Creatine: The Most Important Supplement You Might Be Overlooking

April 5, 2024

Even on our greatest training days, fatigue and exhaustion will trump motivation and pure will. This is especially true when muscles are burning, and you’re trying to push through that final repetition.

When these crucial moments inevitably arise, you should be sure that you’re prepared to achieve your fullest potential. In this pursuit, you can’t overlook a supplement backed by research, supported by evidence, and proven by results for athletes of all experience and skill levels.

You need the true catalyst for muscular energy, endurance, and strength, and one of the most widely studied supplements in the world today: Creatine Monohydrate.

This article will serve as your guide to a comprehensive understanding of creatine as a dietary supplement, as well as its benefits, mechanisms, and applications to your health and performance goals.

What Is Creatine?

Despite the data-backed evidence in creatine’s favor, many consumers overlook its importance and the impact that it can have on their training.

To understand the value that creatine supplementation can provide, we should first understand what it is and how it functions for our energy systems.

Creatine is an amino acid that occurs naturally in the body and brain. Synthesized for use by the simpler amino acids of Arginine, Glycine, and Methionine, it plays a crucial role in energy metabolism due to its ability to fuel the body’s cells for higher intensity, shorter duration activities, like weightlifting or sprinting.

While creatine is produced by the body naturally, it can also be supported through diet and supplementation. Creatine can be found in animal products such as beef,pork, milk, and some fish. These sources are useful, but not nearly as concentrated and consistent in supply as supplemental forms, which provide the same proven benefits to the body as whole food sources.

No matter how creatine is consumed or created by the body, it serves many important purposes. It promotes brain function, establishes antioxidative properties, and serves to develop bone and muscle health, when combined with resistance training.

Each of these benefits can be credited to the many important processes that our body’s perform each day, allowing us to function optimally.

How Does It Work?

As opposed to the more acute, immediate effects of products like a stimulant-based pre workout, creatine initiates long-term benefits that go well beyond one training session.

This means that rather than feeling an instant change from creatine consumption, your body stores it over time, primarily in the muscles, to be recruited for moments where power output and force production are needed.

When our muscles are placed under stress, the body expends ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). Known as the energy currency of the cell, ATP is the body’s driver for metabolism and muscle function. Our engagement in muscle activating, force producing activities requires that we call upon ATP to fuel our efforts.

The issue with ATP is that the body only stores enough of it for a few seconds worth of high-intensity activity. Once this time is up, your body must produce more ATP before you can resume performing at peak ability. Because of how rapidly our bodies use the energy that we provide it, we can easily find ourselves depleted of valuable energy reserves.

When consumed with consistency, creatine saturates the muscles, stored as creatine phosphate, which serves to regenerate ATP, allowing for greater power output and muscular endurance. High levels of this rapidly reusable reserve of energy serves to recycle ATP more efficiently and effectively.

The key then, is to keep your muscles saturated with creatine, to ensure that an effective energy source is accessible for when it’s time to push through those critical reps.

When Should You Supplement Creatine?

To consistently perform at your highest level, the body needs enough creatine phosphate stores to produce energy. In the absence of creatine stores, you will quickly deplete ATP and be left with little ability to power through important reps, sets, and sessions.

Supplementation with creatine is simple and proven effective. Your muscles benefit from having access to creatine phosphate stores, and the best way to achieve this is by consuming 5 grams of supplemental creatine monohydrate every day.

Many people discuss the importance (or lack thereof) in performing a ‘loading’ phase, where you consume upwards of 20 grams per day of creatine monohydrate for a brief period, with the goal of quickly topping off creatine phosphate stores in the body. However, this method isn’t proven to be effective, and when consumed in too large of quantities, our bodies simply rid itself of excess creatine through urine.

The more sustainable and beneficial method for creatine supplementation is to consume one serving (5 grams) at any time, each day.

Why Creatine Monohydrate (as opposed to other forms)?

If you are in the process of choosing a supplement to better your quality of life and performance, you should be assured that the product is trustworthy, and the manufacturing processes are transparent from start to finish.

The ‘monohydrate’ form of creatine is by far the most popular (and extensively studied) form of creatine in the supplement space. Made up of a creatine molecule and a water molecule, monohydrate is 90% creatine by weight. This choice is proven effective, safe, and valued most cost-friendly, as opposed to other forms.

Why BPN is Your Best Choice

The team at Bare Performance Nutrition takes pride in creating, manufacturing, and distributing the best possible products for the consumer. As athletes and high performers, we care deeply about the quality and effectiveness of the supplements that we take and know that you are no different.

For these reasons, we source our creatine powder from Creapure®. This is the brand name for creatine monohydrate produced by AlzChem Trostberg GmbH in Germany, Creapure® ensures purity, and safety for all their products, but specifically their high-quality creatine supplement.

All you have to do is mix 1 scoop (5 grams) of BPN Creatine Monohydrate with your morning protein shake, your pre workout, BCAAs, or post workout hydration. Just make sure you take 1 serving of creatine everyday (including off days from training) to maintain adequate creatine phosphate stores.

Widely studied and shown to increase muscle mass, strength, power, and performance, Creapure® stands alone as the best source of creatine monohydrate on the market today. And when you choose BPN as your choice of Creapure® creatine, you get 60 servings per container, supplying you with two months worth of supplementation.

Go to our website to purchase the best valued creatine monohydrate available and see the differences that it makes in your health and performance!

There is good reason that creatine is the most extensively studied, proven supplement on the market today. It provides a wide range of benefits, from increased muscular endurance and force production to greater cognitive activity, and overall health benefits.

Many supplements can improve health and performance, but none stand up to the overwhelming return on investment that creatine offers. While the benefits aren’t immediate, they are long-lasting, and when taken with consistency, it will fuel more days and training sessions than any other product money can buy.