Here is a little article explaining the fueling benefits if you will of creatine and a few simple answers to help clear up any basic confusion about creatine supplementation. Creatine will fuel your body great but should be used in monitored cycles so you get the most bang for your buck!
Q: Is Creatine a Steroid?
A: I
would like to dispel this myth by giving you the definition of what an anabolic steroid is. These are synthetic versions of the male hormone testosterone. Creatine, as you
will see below is not. Basically anyone who says this should immediately be labeled a gymbecile.
Q:
What is Creatine?
A: First,
let me emphasize that our bodies already produce creatine naturally. Did you ever watch the transformers when you were a kid? Well if not, there were groups of robots called
" combiners. " They would join together and form an even larger and more massive robot, crushing everything in their paths! Our liver does the same thing with the three
amino acids, Arginine, Glycine and Methionine. It combines them to form creatine, much like the
constructicons combined to form devastator!
Ok so that was a lame example, but it explains the process quite nicely.
That
being said, it is also important to understand that over 95 percent of this substance is found in our muscles. With the remainder being stored in our brain, heart and other parts of
our bodies.
Q: The clerk at my local sporting goods store, explained to me,
that when your body runs out of food at night, your muscles can take the creatine in them and use it to fuel their growth.
A: I
don't believe I will even waste my time dispelling his explanation. How moronic can you get? My real question is, where do these people get there information from? I
actually have a theory on this very matter. I believe, that there is a moronic website that is the complete opposite of abcbodybuilding.
I've
tried to crack the code, but
gymmorons.com just didn't work. Perhaps they are trying to hide their identity? But regardless of my theory, the guy is dead wrong!
Q: What exactly does creatine do?
A: I will break down the uses of this supplement into 4 sections.
1.
Creatine works mainly to increase
our Creatine Phosphate System
This is a very difficult
concept to understand. And what I am going to do, here is place an excerpt
from my article on energy systems in here. It will explain how our body's
use energy, and how creatine fits into this!
The Three Energy Systems
What we will now discuss is
how our muscles are fueled to contract in virtually every situation possible.
You see, a different energy system is used for a heavy set of 4 repetitions then
compared to a set of 12 repetitions. Each of these is linked with a particular
muscle fiber type. If you can manipulate the energy system, then you can
drastically increase muscle mass.
Firstly I need to emphasize
that our muscle fibers store ATP. The problem is that we only have enough to
fuel contractions for about 3 seconds, and even in the most well trained
bodybuilder that supply can only last about 5-6 seconds. So what is the point
of having such a low amount of stored energy? It's essentially designed to give
you a quick burst. You name the sport( barring chess ) and every athlete will
tell you the benefits of being able to call on a quick burst of energy! What
becomes painfully obvious at this point is that 3 seconds will not power 90-99
percent of traditional bodybuilding sets. Therefore our body must have a way of
producing more energy to sustain contractions! This is where the 3 fueling
systems come into play!
note:
again, all three energy system's function is to produce
ATP. These processes dominantly take place in the mitochondria( about 95
percent of the ATP in your muscle stores to be exact ! ) that lie inside of the
sarcoplasm of the muscle fiber.
