Creatine Monohydrate

What is creatine Monohydrate? Is it for you?

Creatine is such common place now you'll see and hear many people taking it and talking about it. If you've never heard of, or used creatine (monohydrate) before, you'll find all the key information you need right here. This is the first part of a series of articles to educate you about creatine and its uses.

So exactly what is creatine? It is actually a nutrient found naturally in our bodies, and it's made from a combination of the three amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine. The main function of creatine is providing energy to your muscles for movements, especially quick and explosive movements. Your body gets its creatine from food and/or supplements. You can imagine then, that taking extra creatine monohydrate (CM) will help you out during workouts. Read more about benefits of creatine in this article.

See our complete creatine guide here.

How Does Creatine Monohydrate Work?

Simply speaking, creatine increases the energy of your muscles. It does this by increasing the amount of ATP. Because your strength depends on ATP, supplementing creatine enhances your strength.

In a more detailed description, ATP is the initial fuel for your muscle contractions. (ATP stands for adenosine triphosphate.) The ATP provides energy by releasing a phosphate molecule, and it then becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate). See how the name went from triphosphate to diphosphate? This just means it has 2 instead of 3 after losing 1.

The energy produced by this lasts for about 10 seconds, after which more ATP must be produced. This is where creatine phosphate comes in and gives its phosphate to the ADP making another ATP. This ATP again, is used as energy. You can think of it as the more creatine you have (by supplementation) you'll be able to produce more ATP and thus generate more energy during workouts.

Your ability to generate ATP depends on your supply of creatine. The more you have, the more ATP you can make. Having the extra creatine in your body allows you to work your muscles to the maximum potential - letting you squeeze every bit out of them. However, you still lose energy molecules and eventaully, no matter how much creatine you have, they won't do you any good without the energy molecules, which depends heavily on Ribose to manufacture. Read our articles on Ribose and Creatine Stack here.

Creatine and Your Diet

Creatine naturally exists in your body. So it's not some miracle drug scientists created. The amount in your body depends on your body weight and mostly on your muscle mass. An average 150lb person will have about 120 grams of creatine, and an average person uses up about 2 grams of creatine a day.

Creatine is found mostly in meat and fish. Some good food sources include cod, tuna, salmon, beef and pork. While these meats contain creatine, it's not necessarily a good idea to eat too much meat, as most meats (especially red meat) contain high levels of saturated fat and cholesterol. (Of course they also contain a good amount of protein as well.) But you should look to bodybuilding supplements for those extra nutrition and weight gain elements instead of trying to eat more meat than normal. You don't want clogged arteries or too much body fat.

If you're a vegetarian, you would tend to have less creatine than meat-eaters - simply because meats are a natural source of creatine as discussed above. While the average person use up about 2 grams of creatine each day, athletes, in our case, bodybuilders, use up much more.

Now the dilemma is how to get enough creatine in your body without eating so much meat you end up with clogged arteries. What you need is a concentrated source of creatine without the fat, and this is where CM supplements come in to play. You can get pure creatine supplements at relatively cheap prices nowadays. Click the links below for some great products offered at great prices.

>> Click here for Micronized Creatine
>> Click here for Optimum Nutrition Creatine
>> Click here for Prolab Creatine

CM, like any type of supplement, gets complicated and confusing when you consider all the types and brands of creatine there are. I'll try to keep it simple and straightforward and provide you with all the creatine info you need to make an informed decision on your creatine monohydrate experience, and purchase.

First, explore more in depth about CM with the following articles:

Creatine Serum vs. Creatine Powder
Creatine Benefits
Creatine Use, Loading, Cycling
Effects of Creatine Use and Side Effects
Creatine FAQ