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Further information on the most popular supplement among strength athletes. After general information on creatine, this time we will take a closer look at the most popular form - Creatine Monohydrate.
It's time to bring the topic of creatine monohydrate closer. Many people think that this is the worst form of creatine. They may be partially right, but there are many arguments in its defense. It can be effectively combined with other fractions, which allows you to save money and a second supplement. The results, however, are similar. Let's take a closer look at creatine monohydrate...
Just because it is its simplest form does not mean it is the worst.
The human body absorbs and uses its doses of 10g per day, divided into 2 portions of 5g each. The rest is excreted from the body as useless creatinine. The specificity of monohydrate is its ability to bind water. When taking it, our muscles seem to absorb water and thus appear larger. After the cycle ends, the water leaves the muscles, but they are still larger than when not using creatine. This is a temporary process caused by the accumulation of creatine in the muscles and its retention of water. A frequently chosen preparation after monohydrate is malate . It does not cause water retention to such an extent, but the final result is similar to that of monohydrate. However, it is more expensive.
You can also effectively combine cycles to create one. For example:
Training days:
- 5g of monohydrate in the morning, on an empty stomach,
- 5g malate after training.
Non-training days:
- 5g of monohydrate in the morning, on an empty stomach,
- 5g malate at times corresponding to those on training days.
Monohydrate stimulates the increase in ATP production in our body, or in simpler terms energy, to a very similar extent. Monohydrate has anabolic functions that effectively increase the growth of strength and muscle mass. An additional advantage is the improvement of the nitrogen balance of the body, which results in a significant improvement in regeneration. In addition, it delays the breakdown of proteins - anti-catabolic functions (protection of muscle fibers). Creatine, as well as monohydrate, is one of the best and at the same time the cheapest anti-catabolic substances. It also has the ability to store phosphate groups in our muscles, and these in turn are very energetic compounds.
Monohydrate is the so-called phosphocreatine precursor. It is a hydrated form, which is why it is perfectly distributed in tissues.
It can be seen that what is cheaper is not always worse. It has not been determined whether monohydrate is better than malate. However, it has been determined that the final results are similar. Most people think that since monohydrate hydrates the muscles, after the cycle is over the water will drop and the muscles, along with strength, will return to their original levels. Nothing could be further from the truth. The amount of creatine that was supposed to be absorbed by the body, certainly did so. Hydration is only a side effect - creatine in the form of hydrate certainly did its job and if the training and diet were effective, then these gains will certainly be noticeable.
Janusz Ziółkowski - Dietician
