Creatine boosts muscle glycogen storage

March 10, 2022 2 min read

Creatine boosts muscle glycogen storage

When you think of creatine, you might think of the 90's and baseball players claiming it as the reason they were getting so muscular. So why would a cyclist want to use creatine? The answer is in a new study that shows an uptake in Glycogen storage when athletes combine creatine with carbohydrates.

That is exactly the reason we have included it in Strate Superfuel!

Creatine is an amino acid. It's primarily located in your muscles and brain and you  get some creatine naturally through seafood and red meat. Your body can also produce about 1 gram of creatine per day in your liver, pancreas and kidneys. Once in your body, it's predominately in your muscles for energy.

In recent studies we have seen that creatine improves glucose control when combined with aerobic activity. This means the glucose in your body doesn't spike as heavily while cycling.

There is another very important discovery when analyzing the effects of creatine combined with carbohydrates being ingested together. The total muscle glycogen storage is increased by up to 4%.

In the studies, it was also found that an initial creatine loading phase of 5 days was beneficial to athletes that were simultaneously using creatine with carbohydrates.

Additional benefits of creatine:

  • improved reaction time 
  • reduced mental fatigue
  • increased speed, power, athletic performance

References:

  1. Nelson, A.G.; Arnall, D.A.; Kokkonen, J.; Day, R.; Evans, J. Muscle glycogen supercompensation is enhanced by prior creatine supplementation. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2001, 33, 1096–1100.
  2. Green, A.L.; Simpson, E.J.; Littlewood, J.J.; Macdonald, I.A.; Greenhaff, P.L. Carbohydrate ingestion augments creatine retention during creatine feeding in humans. Acta Physiol. Scand. 1996, 158, 195–202.
  3. Konstantinos I. Avgerinos, Nikolaos Spyrou, Konstantinos I. Bougioukas, Dimitrios Kapogiannis.Effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive function of healthy individuals: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials.Experimental Gerontology, Volume 108. 2018, Pages 166-173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2018.04.013


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