Description
Creatine monohydrate is arguably the most popular nutritional supplement of the last decade. Creatine's immense popularity rivals even protein. Creatine is an extremely effective product from both a performance and cost perspective. Creatine is produced by the body from the amino acids arginine, glycine, and methinoine, and 95 percent of the body's creatine is stored in skeletal muscle. Small amounts of creatine are found naturally occurring in foods such as beef and fish, with only trace amounts occurring in vegetables. , , The creatine that you purchase at the store, however, is produced by a controlled synthesis process. Athletic vegetarians have diets chronically low in foods containing high amounts of creatine, making them among the people most likely to benefit from supplementation. Creatine helps the body produce fuel, namely ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate). ATP is the body's energy molecule that supplies fuel for cellular functions. During anaerobic exercise (weight training, sprinting, etc) ATP stores are depleted rapidly. , , However, there is a limit to the amount of ATP that can be stored by a cell at any one time. The amount of ATP contained by a muscle and its ability to produce it directly determines how long the muscle can perform. Supplemental creatine doesn't increase the amount of stored ATP, but rather accelerates the rate at which ATP is replaced or re-synthesized by the PCR (phosphocreatine) system of the cell.
