Friday, June 6, 2008

What Creatine does and is it for you?

By caleb lee

Creatine monohydrate (or for short, simply Creatine) is one of the most popular supplements used by bodybuilders. It is extensively used by athletes both amateur and professional, bodybuilders, even casual fitness buffs. It's even in some soft drinks! But what is Creatine, 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 can you replenish the levels of ATP that get broken down? You guessed it, Creatine does this for you (Good for you! You were paying attention!). Creatine is sort of like a reserve for ATP. In the most basic terms, the more creatine you have , the more ATP is available to you - simple as that. Which means, the more ATP that you have, the more endurance you'll have - which in a nutshell is why so many bodybuilders use this supplement -- because it keeps their muscles working harder -- longer.

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.

The other benefits of creatine are a higher threshold of fatigue and the promotion of muscle tissue building! Creatine is a supplement which as far as is known thus far is totally safe and really does perform as advertised - a rarity in this age of fitness and bodybuilding products making all manner of claims as to their results, only to fail to deliver as often as not.

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