Creatine: More Than a Muscle Supplement

When most people hear creatine, they think of bigger muscles and better workouts. And for good reason: creatine is one of the most researched sports supplements available, with evidence supporting improvements in strength, power, and resistance-training performance. But creatine is also involved in energy production throughout the body—including in the brain.

What Is Creatine?

Creatine is a naturally occurring compound made by the body and also obtained from foods such as meat and fish. Much of the body’s creatine is stored in skeletal muscle, where it helps regenerate ATP, the immediate energy source your cells use during high-intensity activity.

Supplementation increases the amount of creatine available to the muscles, which can help you perform more high-quality work during training.

Creatine for Muscle, Strength & Performance

This is where creatine really shines.

When combined with resistance training, creatine can help support:

• Increased muscular strength
• Improved power and high-intensity exercise performance
• Greater training capacity
• Muscle growth over time
• Maintenance of lean muscle, particularly when paired with strength training

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis found that adults under age 50 who combined creatine with resistance training experienced greater improvements in both upper- and lower-body strength compared with resistance training plus placebo.

Research looking specifically at muscle hypertrophy also suggests that adding creatine to resistance training can provide an additional, although relatively modest, benefit for muscle growth compared with training alone.

The important part: creatine doesn’t replace exercise. It helps support the energy system that allows you to train harder and adapt to that training.

Creatine and Brain Health

Your muscles aren’t the only tissues with high energy demands.

The brain requires a tremendous amount of cellular energy, and the creatine-phosphocreatine system also contributes to brain energy metabolism. This has led researchers to investigate whether increasing creatine availability may support certain aspects of cognitive performance.

The research is promising, but it is important not to overstate it.

A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 randomized controlled trials found potential benefits in areas including memory, attention time, and information-processing speed, while improvements were not significant across every measure of cognition or executive function. Researchers concluded that larger, well-designed trials are still needed.

Another meta-analysis focused on healthy individuals found an improvement in memory performance, with particularly noticeable effects among older adults in the studies analyzed.

So while creatine should not be viewed as a treatment for neurological or cognitive conditions, its role in brain energy metabolism makes it an exciting area of ongoing research.

How Much Creatine Should You Take?

For most healthy adults using creatine for exercise performance, a common maintenance dose is:

3–5 grams per day.

Consistency matters more than taking it at a particular time of day.

Some people choose to use a loading phase—approximately 20 grams per day divided into several smaller doses for about 5–7 days—before transitioning to 3–5 grams daily. Loading can increase muscle creatine stores more quickly, but it is not necessary. Taking a regular daily dose will increase stores more gradually.

Creatine may cause an initial increase in body weight because it increases water stored with creatine in the body.

Is Creatine Only for Bodybuilders?

Not at all.

Creatine may be useful for recreational exercisers, athletes and people focused on maintaining strength and lean muscle as they age. Research continues to explore its potential applications in older adults as well as its effects beyond skeletal muscle.

Ultimately, creatine works best as part of the bigger picture: progressive strength training, adequate protein, good nutrition, sleep, hydration, and consistency.

Ready to Add Creatine to Your Routine?

TruCreatine+ — Available in Our Office for $19.99

If you’re looking to support your strength-training and wellness routine, ask us about TruCreatine+ during your next visit.

TruCreatine+ | $19.99 | Available in office