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Healthy Eating

Does Creatine Actually Increase Your Power?

Everybody has heard of creatine, but do you know specifically what it does in the body? New research shows how just seven days of creatine supplementation can increase your power.

Joshua Wortman

Written by Joshua Wortman Last updated on May 25, 2012

Athletes have been supplementing creatine monohydrate to improve exercise and strength performance for over twenty years. Creatine has been dubbed by many as a staple supplement since it is safe, natural, and effective. Creatine is a naturally occurring nitrogenous organic acid that occurs in the skeletal muscle of vertebrae. About 95% of the creatine found in the human body is found in skeletal muscle. Creatine helps provide energy to all cells in body, mainly muscle cells. It is stored in the muscles and used as a form of energy known as phosphocreatine, which is associated with power output in prolonged muscle use. When this is depleted, muscle fatigue is triggered. Consequently, increasing creatine within the body has been proven to help increase phosphocreatine output during anaerobic activity, which is also known as the ATP-CP energy system.

There have been many studies on creatine and its efficacy. Most recently a study was approved by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with the purpose of determining the effects of a creatine loading phase on anaerobic performance and one-repetition maximum strength.2

The study that was performed involved twenty-two healthy men who were new to resistance training and did not use any nutritional supplements. Each individual participated in less than four hours of recreational activity per week. The subjects were divided into either a placebo group or a supplement group. Those who were in the supplement group ingested 20 grams of creatine monohydrate powder daily for seven consecutive days, whereas the placebo group ingested the same amount of maltodextrin powder during that time period. Testing was done before and after the study (seven days) for bodyweight, mean power, peak power from two 30-second Wingate Anaerobic tests (an anaerobic test typically performed on a cycle ergometer to measure peak power and anaerobic capacity3), and a one rep max strength test on bench press and leg extension.4

The result of the study indicated there was a large increase between before and after testing in mean power for the group that supplemented creatine monohydrate, but not the placebo group. The one rep max on leg extension and bench press strength did not change between either group, nor was there a change in peak power or bodyweight. This study indicated that loading 20 grams per day of creatine monohydrate for seven consecutive days increased mean power by 5.4% from the Wingate Anaerobic test, but had no effect one-rep max strength or bodyweight.5

As with many previous studies, creatine monohydrate proves to have beneficial effects. There has been debate whether or not a loading of creatine monohydrate is necessary or even worthwhile, and this study showed that a loading phase of creatine monohydrate can be to one’s benefit, and that it can significantly increase average power in just as little as seven days.

Joshua Wortman

About Joshua Wortman

Joshua began lifting in high school, but really doesn’t consider his effective training to have begun until the last few years. Joshua was always very strong for his bodyweight, but he didn’t just want to be strong, he wanted to look strong. At 140 pounds, no matter how strong he was for his age and weight, the size wasn’t there.

During his last year of college, Joshua began research on bodybuilding, and since his graduation, he has taken his bodybuilding to a whole new level. Josh experienced a minor setback in 2009 when he experienced an L5-L6 disc herniation while doing deadlifts. Consequently, his lower body training was very limited for almost a year. Thankfully, he has self-rehabbed his back to pretty much full strength.

Since he graduated from NC State University with his Bachelor’s in Civil Engineering, Joshua has taken his bodybuilding to a whole new level. His knowledge has increased ten fold since when he began, and both his knowledge anpersonal progress have also bred success in the fact he started up Get Right Get Tight Fitness.

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