Biogen Creatine UltraLoad | Biogen SA | 4 reasons why creatine belongs in your supplement plan

Creatine is one of the most extensively studied nutritional supplements available to athletes at every level

Creatine offers anyone who is serious about their exercise performance and gains a cost effective product relative to its many benefits.

Here are 4 reasons to include a creatine supplement in your plan.

1. Creatine boosts exercise capacity

In terms of muscle uptake and ability to increase high-intensity exercise capacity, creatine is possibly the most prolific performance-enhancing supplement at our disposal. 

According to the International Society of Sports Nutrition’s position stand3, “creatine monohydrate is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes in terms of increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.”

Boosting creatine stores with a supplement enables you to sustain the intense short duration muscle contractions for longer during resistance training sessions. 

By increasing strength, power and muscular endurance in this way, you can train harder for longer, which increases the stimulus muscle tissue needs to grow back stronger and bigger with the appropriate recovery and nutritional support. 

This enhanced work capacity delivers creatine’s muscle-building benefits, rather than any direct effects on muscle protein synthesis, as is the case with supplemental protein or hormones. 

Research by a team of Australian scientists has shown that creatine may, in fact, deliver a greater muscle sparing effect than whey protein.

In the study4 funded by AST Sports Science, a research team led by Matthew Cooke imposed controlled, chemically induced damage to the skeletal muscle tissue of lab rats to test the myo-protective potential of supplemental creatine (CR) compared to that of whey protein (WP). 

The study results showed that the creatine-supplemented muscles “displayed a greater proportion of non-damaged (intact) fibres and larger cross-sectional areas of regenerating and non-damaged fibres compared to CON (control) muscles at day 7 post-injury. At day 14 post-injury, CR-supplemented muscles generated higher absolute forces concomitant with greater contractile protein levels compared to CON and WP-supplemented muscles.” 

Based on the findings, the researchers concluded that: “Creatine supplementation appears to offer an element of myoprotection which was not observed following whey protein supplementation.” 

The findings from the study, which were published in the journal Nutrients, suggest that the ability of a creatine supplements to support muscle growth run deeper than its ability to generate functional strength.

According to the Australian researchers, observations from the study suggest that supplementing with creatine reduces the extent of muscle damage and/or enhances the growth of the regenerating fibres. 

They suggest that the structural improvements are due to increased cell fluid volume that occurred in the earlier stages of the study, which may underpin the benefits observed in the later stages of recovery.

How creatine works

Our body uses the phospho-creatine (PCr) we get from food and supplements to support adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production – the body re-synthesises it by adding a creatine molecule to adenosine diphosphate (ADP) – to produce the energy needed to fuel short and intense muscle contractions. 

With a limited amount of creatine stored in our muscle cells (the primary storage site in the body), a boosting creatine stores with a supplement can deliver various physical and performance benefits. 

And studies1 affirm that supplementing with creatine can increase the intra-cellular levels of creatine and PCr in muscles.

Creatine monohydrate is the most common form of creatine available today, and it is considered by many to be the most effective. The powder found in products like Biogen Creatine Monohydrate is basically creatine bound with water – each molecule is made up of 88% creatine and 12% water.

Numerous studies2 over the last three decades have shown that creatine monohydrate supplementation for 4–12 weeks increases muscle creatine and PCr content by 20–40%.

And innovation in creatine supplement manufacturing is finding ways to further boost the effectiveness of this already potent supplement. For instance, Biogen Creatine Ultra Load has used the most cutting-edge scientific findings to produce a formulation that maximises creatine utilisation. 

The phenomenal absorption rate is achieved through powerful insulin mimicking and potentiating components such as Alpha-lipoic Acid. The compound effect of these agents results in a far more efficient delivery system, amplifying ATP production and performance output of muscle fibres. 

References:

  • Creatine and Phosphocreatine: A Review of Their Use in Exercise and Sport. J Athl Train. 1997 Jan-Mar; 32(1): 45–51.
  • Role of Creatine Supplementation in Conditions Involving Mitochondrial Dysfunction: A Narrative Review. Nutrients 2022, 14(3), 529; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14030529.
  • International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: creatine supplementation and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007; 4: 6. Published online 2007 Aug 30. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-4-6
  • Myoprotective Potential of Creatine Is Greater than Whey Protein after Chemically-Induced Damage in Rat Skeletal Muscle. Nutrients. 2018 May; 10(5): 553. Published online 2018 Apr 30. doi: 10.3390/nu10050553