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Creatine. Creatine. Creatine. How many times can I say the word? If I were to say the name as many times as there is products out there I would easily have a 500 word article in its self. But this article isn’t about just any old creatine. Wait, that’s exactly what this is about. Old school creatine. Creatine Monohydrate. This is creatine in the purest form and the current supplement of choice for this man, and we will see in about a month how that treats me.

Now for the basics. Creatine monohydrate is a molecular compound of 3 basic amino acids, those being l-methionine, l-arginine and l-glycine. 95% of creatine is found in skeletal muscle tissue, coming in 2 different forms. Chemically unbound creatine which is in a free flowing state and creatine phosphate.

Now creatine can be found in a natural form, but due to the process of cooking, and evidently cooking out the creatine, it is best ingested in powder form. So unless you feel like shoveling down 2.2 pounds of raw red meat, or fish a day to get the recommended 4 – 5 grams a day. Take the damn powder.

Now creatine’s Performance enhancing properties are still after all these years up for debate, and can be sometimes hard to understand the mechanics of it, but one thing is for certain, it builds big muscles. When creatine enters the body, it rushes to the muscles and in there it attracts a great deal of water to the muscle cells therefore enlarging them quite a bit. Now one would sit back and think, why would I want to fill my muscles with water. Well it’s quite simple when you sit back and look at it. While studies have tried to prove better protein synthesis as well as minimized catabolism, one thing is for certain. You receive boosted strength, as well as the psychological benefits of having visibly larger muscles.

Creatine will also give you a faster recovery time while at the gym and it will give you greater tolerance of the workload you are taking on. Now for one to really understand the benefits of creatine they will need to understand what Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) is and what it does. In a nutshell ATP is the compound that you muscle uses when it makes a contraction. So every curl, every squat, your muscles are burning ATP. In taking creatine, you are essentially boosting your body’s ability to regenerate ATP levels, thus making you be able to work out more intense as well as recover faster.

Now believe it or not there a few myths surrounding the use of creatine. Gym Heads, or Gym Rats will sometimes say that you need to be loading on and cycling off creatine, like taking 20 grams a day for 5 days or taking 40 grams a day for a week. Well here is only so much creatine your body can handle. Creatine has been proven to be highly effective without a loading phase. 5 grams a day will give you solid results in 2 weeks or so. Creatine is perfect to use because it allows continual use without cycling, a process used for fat burners and other supplements so that your body doesn’t get used to them.

All in all, with the only side effect being gastric upset in the first few days, you will find that creatine is a very solid supplement, one that should already be a staple in your gym bag. If it isn’t yet, it soon will be.