Creatine is a supplement that has been popularly used within the fitness community for quite some time. Still, if you don’t train frequently or know much about the performance-assisting supplement world, you may have never heard of it! Even though people take creatine in supplement form, it is already naturally occurring in the human body and produced by the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. Creatine is then converted to phosphate, stored in the body’s muscles and used for energy. The human brain even uses some creatine, as studies show that it immediately supplies energy to tissues that need it most. At this point, you might be wondering what the other benefits of creatine are and if you should take a creatine supplement. Well, If you’re interested in a further breakdown of all things creatine, keep on reading!
History of Creatine Supplements
Creatine was first discovered in 1832 by a French scientist, Michel Eugene Chevreul, who found creatine in beef tissues. Michel christened his find by calling it the Greek word (Kreas), which means meat. From this initial discovery, many other studies were conducted on the findings on creatine. Decades have passed since Michel’s discovery, and in 1912, Harvard University found that ingesting creatine can boost creatine content in the muscle. Giving creatine to animals resulted in nitrogen retention, which strengthened muscles! In the early days of this discovery, much of the public didn’t have access to consuming creatine because the process of extracting it from meat was expensive and time-consuming. It wasn’t until the 1950s that creatine could be made in a lab! At this time, scientists began to study its effects on treating muscle-related conditions such as Huntington’s disease. Flash forward to a more recent decade, the 1990s, and creatine finally started to catch on to the public after some famous athletes and Olympians began using creatine supplements. From then on, it has only increased in popularity!
What are the benefits of creatine?
We’ve already briefly covered some of the benefits of taking a creatine supplement, but at this point, we will go more in-depth into the many benefits it can provide you!
1. It supports energy at the cellular level!
Our body works in complex ways to keep us functioning and our energy flowing to do the tasks we need to do daily. Without getting into too much scientific details, creatine helps our body produce ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate), our cell’s most basic form of energy. If you’re doing a lot of high-intensity exercise or workouts, your muscles will need extra support with energy levels and recovery. Studies have shown that most creatine goes toward the skeletal muscles in the body, where it is then converted into a compound combined with creatine and phosphoric acid. This compound then creates more ATP, which leads to more energy on a cellular level!
2. Creatine can increase muscle strength!
Not only does creatine support our muscle’s energy levels, allowing gym-goers and athletes to push harder, but creatine also helps with recovery, contributing to overall strength and training. A large study was conducted on 250 supplements to see which would come out on top to assist resistance training. Creatine was the supplement that came out on top in this study for its ability to promote muscle strength!
3. Creatine can positively impact brain health
So far, we’ve only discussed the effects of creatine on our energy levels and muscles in the body, but creatine is also essential for brain health! When performing complex tasks, our brain needs ATP, and not only do creatine supplements promote phosphocreatine stores in the body, but they also do so in our brain. Studies have shown that when these levels increase in the body, it decreases brain fatigue, allowing us to do what we need with more velocity.
How to Take Creatine?
There are many proven benefits of taking creatine, especially if you live an active lifestyle! The good news is that it’s also super easy to find creatine nowadays. At NutraChamps, we just launched a creatine supplement that we’re super proud of: creatine gummies! These delicious watermelon-flavoured gummies are packed with 5,000mg of high-potency creatine monohydrate per serving! These gummies will be your new favorite workout sidekick because they can enhance your performance at the gym and beyond. Most creatine products on the market come in powder form, which can be messy to mix or not convenient to grab and go. When it comes to NutraChamps Creatine Gummies, you only need 4 gummies daily to meet the requirement and get the benefits you need to feel your best!
