When should creatine supplements be taken?

There have been a few debates on when to take creatine supplements, but by taking creatine before a work out can benefit more than afterwards. This is because the creatine stays in the body’s system for around 1 and half hours. So taking the creatine supplement around an hour before a work out would give you maximum benefits. This is because the creatine would have worked its way into your muscles within the hour, so it is ready to be used to convert adenosine diphosphate (ADP) to adenosine triphosphate (ATP) energy to keep your workout going for longer.



If you are thinking of taking creatine supplements for the first time, you may have come across a term called "loading" this is the process where you load up on the creatine supplement for the first 5-7 days to make sure your muscles are fully saturated with creatine.



But do you really need to load a creatine supplement?



It depends on how quickly you want to see your results, by loading it means that your body’s capability of using the creatine is increased, this gives faster results. However over longer periods of time there is no real difference between someone who has loaded and someone who hasn’t. This is because the body can only hold a certain amount of creatine in its system at any one time. If the body has excess creatine, due to over dosage, or even through loading, the body simply gets rid of it through excretion.



Are there ways of increasing the effects of taking creatine?



There are a few ways of increasing its effectiveness on the body, one easy way is to take the supplement with a certain food group containing high glycemic index (GI level) for example Weetabix and cornflakes have high GI levels. It increases the effects because of an increase in insulin release which helps the transport of the creatine to the muscles.



Natalie Eastaugh is the Internet Marketing Specialist for JDRWebsites.co.uk

If you wish to find out more on creatine supplements as well as information about NRG Stop, go to www.nrgstop.com