Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Creatine, What and Why

By Henrick Scofers

If you are someone who is into regular exercise, then you've probably heard a lot about creatine. In order to understand how creatine can benefit your workout, it is important to understand what it is and how it works. Creatine is an amino acid compound that takes advantage of your body's existing amino acids and the food you eat in order to help store energy. Red meats and fish are creatine rich foods. In the human body, you will find creatine stored as phosphocreatine. What this does is works with your body's natural system for storing energy in the muscle, and in this way provides energy for muscle contraction. It also contributes to the ATP (adenosine triphosphate) regeneration process.

When your muscles contract, one phosphate molecule is lost from ATP and used to make energy. This converts an adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into adenosine diphosphate (ADP). In order to create more energy, i.e. to have more ATP to break back down again, you need to convert ADP back into ATP. Here is where creatine can come to the rescue -- creatine turns ADP back into high energy yielding ATP. The more creatine in your body, the faster your body will be able to reconstruct ATP. And so your muscles will be able to contract more quickly and effectively. That's why lots of people, when they need extra energy, use creatine for short exercise bursts, like when they are sprinting, bodybuilding, or practicing other fitness activities.

As an additional benefit, adding creatine also reduces fatigue, and it helps with protein synthesis. Both of these things promote muscle growth and development.

And creatine gives you access to this extra energy almost instantly. As a result, if you are a weightlifter or runner, creatine is an essential supplement to help create sudden and frequent energy bursts. In addition to providing increased energy, creatine also helps with your muscles recovery from exercise.

If you bodybuild, sprint, swim, or bike, you probably already know about creatine. But if you are unfamiliar with this super animo-acid, now is the time to get educated! It's not only a wonderful ongoing supplement, but it's great for anyone who wants greater muscle efficiency because it helps with the muscles retaining water so as to remain hydrated. You'll find creatine naturally occurring in the kidneys, pancreas, and liver, from arginine, methione and glycine. If a person does not take creatine, their muscles will not maintain water as effectively. Because of its effect on muscle hydration, creatine helps increase endurance and strength in the muscles.

If you know the benefits that creatine offers to building muscle and increasing endurance, you're sure to be satisfied with the product. Countless research has shown it is both effective and safe for anyone who wants to increase their fitness performance and muscle mass in exercises that require explosive and short energy bursts. But it is not a cure-all. If you want to have a sculpted physique, or the massive bulk of longtime bodybuilder, without doing the work, creatine is not going to be a wand you can wave and get the exact fitness results you want. What it does is help your body's development with a regular exercise plan.

It takes hard work and effort to grow muscle. When used with a regular exercise plan, creatine is quite effective.

If you use weights on a regular basis to work out, or use a personal trainer, you should start taking creatine. As you work out, with time, you'll see muscle growth, and you will also see maintenance of definition because your muscles will not become dehydrated. The way creatine works is that it goes to the muscle tissue via the bloodstream. If you take a supplement of creatine, your muscle cells will also become better hydrated. This will create an appearance of fuller and bigger muscles. Most of the body's creatine -- over 90% -- is stored in the tissues of the muscle. You'll also find a little bit in the brain, testicles (of men), and heart as well. About 120 g of creatine are found in an average adult. Your daily recommended amount of creatine is about 2 g. Make sure to bear that in mind. If you suddenly stop your creatine regimen, you will lose the expansion as well as the water gain in your muscles. But you'll still keep the muscles that you worked so hard for. It's not that creatine builds large muscles, its that it helps the muscles you build remain strong, so long as you do the hard work and put in the proper amount of effort.

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