Episode 1 - What Is Creatine?

There’s no doubt that anybody serious about their strength training and physique has come across creatine as a supplement at some point. If not, then it’s almost certainly something that you’ve heard off. Creatine has been, and continues to be, a staple part of many people’s daily dietary schedule. As far as supplements go, creatine is one of the few that actually has a reliable and extensive field of research to back up all the hype.

What I want to do in this upcoming FitBlog series, The Creatine Series, is to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to creatine supplementation. If you are new to the gym, then perhaps expecting you to have heard of creatine is a little presumptuous. If you have several years of shifting iron under your belt, then you have probably been taking creatine for some time and have potentially already reaped the benefits. Either way, anyone can take something from this upcoming series, starting right here with Episode 1: What is Creatine?.

At the end of the day, and this goes for any supplementation use outside of a food first approach, if you’re prepared to put something into your body so regularly, you better damn sure know what the hell it is. If you work hard in the gym for your physical fitness, physique and health, then don't neglect your nutrition. You can't get one right without the other. You better make damn sure you know how to use that supplement properly, how safe it is, whether it has any detrimental effects on any individual pre-existing conditions you may have and what the potential side effects might be.

You might be able to say what it is and what it does in order to improve your gains, but can you safely say you’ve taken the time out of day to actually look at the research to back up your beliefs? This is what I’m going to help you with in this series. As the series moves into the second, third and fourth parts, you’ll find plenty of useful links to the research itself if you fancied diving a little deeper into the world of creatine supplementation.

The Creatine Series is going to look at the five key questions that should be asked about any sports or diet enhancing supplementation product. In each episode, we’ll look at one of these questions in detail so you can reach an informed understanding that’s backed by the research.

In Episode 1 – What is Creatine?, we want to understand what creatine actually is before anything else. Once we know what the product we are already buying or gearing up to buy actually is, then our next question will be answered in Episode 2 - Why Take Creatine? What are the benefits of this supplement and what evidence is there to back up its claims of greatness? This will be the driving force behind the second episode. Following on from this, we should understand the most effective and efficient way to take the supplement itself. Enter Episode 3 - How to Take Creatine. If you’re going to be investing in creatine in the long term, then ideally you want to be optimising its use. Essentially, this is how we use the product.

After using the product, we want to be prepared for any potential side effects. Just because we’ve been told it’s safe and don’t know anyone that’s had any negative side effects, that doesn’t mean it won’t happen to us. Don’t be naïve. Some of us have certain medical complications that the general gym goer might not. Understand the side effects of the supplement before you start guzzling it in droves. I’ll cover any potential side effects in Episode 4 – Side Effects of Creatine. Lastly, where are you going to buy it? Make sure you use a brand that has the right ingredient list on the bottle, that's well recognised as a sups company and very well-reviewed. This will form the fifth and final episode of the series, Episode 5 – What do I Buy?

Over the coming weeks I’ll be releasing this series through the FitBLog. Right then, let’s do this.

So, what exactly is the fine white powdery stuff that you pop in your shaker? The scoop looks so little! Creatine is a naturally occurring compound that is already found in the body. What I want to make clear from the get-go here is this; creatine is not a protein, nor is it an essential nutrient. There is often confusion here as creatine is an amino acid derivative, which means that it’s derived from a similar compound by undergoing a chemical reaction. Specifically, creatine comes from the amino acids, glycine and arginine, together with adenosyl methionine (a derivative of methionine). Great, but let’s simplify it a little. In short, creatine is a compound that occurs naturally in the body. But we want to know why, right? The body always creates these things for a purpose.

Our body uses creatine as the primary constituent of phosphocreatine. This helps to regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP) within the cells of our body following shorter bursts of physical activity. Well, what on God’s green earth does that mean? We’ll get there shortly.

95% of our body’s total creatine and phosphocreatine store are found in the skeletal muscles, the specific muscles we use as levers to move around, you know, the ones we want to look big and be strong. That other cheeky 5% can be found in other areas such as our blood, brain, other tissues, and yes gentlemen, testicles.

Per kilogram of dry muscle mass, the boy tends to hold around 120 mmol (the amount of substance equal to a thousandth of a mole). When someone regularly takes creatine as a supplement, this number can reach up to around 160 mmol per kilogram of muscle mass. This really is a significant boost. Every day, around 1-2% of the creatine stored in our muscles will be used up. This means that you would need to consume around 1-3 grams of creatine per day to keep up with the average creatine storage. This is that 120 mmol amount and entirely possible through a regular diet without the need for supplementation. Any creatine that hasn’t been absorbed through food will be synthesized in the liver and kidneys. There have been studies to suggest that muscle creatine levels are significantly lower in vegetarians. Vegetarians and vegans have been shown to have lower creatine levels in the skeletal muscle and their blood, but studies have not been conclusive in providing a clear difference in levels found in the brain.

If you’re still reading after this first part, then well done, we’re almost there. We know what creatine is, a chemical compound that naturally occurs in the body. We also understand that the body creates this chemical compound for a reason; to regenerate ATP for energy. Before we take a closer look at why we might take creatine as a supplement in a gambit to improve our muscle gains, it’s worth taking a look at the idea of energy regeneration and ATP. If you can come to understand this, then you really will have a good grasp of creatine. I know you want to just have the go ahead to take it, but wouldn’t you rather have the knowledge and the go ahead?

Let’s break it down. What is ATP and what’s its relevance here? Much like creatine, adenosine triphosphate occurs naturally in the body. It’s an organic compound that provides the energy needed to drive processes in the body, but most importantly, in the case of this article, muscle contraction. I can already hear you saying it! Gainz!

ATP is found in the cells of all known forms of life and can be viewed as the molecular unit of energy currency in our bodies. During our workouts, when we move that heavy iron for a number of repetitions, we are breaking down the ATP’s chemical structure to create adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to produce explosive energy that lasts for just a few seconds. But what happens after we’ve broken the ATP down for energy? Well, that’s where our trusty little friend, Mr Creatine shows his handsome mug.

Creatine is transported through the blood and deposited to the tissues where the demand is high. This tends to be places such as skeletal muscle and the brain. You can bet your bottom dollar that during a good strength workout, this is where it’s needed. Here is precisely when the creatine comes to lend a helping hand to that broken down ATP. The concentration of ATP in skeletal muscle in around 2-5 mM (millimolar). This would only allow a muscle contraction of around a few seconds. Here, ATP rapidly resynthesises itself from ADP with the use of phosphocreatine (PCr) through a reaction catalysed by the enzyme creatine kinase. Now, this is where it all falls into place, so listen up.

Creatine has the ability to increase muscles stores of PCr, in turn increasing the muscle’s ability to resynthesise ATP from ADP. If the ability to resynthesise ATP is increased, then our energy output when lifting weights is going to be greater.

I have tried to simplify the science here as much as I can, but here is a final attempt to really cut it down. Creatine helps us to store more phosphocreatine (PCr) in our skeletal muscle. If there is more PCr stores in our muscle, when ATP is broken down for the energy need to lift weight, it can be restored more efficiently. Boom, and right there, this leads us on to our next question, why take it as a supplement? Seems fairly obvious, but let’s look at what the science says next time.

In Episode 2 – Why Take Creatine, we’ll take a deep dive into the what the science suggests regarding the benefits of creatine on our training. I hope this first episode of the series has helped to set a foundation of knowledge for understanding creatine. I’m looking forward to expanding that knowledge in Episode 2. Until then, keep focused and keep up the hard work.

If you have enjoyed the first episode of this series, then make sure you check out some of the earlier FitBlog material. If you have any questions or enquiries, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch via the contact page.