Creatine

Creatine Citrate; Creatine Monohydrate; Creatine Phosphate; Phosphocreatine

... After several prominent athletes acknowledged using it in the past few years, creatine is best known for possibly improving athletic performance. Although multiple studies have been conducted to assess the effect of creatine on exercise potential, results are mostly inconclusive. While muscles may become bigger when creatine is taken, the gain in size may be due mainly to more water being held in the cells of muscle tissue. Additionally, it is important to note that many of the studies were done in clinics or laboratory settings that do not necessarily duplicate conditions at actual athletic events. Most of the studies tested small groups of young, trained athletes who took many different doses and forms of creatine. In general, results of the studies show that creatine supplementation may offer younger individuals a benefit for improving repeated, intensive spurts of effort such as weight-lifting. Less apparent improvement or no effects occurred for more sustained exercise such as swimming laps. Based on the responses of some individuals, taking creatine may actually decrease the ability to maintain prolonged exercise. Results among older individuals were inconclusive with small benefits seen in some studies, but no exercise improvement in others. ...

Phosphocreatine, also known as creatine phosphate or PCr, is a phosphorylate ...