Creatine: Still a Top Player for Your Workouts?

If you spend any time in the gym or follow fitness chat online, you've probably heard of creatine. It's one of the most popular and well-researched sports supplements out there. But does the latest science still back it up? A recent scientific review pulled together the findings from the best studies over the last five years to give us the lowdown.

Spoiler alert: Yes, it seems creatine is still a solid bet for boosting performance.

What the Science Says

This review, published in the Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, looked at nine high-quality studies focusing on how creatine affects physical performance. The researchers wanted to see what the most up-to-date evidence tells us.

Here’s a quick rundown of what they consistently found:

• More Power & Strength: Creatine helps improve performance in activities needing short, intense bursts of effort. Think lifting weights, sprinting, or jumping. Studies showed users could often manage more reps or more total work (like lifting heavier for longer) in exercises like the bench press.
• Better Endurance: It's not just about raw strength. Creatine was found to help people keep going for longer during tough, repetitive exercise.
• Fighting Fatigue: Feeling wiped out mid-workout? Creatine seems to help reduce that feeling of fatigue during exercise sessions and can help you recover a bit quicker between sets.
• Muscle Building: When combined with training, creatine can contribute to increases in muscle mass.
• Aerobic Boost: Interestingly, some studies also noted improvements in aerobic capacity (measured as VO2 max), suggesting it might offer benefits beyond just strength and power.

One study even looked at young footballers and found creatine helped them maintain muscle power even when they were getting tired during the session.

How Does It Work (Simply Put)?

Your muscles use something called ATP as their main energy currency for quick, powerful movements. When you exercise intensely, you use up ATP rapidly. Creatine helps your body regenerate this ATP much faster, meaning your muscles have more readily available energy to keep working hard.

What Does This Mean For You?

If you're hitting the gym regularly, playing sports involving sprints or jumps, or just looking to get a bit stronger and fitter, this review confirms that creatine is likely to help.

The evidence suggests it can help you:

• Push a little harder during your workouts.
• Potentially squeeze out an extra rep or two.
• Feel less tired towards the end of your session.
• Recover better between sets.
• Support muscle growth alongside your training.

It seems to be effective across different types of exercise, benefiting both strength athletes and those doing more endurance-focused high-intensity work.

The review also reinforces that creatine is generally considered safe when used appropriately.

The Takeaway

Based on this latest roundup of research, creatine continues to stand up as a reliable and effective supplement for improving various aspects of physical performance, particularly for high-intensity exercise. It helps muscles produce energy more efficiently, leading to better strength, power, endurance, and recovery.

As always, if you're thinking about trying a new supplement, it's a good idea to chat with your GP or a qualified health professional first.

Want to dive into the details yourself? You can find the full review paper here.