Creatine Myths

At least once a week I get questions about creatine and of course the first one asked is, “Is Creatine a steroid?”   Well the short answer is “NO.” My belief is that from the hype around baseball and the McGwire years of finding he used andro and creatine started this scare and promotion of creatine.  So the two big questions are what is creatine and what does it do?
Creatine is a form of energy that is stored in our muscle fibers as a type of muscle energy or muscle fuel.  Our muscle fibers have different types of energy in them.  Our bodies naturally produce a large amount of creatine just as it does with glutamine, so the average person does not need to supplement with anymore.  I am of the belief that if you oversupplement the body, it will slow down or stop producing what it is meant to do.  Where creatine helps is for the advanced to elite athletes that deplete their ATP (muscle energy) then the extra supplemented in their system can help with getting those extra reps for cell volumization, and muscle production. 
What exactly does creatine do?
1. Provides muscle energy- creatine works mainly to increase our muscle energy or muscle fuel.  Our muscles use their fuel to contract in virtually every situation possible.  For example when you try to perform a heavy set of 4 repetitions compared to a set of 15 repetitions, a different type of muscle energy is used.  Each of these is linked with a particular muscle fiber type.  If you can manipulate the energy system, then you can drastically increase muscle mass.  
2. Increases The Pump- creatine has been shown to super hydrate your muscles (cell volumization; it literally draws water into the muscle cells).   The body and muscles are 67%-70% water so you can see where this is extremely important, and increases pumps dramatically, even while on low carbs. 
3. Increases Reparation Process of Bodybuilding-As I have stated many times, you don’t grow in the gym Muscle growth occurs through protein synthesis, and in short creatine actually helps enhancing this and thus speeds up recovery. 
Suggestions

• I don’t believe anyone under the age of 18 should use creatine, due to no one knows if there are any long term effects yet.  So far short term there isn’t any known.
• Drink plenty of water or even extra.  Many people I know complaining of cramping when using creatine, and 90% of the time they didn’t drink enough water to flood the system.
• Use 5-10 grams only on workout days.  I like to use 5g before and 5g after, so it is in my system while I’m lifting and after. 
• Every two months stop using for one month then go back to make sure body works to produce it own.

…For more information and tips, check my website, www.chadamartin.com and thanks to Advocare for providing supplements.