How to Take Creatine Monohydrate

December 06, 2016

Creatine: What Can It Do For You?

There comes a time in everyone’s training when you hit a wall -and not with a medicine ball or sledgehammer as part of your workout - and are unable to achieve the next level.  That extra 10lbs of muscle you want to gain, or the lower body fat percentage or to shave 10 seconds off your favourite circuit.  Its an incredibly frustrating thing, working your body to it’s limit and being unable to reap the benefits of your hard work.  How can you break through this barrier, move past this plateau phase of training?  Enter: Creatine.

What Does Creatine Do?

Creatine is a combination of the amino acids glycine, arginine and methionine.  This mix of protein compounds can unlock your body’s potential for muscle and strength building by helping your body produce energy rapidly.  This rapid production of energy allows you to train harder and more often, thereby increasing muscle growth and strength.  Basically, more energy = longer and harder workouts = a stronger body.  Use creatine to help you boost your performance during high-intensity training or explosive activities such as most sports, weightlifting and competition.  There is less scientific support for creatine’s effectiveness during endurance and aerobic activities so use this energy boost for short term, high intensity exercise.

How to Take Creatine

So here’s the catch:  Creatine helps your body produce the energy to push through an extra long workout, or lift a bit of extra weight, but that will all be for nothing if you don’t use it.  If you aren’t getting to the gym using that last bit of energy your body has, it’s like driving a Lamborghini in a school zone; all that extra power will be wasted.  Once you push your body to use that built up energy, it will allow muscle fibres to grow more than they otherwise would and allow you to smash through the wall to the next level of your training.

Here is what you can expect once you start supplementing your diet with creatine.

You will gain weight.

Only 2-4 pounds, and it will be mostly water.  But don’t be surprised by the small increase in body weight.  Your body is preparing your muscles for the extra workload, and this results in a little extra water in your system.  Think of this as an investment. Invest a little water weight now, and the return on your investment will be lean muscle mass and better performance.  A pretty good trade-off if you ask me.

How to Choose a Creatine Supplement 

As with all diet and fitness supplements, there is a plethora of good options and a minefield of potential rip-offs and scams to avoid.  Here is the general rule for creatine: buy creatine in the purest powder form you can find.  Don’t waste your time with liquid creatine or creatine ethyl ester, which have been shown to be ineffective.  Experts recommend 100% pure creatine powder as the most effective form of delivery, and mixing it with fruit juice (or any other simple sugar) has been linked to higher uptake rates due to increased insulin levels.  Nexpharma offers a premium 100% ultra pure creatine monohydrate which passes extensive heavy metal screening  for arsenic, lead, cadmium, bismuth, antimony, and silver content.

THE BOTTOM LINE

All this talk of ethyl esters, uptake rates and insulin levels can get pretty dry so here is the bottom line:

If you want to get more out of your high intensity workouts, take 5 grams of creatine powder per day with 70 grams of simple sugar (fruit juice) in a post-workout meal.

If you aren’t sure, just follow the directions on the bottle.  Pre or Post-workout is the best time to use creatine because your body is ready to utilize & absorb all kinds of nutrients, and will be eager to catalyze and replenish your energy stores.

Creatine is the first ingredient; add the time, sweat, and effort and you have a recipe for making new strides towards optimal fitness.
Share:

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

---

Also in News