The cleanest creatine dietary supplements you should purchase proper now

Creatine is one of the most well-researched supplements on the market. It also has the most research supporting its performance benefits. These benefits include increased strength, faster reaction times, increased testosterone, and greater muscle growth. If you're not supplementing your workouts, let us tell you everything you need to know - and recommend the cleanest creatine supplements you can buy right now.

What is creatine?

Creatine is an amino acid naturally found in animal products like chicken, steak and fish. Because of this, it has been reported that vegetarians have lower creatine stores and therefore may experience greater increases in muscle creatine after taking supplements. The body uses creatine as an energy source for quick bursts (think 5 to 15 seconds). It helps maintain ATP (energy) availability, especially during maximum-exertion anaerobic exercise, such as sprinting. B. Sprinting. On average, a normal diet provides about 1 to 2 g/day of creatine from food, which keeps muscle creatine stores at about 60 to 80 percent saturation. Therefore, supplementing with creatine can increase muscle creatine by 20 to 40 percent. Performance of high-intensity and/or repetitive exercise is generally increased by 10 to 20 percent after creatine loading.

Can Creatine Improve Performance?

As mentioned earlier, creatine has a variety of benefits. Here's a deeper look:

Advanced training. About 95 percent of creatine is stored in muscle, while 5 percent resides in the brain. Creatine supplementation may allow you to put in more work over a series of sets or sprints, resulting in greater gains in strength, muscle mass, and/or power due to an improvement in training quality.
Greater glycogen storage. It has been reported that creatine supplementation with carbohydrates or a combination of carbohydrates and proteins promotes greater muscle glycogen storage than carbohydrate supplementation alone, so you don't tire as quickly.
Increased neuroprotection. Creatine supplementation can actually reduce the severity of spinal cord injury, cerebral ischemia, and concussion or traumatic brain injury by promoting cellular homeostasis.
Improved recovery. Creatine supplementation can reduce muscle damage and improve recovery after intense exercise. It can also help athletes tolerate large increases in exercise volume.

How do I dose creatine?

The fastest way to increase muscle creatine stores is to take 5 g of creatine monohydrate (or approximately 0.3 g/kg body weight) four times a day for 5 to 7 days, followed by a maintenance dose of 3 to 5 g/day or 0 .1 g/day. kg body mass/day. However, such a loading dose is not required. You can also use the daily dose of 3 to 5 g/day if you don't need to reach creatine saturation quickly. Larger athletes may need an additional 5-10 g/day as a maintenance dose.

te: There are reports that taking creatine more consistently with carbohydrates or carbohydrates and protein (e.g. post-workout recovery shake) can promote greater creatine retention.

Creatine monohydrate vs. creatine hydrochloride

creatine monohydrate
The name "creatine monohydrate" comes from the fact that this type of creatine contains one molecule of water. As a result, monohydrate is about 88% creatine by weight. The most widely studied form of creatine in the literature is creatine monohydrate, both in terms of potency and dose. It's also relatively inexpensive.

creatine hydrochloride
Creatine HCl is creatine bound to a hydrochloride molecule. The HCL version contains about 72% creatine by weight. Creatine HCl claims to be more soluble, better absorbed, and more effective at smaller doses, all with less water retention. While the HCl version is more water soluble and potentially more rapidly absorbed, faster intestinal absorption does not result in increased bioavailability. Creatine HCl is also significantly more expensive than monohydrate, even when taken in smaller doses.

bottom line: While creatine HCl may be effective in smaller doses, the overwhelming literature supports this Creatine monohydrate as the optimal choice.

Common misunderstandings

While the initial loading phase of creatine supplementation can lead to water retention, long-term data suggest no potential water retention persists.
When taken at recommended doses (3 to 5 g/day), creatine supplementation does not cause kidney damage or dysfunction in healthy individuals.
Current research shows no causal relationship between creatine supplementation and dehydration or muscle cramps. In fact, most research supports the opposite.

The cleanest creatine supplements you can buy

With kind approval

1. Thorne Creatine

NSF Certified for Sports
Easy to mix, highly researched, micronized form of creatine monohydrate that is colorless and odorless

[$36; thorne.com]

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With kind approval

2. Significant Creatine

NSF Certified for Sports
Highly soluble, colorless and flavorless creatine monohydrate (we're big fans of their whey and vegan protein powder; consider making a morning smoothie or post-workout shake)

[$35; livemomentous.com]

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