Creatine Essay, Research Paper

Creatine

Athletes and regular people alike try many different supplements to find one that they can use to help increase their muscle mass. They may not realize it, but their bodies already produce a chemical that is great for that purpose and consuming more of it in form of a supplement can be exactly what they are looking for. Creatine can be a good and useful supplement to increase muscle mass and weight if you know exactly what it does and the correct way to use it.

Creatine does occur naturally in the body. To understand how a Creatine supplement works, it is important to first know exactly what Creatine naturally does in the body. Creatine is mainly involved with providing extra energy for the body. The body s source of energy is called ATP. When the amount of ATP drops Phosphocreatine helps increase the amount of ATP. After longer periods of releasing energy the amounts of ATP and Phosphocreatine in the body drop. This is when the body releases its supply of Creatine. The Creatine increases the amounts of ATP and Phosphocreatine, which in turn increase the energy the body has. Creatine also helps the body increase muscle mass. It increases the rate of protein synthesis in the body, which speeds up growth of muscle.

The Creatine supplement is taken so that the body has a large amount of Creatine to use. This gives the body much more energy and allows the muscles to work much longer and harder than they normally could. It is important when taking it that the user consumes a lot of water. It is recommended that a person take in about 1-2 gallons of water daily while using Creatine. This is because in order to increase the energy in the body the Creatine must use a lot of the body s water. When being used to increase muscle mass Creatine can be used 30-60 minutes before and after a workout. The user can choose to take it before the workout so that they will have more energy and be able to work longer and harder. They can also take it after a workout, when the muscles are worn out, to help speed up the recovery times. This allows the person to work out more often and helps muscles grow back faster and stronger.

It is very important when taking any type of supplement to be aware of the short and long-term effects it will have. Creatine is a natural chemical in the body, so the supplement has no known effects that can harm the user. The only harmful effects it has that are known are due to user error. Those effects are cramping and gastric problems. The cramping happens because the user does not consume enough water while on Creatine. The gastric problems are also from the user s error when they do not take in enough water or they use too much Creatine in too short of an amount of time without working to use the Creatine they already have taken in.

In conclusion, I have shown that Creatine is a good and useful supplement that can be used to increase muscle mass and weight if you know exactly what it does in the body and the correct way to use it. Even though the body already makes it own form of Creatine, it is a good supplement to use. This could be the supplement that athletes are looking for to get stronger, and little did they know, they ve always had it in them.