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Summary: Creatine, used as a sports supplement, can be taken in 0.3 gram doses per kilo of body weight for five to seven days, after which it can be taken in 3- to 5-gram doses per day to maintain its effects. Discover the benefits of taking creatine with healthy tips from a certified sports performance nutrition adviser in this free video on fitness.
Ashleigh Gass is a certified sports performance nutrition advisor. She has been working in the health and wellness industry for a decade, having been fortunate to work with clients...read more
"Hey, I'm Ashleigh Gass, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and today we're going to talk about what creatine does, and how you take it. Creatine gained widespread popularities in the 1990's as a sports supplement used mainly by strength and power athletes. However, it's since become one of the most well-researched nutritional supplements on the market. It's actually made in our body, from our liver and our pancreas, from three different amino acids. It's stored in our muscles. In our food it's found in fish and meat, and it's also available in supplement form. So just what does creatine do? Well, all of us have got something in ourselves called ATP, which means adenosine triphosphate. Adenosine and three phosphate groups. Think of ATP as the major energy currency of our body. Now when you go to the gym, and you do squats or intense exercise, what happens is ATP will lose one of it's phosphate groups, and now it becomes ADP, or adenosine diphosphate, which isn't as efficient in energy production as ATP. So what stored creatine does, is it will donate one of it's phosphates back to ADP, which then becomes ATP again. It's going to allow you to exercise with more intensity for a longer period of time. So just how do you take creatine? Well, if you're going to load it, you're going to take .3 grams per kilo of body weight for five to seven days. So for a 60 kilogram athlete, that's 18 grams a day. After that you'll start your maintenance phase, which is between 3 and 5 grams per day, total, taken after training with carbohydrate and protein. How long you follow your maintenance phase for is dependent on your goals. So, to sum up, creatine is a very popular sports supplement. However, there are numerous other health benefits associated with it's use. For more information, you can do to www.precisionnutrition.com. I'm Ashleigh Gass. Thanks and be healthy."
eHow Article: How Do You Take Creatine?