In recent years, body building, powerlifting, weight training, and working out in general has become more popular. To generalize the category, fitness has been on a rise, it is now being widely advertised on several social media platforms. There are tons of social media fitness influencers, who often spew out information that is not factual nor accurate. For example, a lot of creators can talk about supplements they take and glorify their effects or give misinformation about these supplements. Monohydrate creatine is one of the most studied supplements in the fitness market and influencers can often give out misleading regarding its affects and usage. Therefore, it is important for people to do research of their own to understand the affects of the supplements they are taking. If you’re interested in taking monohydrate creatine, I’m going to explain why you should. 

	If you’re unfamiliar with the gym and the many result enhancing supplements there, are you may be thinking, “What the hell is monohydrate creatine?” To start at the bottom, “creatine is a substance that is found naturally in muscle cells” (Mawer, 5). Creatine consists of 3 amino acids: glycine, arginine, and methionine. Amino acids essentially are the building blocks for proteins, when amino acids are connected in long chains, they create proteins. Protein helps with the development and strengthening of muscles, so you can see a connection between creatine and fitness. Our body stores about 95% of our creatine in our muscles and the other 5% is stored throughout our brain, kidneys, and liver (Mawer, 9). Creatine is created in the liver and kidneys, but because of its purpose it is primarily stored in muscle tissue. Now, if you’ve noticed I’ve only mentioned creatine and not monohydrate creatine. Truth is they are the same thing just a difference in mass is what separates them. “Creatine monohydrate, the most popular form of creatine supplements, is simply creatine with one molecule of water attached to it—hence the name monohydrate. It is usually around 88-90 percent creatine by weight” (Collias, Your Complete Guide to Monohydrate Creatine). In addition to the raw creatine, there is one molecule of water attached to the creatine, hence its name monohydrate creatine.
 
Now that you have a basic understanding of what creatine monohydrate is, you may be asking, “Okay, but what does it do?” Creatine helps your body produce more ATP (adenosine triphosphate) molecules, which are high energy molecules. ATP is used all throughout the body, supplying energy to cells allowing them to make repairs and function at optimal levels. The human body makes around 1-2 grams of creatine daily (Van de Walle, 6), so as you supplement you increase the amount of creatine in your body by up to 5 times the original amount. This means that as you increase the amount of creatine in your body, you are also increasing the amount of ATP being produced in your body. ATP is used throughout the body by your trillions of cells to perform their assigned functions at a higher level. So, more ATP means your body is working at a higher level. This means that your muscle cells can use the energy from the ATP to function better, helping your muscles recover faster and become stronger. 

I’m sure maybe some more questions are trickling in, like an annoying little kid asking “Why?” So, if by any chance you are now wondering, “Alright but what exactly does it do?” then let me explain! According to research, creatine helps by boosting your workload (Mawer, How It Works?), this enables you to do more in the gym. It enables you to train with more volume without lowering the intensity of the workout, which is a key factor in gaining and sustaining muscle. If you want to get stronger, you won’t become as strong as you possibly can if you just do the same workouts with the same volume repeatedly, so being able to increase your workload and volume will help you work your muscles more, thus becoming stronger. Creatine can also increase cell hydration (Mawer, How It Works?) which as we all know is important. Increased water in your muscle cells allows your cells to be healthier and more efficient. This helps fight against dehydration, cramps, and injuries. As a beginner you experience rapid muscle growth, assuming you have a stable diet which includes protein intake, so you are going to experience lots of soreness. Creatine does not only affect in gym activities but plays a role outside the gym as well! Creatine “has been shown to reduce inflammation and cell damage following lengthy, intense exercise,” according to Krissy Kendall, Ph.D. in Nick Collias’ blog “Your Complete Guide to Creatine Monohydrate.” This means that as you are out of the gym your body is still actively being benefitted by creatine as your soreness is being alleviated. There are plenty more benefits to creatine, but to finish this list, creatine also lowers myostatin levels (Mawer, How It Works?). Myostatin is a protein that is coded with the MSTN gene, and it inhibits muscle growth (MedlinePlus, Genetics, MSNT Gene). As a body builder or somebody who frequently works out, the inability to grow your muscles is bad news. Luckily, creatine can reduce the level of myostatin in your body helping with muscle growth.
 
