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The truth about creatine
Research paper for creatine
The effects of creatine on sports performance
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Success From Creatine
Many people in athletics avoid using creatine monohydrate because they do not know much about it. They are convinced that something that can help athletes achieve such great results cannot be good for the body. This is not true if the supplement is taken correctly. Creatine is an excellent supplement. It is one of the only products on the market that has been proven to significantly enhance athletic performance in the areas of power, strength, and muscle mass. Creatine makes muscle cells retain water, then flushes out acid buildup when the muscles are used. This hydration process increases the amount of work individual cells can do and also aids in the recovery of muscle cells. Many people believe creatine supplements should be treated the same as steroids and banned from all sports. They assume creatine is not natural, harmful to the body and unfair in athletic competition.
Often, it is said that creatine supplements are unnatural. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people do not realize the human body produces creatine. It is an amino acid made in the liver and stored in muscles. It can also be obtained by certain foods in the diet. Milk, steak, and fish are the best sources of creatine. The daily recommended minimal dosage of this amino acid is about two grams. If dietary creatine is increased, it will augment the amount of stored creatine which will help athletic performance. Without the correct amount of any of the twenty amino acids, the body will not function to its fullest potential.
Although scientists have known of creatine for over one hundred years, studies on it have only been going on for the last decade. They have found it to be virtually harmless with very few drawbacks in their research. The most significant being abuse of the supplement. One example of this is to consume too much over a long period of time.
Some researchers fear that this could make the body stop producing creatine, then the body would rely only on the supplement. This is why creatine supplements should be taken in cycles. Another form of abuse is to ingest too much at one time. It is hard for the body to breakdown the granular substance, but if plenty of water is consumed this should not be a problem.
Many people believe that creatine supplements give athletes an unfair advantage and compare them to steroids. These supplements are most definitely an advantage, but not unfair. Even though the supplement may have similar results to steroids, it is only an
Creatine is one of the most popular sports supplements on the market and is used by bodybuilders, and athletes. It is an amino acid, like the building blocks that makes up proteins. It is also an important store of energy in muscle cells. Creatine is a natural nutrient found in our bodies and in the bodies of most animals. It can also be found in the form of a powder and sold as a supplement. Creatine is categorized as a food supplement by the Food and Drug Administration, like a vitamin and is available over the counter at drug stores and nutrition centers. Approximately 95% of the body’s creatine supply is found in the skeletal muscles. The remaining 5% of creatine is scattered throughout the rest of the body, with the highest concentration in the heart, brain, and testes. The human body gets most of the creatine it needs from food or dietary supplements.
Creatine was not a vitamin, however, but a synthesized blend of certain amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins. The benefit creatine provides is increased energy for quick, anaerobic bursts of activity, such as are required in weightlifting. Athletes taking creatine can do more repetitions and sets of exercises than they could without it. Essentially, it speeds up the process of adding strength and size to the muscles by intensifying the workout. It has been compared to the way a marathon runner might saturate his muscles with carbohydrates before a race to provide endurance except that creatine strictly helps in anaerobic activities like muscle contractions.
Professional athletes, throughout history, have been exalted for their outstanding abilities and achievements in sports. Unfortunately, many athletes have turned to anabolic steroids in order to give them an edge, a boost their athletic performance. Starting with the 1954 World Weightlifting Championships, where the Soviets unexpectedly dominated their lifting classes with the use of steroids, it has become increasingly popular among athletes to cheat with the help of this drug. Although the appeal to steroid use is evident when observing how it increases someone’s athletic abilities, many users fail to consider the detrimental side effects of the drug. Also, in my opinion, athletes should be expected to perform based upon their natural abilities, opposed to abilities enhanced by anabolic steroids. Ultimately, anabolic steroids should continue to be illegal in professional sports due to their major health risks and the unfair advantage they serve players.
Controversy has surrounded creatine every since it has hit the shelves. Creatine is already produced by our bodies in the liver and kidneys. However, a frequently asked question is: why do we need to take more? The purpose of creatine is to add water weight. When taking the supplement it takes away the water absorbed by our muscles which makes us have to drink even more water. However, when an individual is taking creatine it has to be regulated properly. If too much of the supplement is taken more harm can be done than good. According to Stuart Young, an individual needs to drink a bare minimum of a gallon of water per day to avoid adding harm to our bodies. Young also mentions how too much
Creatine is produced by the body and stored in all kinds of muscles such as the heart, diaphragm, and all visible muscles. Creatine’s role is to
In order to understand how creatine works, we must discover what creatine is. Creatine is an energy producing nutrient found in our bodies. It is synthesized from three amino acids arginine, glycine and methionine. These amino acids are primarily found in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. It is also consumed in our everyday diets from fish, meat and other animal products. Creatine is not considered an essential nutrient in our diets.
