Say Yes to Creatine

If you want to build muscle mass, strength and be fatigue resistant, add creatine to your daily nutrition intake. Creatine is a simple way to maximize your training/exercise potential. If you want to push yourself to find your physical limits, regardless of your age, creatine helps you get in more repetitions, increase your training volume and therefore increase your stimulus for adaptation. As we get older, all these aspects of exercise become more important therefore, apply any hack available to us.

Our bodies to produce creatine where it is stored in the skeletal muscle. It’s function is to act like a back up to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) (getting a bit sciency), but what we want to know is that it allows muscle fibers to continue a strong contraction during exercise. When you use creatine you may notice that you have greater exercise tolerance, meaning you can perform more repetitions making your time in the gym more productive achieving greater returns for your efforts.

If you are now considering taking creatine, look for creatine monohydrate. there are about a dozen forms of creatine supplement, but creatine monohydrate shows the bests results.

Next is to consider dose. Aim for 3-5 grams per day. It may take a few weeks before it becomes muscles become fully saturated. It is something to continue taking once you start. Some women have experienced bloating, but you can aim for the lower end if you do.

Endurance athletes may be concerned with gaining weight, but creatine does show signs of improving oxygen consumption, a win for us older female endurance athletes. If weight gain is a concern, beyond increase from muscle mass, then aim for 2-3 g per day. Note that most of the non muscle weight gain can be from water weight.

There have been some reports that creatine causes muscle cramps, but the research shows it can actually reduce the incidence of muscle cramps through supplementation.

I have tried a few brands but have settle on creapure. The taste is not pleasant so I mix it in to another drink. It may be mixed into a protein drink, electrolytes drink, or kombucha.