Creatine

Creatine is scientifically proven to increase lean muscle mass. That is one thing we can be sure of.

Now I won’t go into all of the details of creatine Ill stick to what’s important, what’s commonly miss-understood and the reasons why you supplement with creatine for bodybuilding.

Creatine now comes in many different forms and you need to be aware of these variations because they affect people differently and you may be more suited to one type more than another.

The main variations of Creatine:

Creatine Monohydrate, Creatine Gluconate, Kre Alkalyn and Creatine Ethyl Ester

Originally Creatine Monohydrate was the be all and end all of creatine supplements and to a degree it still is. What you can find on the internet is "creatine monohydrate is proven to be more effective than creatine ethyl ester" To a degree this is true, on a cellular level applying creatine monohydrate directly to cells is more effective than creatine ethyl ester however the idea of creatine ethyl ester is that its transportation through your body is more effective so by the time you add it to water or take it in capsule form with a glass of water it will be in your bloodstream heading for your muscles before it starts to turn into creatinine, Creatinine is the bad stuff, it’s an exhaust product of creatine that is useless to your body which is produced once creatine has been activated which oddly enough starts as soon as creatine comes in contact with water.

Ever wondered why you get a water bloat, diarrhea and stomach cramps when taking creatine monohydrate? That’s because of creatinine not the actual creatine, so the struggle is to get the creatine into your body without these problems. Some say taking creatine in a natural fruit juice is better than water because it activates slower and the sugar helps get it into your system quicker but now there are adapted versions that claim to be better all work differently.



So what’s the big deal? And what does it do for me when I work out?

The big deal is cell volumization, and this gives you more muscle mass.

Keeping it simple, Creatine draws more water into your muscles and makes them larger and denser which in turn means more weight.

The actual strength benefits of creatine come from its ability to increase muscle energy and power from increases of ATP, and its ability to increase protein synthesis in your muscles, it achieves this directly and indirectly. By volumising cells and drawing more water into the muscles it also draws more nutrients that are stored in the water, This helps protein synthesis because it has drawn more protein into the muscle when super-hydrating the cell this helps further Strength and muscle gains also it gives us the ability to workout harder from the increase of energy.



The Bottom Line on creatine.........

Yes it does work, yes they all work, yes it’s different for some people and yes it is proven to work.

Our Most popular Creatine products and what we have to say about them:

AST Sports Science Creatine Monohydrate - Your everyday monohydrate supplement, it is micronized for better absorption and does exactly what you expect creatine monohydrate to do and £29.89 for 1kg is good value, you pay a little bit more for AST's version over the likes of dymatize creatine monohydrate but there’s very little in it and mainly because your guaranteed of high quality from AST Sports Science with every product which is why we favour their products over others.

EAS Phospagen Elite 1.9kg - Is a slightly different type of creatine supplement, it contains a carnosine booster called Beta-Alanine which is shown to help athletes to work harder for longer, makes it a little hard to tell whether your body is reacting well because of the creatine or the Beta-Alanine but either way product has good reviews and produces a result so as a standalone supplement you can’t argue, it does help and £35.99 for 1.9kg makes it cheaper than most brands standard Creatine Monohydrate.

Creatine Ethyl Ester Supplements:

ALRI N Gorge 240 Capsules - Is a very potent creatine supplement and it is designed with added Nitric Oxide to give you a better pump and a more noticeable effect in the gym, ALRI claim that Nitric oxide transportation of creatine is far more effective that normal creatine monohydrate and creatine ethyl ester alone. This theory is based on the fact that Nitric oxide improves blood flow to the muscles and means whatever your putting into your system will get to its destination quicker, when you think about it, it does make sense so if your currently using a creatine supplement and you just don’t feel the difference it might be worth a shot trying ALRI N Gorge because your body might work better with the nitric oxide transport system. Note: N Gorge is only £5-6 more expensive than ALRI's standard Creatine Ethyl Ester product 'ALRI CR2 240 Capsules' so comparing it to other creatine capsules it’s not much more expensive.

