Greenhaff, P. L. (2001, September). Muscle creatine loading in humans: Procedures and functional and metabolic effects. In 6th Internationl Conference on Guanidino Compounds in Biology and Medicine. Cincinatti, OH.

So you have done your research on this wonder supplement, but now you are uncertain whether the powder or pill form is the best. Opinions are widespread, with many suggesting there is little difference between the two. A key factor in several neurological diseases is a reduction of phosphocreatine in your brain ( 29). Yes, creatine is as beneficial to women as it is men. There is no special function of the Y chromosome that lends creatine special powers in the male body. However, dosing with creatine may be a bit different for women. Typically, women weigh slightly less than men and often need lower “maintenance doses”, often times 3 grams per day instead of 5 grams per day.

Creatine Powder

With that in mind, you have two options to get your blood creatine levels up where they need to be: the loading protocol, and the daily low-dose protocol. Here are the pros and cons of each. Method 1: Creatine Loading

On the other hand, creatine pills are not as easily absorbed into the body as creatine powder is. Creatine powder is rapidly absorbed into the body, letting it do its job faster. Creatine is one of the most widely researched supplements. In fact, a google scholar search for the terms “creatine supplementation” yielded 6,740 scholarly articles and a PubMed search yielded 562 articles, indicating there is a plethora of data for us to draw conclusions from. From decades of research and hundreds of studies, there are several well-substantiated benefits to creatine monohydrate including: Creatine pills are creatine inside a capsule. Creatine pills have two ingredients — creatine and gelatin. Gelatin is derived from collagen taken from animal body parts and is used to make capsules. Plant-based capsules use HPMC (cellulose) or pullulan (tapioca root extract). Now, when is the best timeto take creatine monohydrate — before or after your workout? Well, the answer is mixed, and different users swear by different timetables. That said, taking creatine monohydrate roughly 30 minutes before your workout is probably the most common method among serious lifters. Is Creatine Safe? The unanimous opinion suggests a loading phase should be implemented, wherein you take three times the normal daily amount of creatine every day for two weeks to saturate your cells.

Creatine can also increase the amount of phosphocreatine in your brain, which may help with your memory. Should I take creatine every day? Increase anabolic hormones. Anabolic hormones contribute to growth and tissue repair. They include insulin, human growth hormone (hGH), estrogen and testosterone. These results were observed after a specific “loading” protocol was observed. This protocol involves ingesting roughly .3 g/kg/day for between 5 and 7 days (roughly 20 grams a day in 5-gram increments) and 3-5 g/day following the first 5-7 day period. 2, 3 One of the reasons why it’s got such a massive following is because research has proven it time and again to be one of the most popular supplements for exercise performance. 1 What is creatine exactly? When you look through the data in the paper, it looks like every subject in the post group showed improvements, which was not the case in the pre group, suggesting taking creatine post-workout might be a better idea than taking it pre-workout. However, the differences were small and it really is the accumulation of the creatine the matters, not so much the timing.