Abstract: Since the beginning of sports competition, athletes have always looked for some kind of an edge over their competitors. They will do whatever it takes to be one of the elite and that includes injecting supplements into their bodies to make them bigger, stronger, and faster. Steroid use is probably one of the most common drug misuses in sports competition. Athletes found that with anabolic steroids one could become a better athlete twice as fast. Not until 1975 was the drug first banned from Olympic competition because of the health risks it produced. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the sports world did not allow anabolic steroids as well. With the use of steroids no longer permitted athletes began to look for other alternatives. On the rise is two substances called creatine and androstenedione, both of which are sold over the counter. These two performance enhancers have only had minimal testing done on them, excluding the long-term effects, simply because they haven't been around long enough. Creatine and androstenedione have been said to produce results like steroids without the side effects. The truth is they do produce side effects and irregular muscle growth. By banning the use of performance enhancing drugs, just like steroids, sports competition will have a much healthier and fairer environment to participate in.
of titrant used. In the case of amino acids, the titrant will be both an acid
Applied Nutritional Research (ANA) claims that they have created a product which boosts the gain of muscle by around 600% within 7 weeks. The product is named C9-T11, which stands for cis-9, trans-11 conjugated linoleic acid. ANA claims that C9-T11 synthesizes muscle from fat
Amino acids are considered the building blocks of proteins. Breaking down protein will yield 22 known amino acids. There are three types of amino acids. These are indispensable(essential), conditionally dispensable, and dispensable. Conditionally dispensable amino acids can be synthesized from other amino acids by our bodies. Dispensable amino acids are considered non-essential. Amino acids are "one of the six basic nutrients our body needs". Essential Amino Acids acids are central to our discussion with regards to their use in weightlifting and training.
Branched-chain amino acids are important as they help muscle under intense training. In an experiment using swimmers, one group was given branched-chain amino acids and the other a placebo. The branched-chain amino acid group experienced less muscle breakdown after intense exercise. Studies show that taking essential amino acids, including branched-chain amino acids, before exercise triggers anabolic processes – the increased blood flow you get from training increases the
Background on Creatine What is Creatine When I think of Creatine I don’t think of a body building supplement I think of an aid to recuperation. Like an aspirin you take if you have a headache, an athlete takes Creatine if they have chronic sore muscles from continuously working out. Creatine is a compound that can be made in our body. It is taken as a strength supplement. The chemical name for Creatine is methyl guanidine-acetic acid. The organ that produces the bodies Creatine is the liver. The amount of natural Creatine in the body can be increased or decreased depending on our diet(Absolute). How much Creatine do we have in our body? A 160-pound person would have approximately 120 grams of Creatine stored in their body (The Beg…). The reason Creatine is such a hot commodity is because 95-98% of the Creatine in our body is stored in our muscles.
In fact, here have been so many studies on it that researchers say “Creatine is in fact one of the most well-researched nutritional supplements on the market” (Creatine 101). Over the last couple of years, Creatine Monohydrate (a form of creatine supplements) has grown to be the top leader that athletes use to enhance their performance. Creatine is commonly taken as a supplement and that's how many people know creatine. However, not many know that our bodies actually create its own creatine within the body. Creatine is found throughout the human body in our muscle cells. It is chemically known as a “...non-protein nitrogen; a compound which contains nitrogen but is not protein pese” (Creatine 101). Our bodies create one to two grams of creatine naturally through our liver, pancreas, and our kidneys from amino acids per day. In addition, we can also find creatine in the many of the meats we eat such as Salmon 225g/8oz 1.5-2.5 g of creatine, beef 225g/8oz 1.5-2.5g of creatine, pork 225g/8oz 1.5-2.5g of creatine, herring 225g/8oz 2-4g of creatine. Many kinds of seafood are also very high in creatine. After receiving the creatine, it is then transferred into creatine phosphate (which is also called phosphocreatine) where it remains in our muscles waiting to be used for energy. Phosphocreatine is typically used as a source of ATP (Adenosine triphosphate). Adenosine triphosphate is the way to store and use energy biochemically in our bodies. To repeat, this means that ATP is the origin of energy in which keeps everything moving in the body. Typically this can be found when doing high-intensity exercise. In our skeletal muscles, you can 95% of our bodies creatine in this kind of creatine phosphate, and its most important objective is to supply an artificial phosphate to produce ATP during intense workouts. A couple prime examples would be sprinting and high-intensity weightlifting. As the studies
According to the book “Understanding normal and clinical nutrition”, the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein intake is, 0.8g/kg of body weight for non-athletes; according to nutrition professionals this amount can be achieved through a healthy diet (Rolfes, Pinna, & Whitney, 2012). It is well known that athletes, due to their high energy expenditure, need to ingest a greater quantity of nutrients with the purpose of repairing and building muscle cells, besides reestablishing energy storage; The International Society of Sports Nutrition (2007) states that athletes and exercising individuals amount of protein to be consumed depends on the intensity of the exercise training sessions, the quality of the protein ingested in their whole foods diet, besides their carbohydrate intake. Meanwhile, athletes’ protein needs should be about 1.4 to 2.0 g/kg of body weight, and even though dietary supplements are a safe way to meet protein requirement, it would be healthier to obtain the necessary nutrients ingesting high quality foods as part of a daily diet (Campbell et al, 2007).
How does Creatine affect your body? Creatine affects our body in several different ways. Creatine can provide additional energy for your muscles, volumization of your muscles, buffer lactic acid build-up, and enhance protein synthesis. Creatine can also help stimulate growth in muscles and increase the user's strength, even while doing your normal workouts. Creatine can also be taken in a variety of ways.