ALRI CR2 240 Capsules - CR2 is a creatine ethyl ester supplement, it does exactly what you expect it to do and is on par with other CEE products the dosage on ALRI's product is 3 capsules twice per day which is lower than some, I have seen some products recommending 8 Capsules or tablets per day which can be allot to stomach, I think you will all agree that it’s better to have fewer more effective higher quality supplements. CR2 is £25.49 from us which is a huge saving over RRP and makes it pretty good value for money in comparison to other brands.

BSN Cell Mass - Is a great CEE product, it comes in powder form not capsules which isn’t a bad thing because you only need to take 2 scoops of it a day instead of 6-8 capsules of it and it comes in some decent flavours too. You get around 40 servings per 800g container which costs £36.99 so it’s more expensive than most creatine ethyl ester capsule products but BSN are known for their quality so I think your first priority is to choose whether you want a capsule product or a powder product, I wouldn’t say one is better than the other but capsules seem to be cheaper and if you have 3 protein shakes and a pre workout drink to mix up you might be sick and tired of keep mixing up shakes so capsules can be a welcome relief.

Now for Creatine Supplements that are a little different and give fantastic results:

Muscletech Cell Tech Hardcore - Cell tech uses Muscletechs own formula to give you far better absorption rates over normal creatine, It receives good reviews all over and offers pretty good value for money it comes in at £34.99 for 2kg, you certainly get allot more of it for the money than you get from other brands but sometimes I think the argument is you have to pay for quality. I haven’t personally used Cell Tech so I would appreciate any reviews to be left on the store website or in the Blog Forum as I read all of them.

EAS Betagen 900g - Is kind of an all in one creatine supplement if you can have such a thing, EAS have combined creatine monohydrate with Taurine, Glutamine and HMB to help with muscle recovery and anti catabolism. Like Phosphagen Elite Its kind of cheating when comparing it to standard creatine products because it makes it hard to tell whether you’re getting the result from the creatine or the HMB, you might not feel anymore pumped up but are still getting results in muscle growth because your body isn’t breaking down muscle tissue. Either way you look at it however its £36.99 and it delivers a result so you can’t argue with that.

Now they say you should save the best till last.....

Gaspari Nutrition Size On and Gaspari Nutrition Size On Tablets - Now this is my personal favourite, I’ve used plenty of creatine supplements in my time and some I have liked and got on well with and others I’ve hated and have thought were a waste of money and would never buy them again, consequently we do not offer them for sale on our website. But Size on was fantastic, now I’m training less as I’ve mentioned before I stick to all in one protein supplements with creatine but when I was all about training and not about work size on was in my supplement arsenal. I put on a fair amount of muscle mass when using it and felt pumped and didn’t get stomach cramps or water bloats which I used to get really bad when using creatine monohydrate so bad to the point I just had to stop using it because I felt too sick to train. A friend of mine was at a point in his training where he was just stuck no matter what he tried he wasn’t putting on anymore weight and he was getting a bit leaner through training but the muscle mass just wouldn’t increase, he started on size on and put on just over 6lbs before the month was out he continues to use size on now along with a few other supps and is now around 25-30lbs heavier and it looks all muscle (this is after about a year now)

I think you probably don’t need me to say anymore about size on to guess that I love it and think it’s a fantastic product and it’s not got a silly price tag considering its quality, Capsules are £39.99 and powder in 1290g tub is £38.49 so you get a fair amount for your money.

Watch the Gaspari Video to see how it compares to standard creatine supplements.



To Conclude.........

Creatine is very important if you’re trying to gain size and increase your performance in strength and endurance sports and comes in many different variations and there is no way of saying that a creatine is inferior to another as some websites and manufacturers would have you believe however there are sometimes better ways of utilizing creatine, just like Gaspari have.