Creatine monohydrate (or Creatine for short) is a popular supplement used by all kindso f people seeking to improve their performance. Trainees like amateur and professional athletes, bodybuilders, and even the occasional “casual” gym goer. Heck, it’s even in soft drinks now days! But what is Creatine Monohydrate, exactly?
Creatine is a natural substance found in your body made up of three basic amino acids, Arginine, Glycine and Methionine. It’s located in your muscle tissues where it plays the important role of giving energy to your muscles. As for “technical talk”, Creatine is an ergogen.
“What is an Ergogen?” You may be asking… basically an ergogen boosts your body’s ability to do work and Creatine helps in that respect. You see, Creatine helps your body produce ATP (which is short for adenosine triphosphate). Basically this substance is the best possible source of energy for working muscles. ATP makes the proteins which cause your muscles to contract (or flex). So when your muscles are doing something, ie. at work, ATP breaks down into ADP (adenosine diphosphate) and energy is released. All this happens in just a few seconds.
So how does your body replenish this breakdown of ATP? You might have guessed it by now — it’s by Creatine! Creatine is a type of reserve for ATP… basically the more creatine you have the more ATP you’ll have — it’s that simple. And the more ATP you have the more endurance you’ll have — which is basically why so many bodybuilders and athletes use this substance.
So What are some good sources of creatine? Of course there are the nutritional supplements sold at health food stores and specialty shops both online and off catering to bodybuilders, additionally, there are two other sources of creatine. One is the many popular soft drinks containing this metabolite (I don’t recommend this - because they usually contain large amounts of sugar and other crap you don’t want along with your creatine).
The second good source of creatine (other than supplements) is red meat. A big serving of red meat (make sure it’s lean meat if you’re concerned about gaining lean muscle while burning fat) contains about one gram of creatine. Truthfully though, a creatine supplement is more efficient.
There are other benefits of creatine too. Like a higher threshold of fatigue and the promotion of muscle tissue building! Creatine is a supplement which thus far is proven totally safe and really does perform as advertised - a rarity when the marketing for most products these days is overpromises and the product underdelivers.