Now I’m not going to just ignore the side effects and sell you the idea that creatine is the best thing ever and that there are no side effects because that would be wrong. Some side effects include “weight gain, muscle cramps, muscle strains and pulls, stomach upset, diarrhea, dizziness, high blood pressure, liver dysfunction, kidney damage” (Mount Sinai, Health Library, Creatine). According to Mount Sinai, a prestigious and well-respected hospital in New York, “most studies don’t have significant side effects at the doses used up to 6 months.” You may look at that list of side effects and at first you may be alarmed, I can assure you that these side effects are not deadly and not prevalent if you are taking a normal dosage. It is advised that you do speak to your health care provider and figure out if taking creatine is right for you. Another side effect to creatine is “Rhabdomyolysis” which is the breaking down of the skeletal muscle tissue was only seen in 1 case with the subject taking 10 grams daily for 6 weeks. 
Now that you’ve made your judgement against the pros and cons you may be wondering, how to use it and what’s the best way to use it. There are two ways you can take creatine. You can either use it as a powder or you can take the pill form. If you choose to use the powder, it is recommended that you drink it with a protein shake to increase your gains. You can make your own protein shake and add the powder to it, or if you take it by itself, you can mix the powder with water and milk and ingest it that way. On the other hand, if you decide to use the capsules, use them accordingly, it’s very easy to take the wrong dosage of creatine. Read the nutritional values on the back of bottle that you purchased, it should say how much is in a serving what the serving size is, follow the directions on the back of the bottle and do as it instruct you to. Although it’s not necessary, many people start with a loading phase. Essentially the loading phase is where you take a large amount of creatine daily for about a week, this is to jump start your process, which allows you to have a higher count of creatine stored in your muscles. According to research, in the loading phase you are supposed to take 20 grams of creatine daily, which should be 4 servings of 5 grams for 5-7 days. You can take these along with high carb or high protein meals, to increase the absorption into the muscles. After the 5-7 days you being to take a lower dosage for a larger interval of time, you can begin to take 3-5 grams per day for however long you desire to take creatine. (Mawer, Dosage Instructions). You may safely take creatine for up to 5 years (Mayo Clinic, Safety and side effects), or until you run out and need to get more.
 
As I did my research, I asked the question “What happens if I don’t take it for a while?” The answer is…nothing! Let’s say that you were taking creatine daily for 3 months and you ran out of your powder or your capsules and now you need to get more. There isn’t a grace period in where you need to pick up again, nor do you have to go through a loading phase again. The loading phase isn’t necessary at all, so you don’t have to worry about taking large amounts of creatine again (Pete Schenkel, Creatine After Taking a Break: Do You Need to Load Again?). Many influencers and body builders will tell you however, that you should do the loading phase because you will see results faster. If you do decide to do another loading phase, it would be best to wait around a month or two so your body can use the stored creatine. You don’t want to load again shortly after stopping your cycle, it could be dangerous as it could lead to some of those side effects discussed earlier.
 
I played football when I was in high school, and I was starting on varsity as a sophomore playing with kids older and stronger than me. I was young and not nearly as strong as other kids, so I needed to take the weight room seriously. Junior year I was stronger, and I weighed more which helped me out a lot as my team and I went undefeated and went to the championship game, but unfortunately, we lost. Going into my senior year I got a gym membership and I really started to take weight training seriously. I put on about 30 pounds and all my compound lifts like bench and squat increased a lot. I was benching 315 pounds and squatting 405 pounds, which is pretty good for an 18-year-old. Fast forward until a couple months ago I was on what body builders call a plateau, I was not able to progress past a certain amount on my lifts. About 2 months ago, I started taking creatine and I’ve already seen a major improvement in my lifts. I can now bench 315 easily for reps in contrast to where it was my one rep max, now I can squat 435 easily, and I introduced myself to deadlifting which I didn’t really do much in the past. Already now with deadlift I can deadlift close to 500 pounds with my max being, 455! My new bench match is now 345 which is a huge step for me. All these numbers were reached without any additional help like, wraps, braces, or belts. Since starting creatine my compound lift maxes have increased by nearly 10%, which is remarkable. I wish I was as educated about it before as I am now, I’m sure it would’ve made an even bigger difference. 
If you are a beginner in the gym, I’m sure you have heard of creatine and this is your sign to start taking it. It will help you tremendously, whether your goal is to look better or get stronger or both! This isn’t just for beginners any one can take it at any time in their exercise journey, however, if you are an older person who has liver or kidney problems, please make sure to talk to your doctor first. Creatine and protein will go a long way, so take that first step and buy some creatine. With the right diet and consistency creatine can work wonders. All it takes is a little dedication just like anything in life does. As for anything else regarding the gym or exercise, please do your research because there can be a lot of misleading content everywhere so it is good to not just jump into things head first based off of what you see on social media. 

Citations:  
Mawer, Rudy. “Creatine 101 - What Is It and What Does It Do?” Healthline, Healthline Media, 25 Oct. 2018, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/what-is-creatine#dosage. 
Collias, Nick. “What Is Creatine Monohydrate? Everything You Need to Know.” Bodybuilding.com, 7 July 2021, https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/creatine-monohydrate-101-the-research-behind-a-phenomenon.html. 
Walle, Gavin Van De. “Can You Take Too Much Creatine? Side Effects and Dosage.” Healthline, Healthline Media, 24 Apr. 2019, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/too-much-creatine#:~:text=What%20is%20creatine%3F,your%20skeletal%20muscles%20(%201%20). 
“MSTN Gene: Medlineplus Genetics.” MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/gene/mstn/. 
“Creatine.” Mount Sinai Health System, https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/supplement/creatine. 
Pruthi, Sandhya. “Creatine.” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 9 Feb. 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/drugs-supplements-creatine/art-20347591. 
Schenkel, Pete. “Creatine after Taking a Break: Do You Need to Load Again?” Powerful Lifting, Powerful Lifting, 5 Apr. 2022, https://powerfullifting.com/do-you-need-to-load-creatine-after-stopping/.