The Basics of Getting Started with Creatine Supplements

If muscle-building is one of your workout goals, you've likely heard or read about creatine supplements. If you don't know about them, now is the time!

First and foremost, know this: Creatine and steroids aren't the same thing. Creatine is a substance produced by your body to supply energy to the muscles. Creatine can also be ingested by eating certain foods or taking dietary supplements. What exactly does creatine do for muscle-building? When you engange in intense physical activity such as weight-lifting, the human body creates something called Adenosine Triphosphate, or ATP, to give your muscles the energy they need to complete the tasks. ATP dissipates fast, but the body can convert creatine into more ATP.

How Can Creatine Supplements Help Me?

Bodybuilding supplements such as creatine are used to increase your workouts' effectiveness and are not a replacement for good old-fashioned hard work. The important process of converting creatine in the body to extra energy can translate into the following for your workouts:

Increased workout intensity
More frequent training

Increasing the amount of creatine in your body gives your workout, and the results from it, a boost.

Why Should I "Load" Creatine?

Loading means saturating the body with creatine supplements for a limited amount of time, then using a smaller dosage to maintain. It's recommended to take bodybuilding supplements like creatine in phases -- a loading phase, followed by a maintenance phase, followed by a phase of not taking the supplement.

The reasoning for using these phases is to let the body keep up a normal production of creatine so that it doesn't begin depending entirely on supplements. It's always important to keep in mind that these bodybuilding supplements are meant to give a boost to a normal bodily function, not take the place of it.

Suggestions for how long loading and maintenance phases should last varies quite a bit. An example of what a cycle might look like is this: Loading phase -- 5 days; Maintenance - 6 weeks; Off - 4 weeks.

What Is The Recommended Creatine Dose?

Instructions will vary depending on which form of creatine supplements you can choose from, and you should pay close attention to what the recommendations are for the form you select. An example of what your daily dosage might look like, based on a 5-day loading phase followed by a maintenance phase, is:

Female, 140 pounds: 6 grams (loading); 1.5 grams (maintenance)
Man, 160 pounds: 18 grams (loading); 4.5 grams (maintenance)

During a loading phase especially, space dosages throughout the day. If you are able to, take before and after workouts to raise the amounts of creatine in your body prior to your workout, then replenish them after.

How Is Creatine Taken?

Creatine supplements come in several forms, including powder, which can be added to liquid, pills, and chewies for people who are always on the go. While creatine powder has been the most popular form in the past, the pills and chewies forms are gaining popularity for their portability.

Whichever form of the bodybuilding supplement you choose, here are a few tips to increase how effectively it works for you:

Increase water intake
Limit caffeine
Take with protein

Slacor Supplements has the creatine supplements you need to boost the intensity of your workouts. Visit our site for reasonably priced bodybuilding supplements that can take care of all your needs.