have you been thinking about taking creatine but don't really know what it's for or how it can help you in the gym in this video i'm going to tell you all about one of the best studied sports supplements there is how's it going guys my name is richie kerwin and i'm a nutritionist and nutrition researcher at liverpool john moores university and you're watching the myprotein youtube channel this is the channel that brings you need to know info on how to fuel your body and train to be your strongest self today we're going to talk all
about everybody's favorite performance enhancer creatine we learn what it is how it works what it can do for you in the gym and in whatever sport you do and why it's simply one of the best sports supplements out there i'll also tell you about a less well-known benefit of this supplement that might actually surprise you so if you're a regular gym gore at some point in your life you've probably heard maybe even in hushed whispers of creatine a magical white powder that can make all of your dreams come true when you say it like that
it certainly does sound a little dodgy so it's no wonder that there is now an entire generation of moms that have experienced that terrifying moment of discovering their supposedly innocent child's baggy of creatine hidden under their bed and have despaired at the realization that their baby has stepped on the slippery slope of steroid juice that will eventually lead to them odin and being found face down in a bag of the evil white powder but at least i'd be jacked right seriously that's what some people think about creatine so let's start this video by clearing up
all the bull surrounding the most widely researched and safest sports supplement so what even is creatine well it's an amino acid but it isn't actually used to make protein it's found 100 naturally in foods like beef pork and fish and you know what else you also make it in your own body that's right you're making it right now as you're watching this video while you're looking at me disgusting yup that terrible steroid it's not that your mother is terrified of you getting hooked on is made in the cells of your own body every day so
creatine is a completely normal and healthy part of your metabolism not some weird artificial substance that has been discovered in a lab by scientists hoping to make super soldiers like i mentioned as animals produce it in their cells creatine is found in animal muscle and that's why meat eaters tend to have higher levels of muscle creatine than vegans however i wouldn't recommend using meat as your primary source of creatine and that's because to get the same amount of creatine as you'd get in one little scoop of creatine monohydrate powder you'd need to eat almost 1.3
kilograms of beef not only does that come with a lot of extra calories about 1500 calories if you use lean beef it's also stupidly expensive that's why creatine supplements can be so beneficial in fact continuous supplementation can increase the amount of creatine in your muscles by 20 to 40 percent another advantage is that the creatine that you buy in supplements is usually 100 vegan which is great news because like i just said vegans tend to have lower levels of creatine than meat eaters putting them at a disadvantage when it comes to performance so by supplementing
with creatine they can increase their muscle creatine levels to the same levels as meat eaters and they can level the playing field so to speak so now that we know what creatine is and that it's something we can produce in our own body let's talk about the good stuff what it can do for you the main role of creatine in the body is energy production specifically high intensity energy production the kind of energy used for short quick explosive movements like lifting weights you may know that we generate energy using a molecule called atp or adenosine
triphosphate when atp gives up its energy during exercise it loses a phosphate group and becomes adp or adenosine diphosphate creatine is found in the muscles joined to a phosphoryl group and is able to recharge the adp by replacing its phosphate and turning it back into atp that way your muscles have a more constant supply of energy for high intensity work basically more creatine in your muscles allows you to train or perform harder and for longer in reality that means creatine can benefit exercise performance in a lot of different ways and there's a huge amount of
research to show creatine can improve your sprint performance help you lift more weight do more volume in the gym improve glycogen synthesis in your muscles meaning you have a ready source of energy for continued exercise it can improve your anaerobic exercise threshold that's your ability to do quick very high intensity or explosive exercise and it might even improve your aerobic capacity too on top of all that it can improve recovery for most people watching this video you'll be happy to know that all this means creatine can help you build more muscle by allowing you to
train harder accrue more high quality training volume and recover better which in the long term leads to muscle growth just to give an example one study had two groups doing resistance exercise for 10 weeks one group supplementing with creatine and the other without the creatine group increased maximal strength 25 more than a placebo group and they also increase fat free mass part of which is made of muscle 60 more than the placebo group that said creatine can benefit any sport that has a high intensity component to it from football swimming and sprinting to tennis rugby
martial arts and powerlifting and here's something you might not have known about creatine it can also benefit brain health and cognition this is because the brain is a very energy-hungry organ so creatine can help supply that energy just like in the muscles which leads to better brain function for example creatine was shown to significantly improve working memory and intelligence tests that relate to the speed of processing it may even help to slow down cognitive decline in the elderly yet another reason to get your granny on creatine this is why creatine is getting used a lot
by older people who want to keep their brains functioning optimally so now you know creatine is simply one of the best supplements available for improving exercise performance not just in the gym but in almost every sport and maybe even in chess in my next video i'll cover everything about how to take creatine and for how long you might be in store for a few surprises as always if you have any questions let me know in the comments below and remember to like and subscribe to the my protein youtube channel for more great evidence-based nutrition [Music]
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