Creatine is one of the most buzzed-about supplements among fitness professionals, and for good reason. From supporting muscle growth and fitness performance, there are plenty of scientifically-backed benefits of adding a creatine supplement to your fitness routine.

We’re breaking down exactly what creatinine is and why you would want to consider trying it.

What is Creatine & What Are The Benefits of Supplementing?

While often used in supplement form, creatine is naturally found in muscle cells. It supports our muscles during exercise to produce energy and keep us pushing through those workouts.

It’s stored in the muscles as phosphocreatine, and when you take a creatine supplement, you boost your phosphocreatine stores. This particular stored energy gives the body the boost it needs to make more ATP (more on that later).

So, why supplement? Here are five reasons why taking a creatine supplement may help support your current fitness routine.

#1 Boosts Muscle Mass

One of the most well-known benefits of supplementing with creatine is its ability to help reduce protein breakdown and thus boost muscle mass. (1)

#2 May Help Boost Exercise Performance

If you are looking to take your workouts to the next level and push yourself to work more during each exercise session, creatine may be able to help. This is largely due to the fact that it can help the body produce more energy. In fact, a study found that creatine was able to help boost maximal power and strength by 5-15% as well as single-effort sprint performance by 1-5%. (2)

Studies clearly indicate that creatine very effectively helps improve both strength and power during exercise, and with longer, more effective workouts, you may notice a boost in fitness results.

#3 Supports Muscle Repair

While giving us a boost of energy to power through our workouts is a huge part of seeing fitness results, it’s just as important to support muscle repair to help aid in new muscle growth.

Creatinine is thought to do just that by supporting cell signaling, which may ultimately help support that muscle growth you may be working towards with your workouts. (3)

#4 Boost Muscle Water Content

Here’s one more reason creatine plays such a vital role in supporting muscle growth. It’s been shown to boost the water content in muscle, and an increase in muscle cell volume means improved muscle growth. (4)

#5 Boosts Brain Performance

Fitness is often just as much a mental game as it is physical. When things get tough, you need the mental stamina to keep you going as well. The good news is that not only has creatine been shown to help support the body on a physical level, but a mental level as well.

This is linked to the fact that the brain requires quite a bit of ATP while doing something challenging, such as exercise. And, just like our muscles have phosphocreatine stores, we have some in our brain as well. So, taking a creatine supplement may help your brain produce more of that much-needed ATP.

Creatine may also help boost mitochondrial function, another key driver of energy. (5)

What is ATP & What Role Does in Play in Exercise?

We’ve been talking a lot about ATP, but what exactly is it?

ATP, also known as Adenosine triphosphate, is what drives energy processes such as muscle contraction during exercise. As previously mentioned, phosphocreatine helps boost APT production, giving us the energy we need during higher intensity workouts.

However, the thing about ATP is that the body can’t store enough to get through a whole workout. You can only store enough to get through about 8-10 seconds of high-intensity exercise. (6) After your stores are depleted, then the body has to start making enough to get you through the rest of your workout.

Think about it this way — when performing at your max effort, like during a sprint, you run out of steam fairly quickly. This is where creatine supplements come into play — they can boost the amount of “stored energy” your muscles have in the form of phosphocreatine.

And, the good news is that you can help provide your body with the extra energy it needs to take your workouts to the next level by supplementing with ATP itself.

You can find both creatine and ATP in our Foundation supplement to help:

• Improve strength
• Support recovery
• Reduce fatigue
• Improve blood flow

Fight Muscle Fatigue With Creatine & ATP

If you find yourself struggling to push through your reps and are totally gassed by the end of your workouts, creatine and ATP may significantly improve your workouts.

Consider adding a creatine supplement to your current supplement routine to give your body that boost of ATP it needs to power through each workout. Better yet, take a combo supplement that contains both to fuel your muscles with exactly what they need to take your fitness results up a notch.

Read more about the ATP we use here.