monohydrate anyways.
It is rather easy to conclude that creatine monohydrate, in its various forms, is indeed the best supplement. We know supplements are easily available in the market today. You can buy it on-shelf, or online, but it is important to buy it safe.
This is why it important to know your supplement as much you know about its benefits. Take for example, MFF™ Creatine Monohydrate 200 Mesh, a certified quality product, containing ultra-small particle size, in a 200 mesh grade. It is very dissolvable in water.
Buy only quality supplements, as spurious products will harm you health than doing it good. The first step is to know the exact benefits, for muscle gain, for example.
