Why Creatine Monohydrate is Such an Effective Supplement

There's been a lot of buzz around the gym and on social in the last 6-12 months about Creatine supplementation. So many influencers making money selling creatine to all the Instagram groupies who want the next best biohack or performance enhancing suppies. I just made up "suppies", short for supplements. Haha. In this case it's all warranted, as this suppie has proven over the last 3 decades to be very efficacious at improving performance and also extremely safe.

Creatine monohydrate is one of the few supplements that consistently delivers results—across athletes at every level and age, physical and cognitive performance and even in clinical populations. Here’s why I recommend it to many of our clients.

At its core, creatine supports your body’s most immediate energy system.

Your muscles run on ATP (adenosine triphosphate), but you only store a small amount at any given time. During short bursts of high-intensity effort—like sprinting, jumping, soul crushing interval sessions or heavy lifting—ATP gets used up quickly.

Creatine helps regenerate ATP faster.

That means:

• More reps before fatigue, and higher quality reps because you're not torched.

• More power output. Power = Force x acceleration.

• Better performance in short, explosive efforts means more quick twitch fibers. More of those explosive little baddies means you can do cool stuff like run, jump, change direction, catch yourself in a slip and fall, throw things faster, better hand eye and foot eye coordination, etc. You know, all the good stuff.

It’s not a stimulant. It’s not a shortcut. It simply helps your body do what it already does—more efficiently.

Better Training = Better Results

Creatine doesn’t magically build muscle. Although I thought it did when I was in High School lol.

What it does is allow you to train at a higher level:

• Lift more.

• Train more often - increased volume.

• Slightly better repeat efforts - because you recover quicker.

Those slight improvements add up over weeks and months, leading to:

• Increased strength.

• More lean muscle.

• Improved work capacity.

• Improved endurance.

• Less skeletal muscle trauma.

• Improved athletic performance in basically all physical activity, competitive or not.

Basically, this is why creatine consistently shows such great results in humans—not just getting injected into some rat in the lab based studies.

Better Recovery and Resilience = Durability

Beyond performance, creatine may help you recover more effectively between sessions. With that being said, if your diet, hydration and recovery/sleep habits suck you might as well stop reading, because you can't polish a turd as they say, and the creatine won't help you cover up for those poor habits folks.

It's science bro.

Research suggests it can:

• Reduce muscle damage from intense training and help you recover faster.

• Support faster glycogen replenishment. Glycogen is the stored form of glucose.

• Improve overall training capacity over time.

For athletes or anyone training consistently, this can mean more quality sessions and fewer setbacks.

What about the Brain Benefits?

Creatine is also used by the brain.

Emerging research shows potential benefits for:

• Cognitive performance under fatigue

• Memory and processing speed

• Neurological resilience

This is especially relevant for:

• Athletes in high-demand environments

• Individuals under stress or sleep deprivation

• Snorting it provides even greater results. Haha gotcha. DO NOT SNORT YOUR CREATINE! No matter what some biohacker on social tells you.

  
  

Who Should Consider Taking It?

Creatine is particularly effective for:

• Strength and power athletes.

• Field and court sport athletes.

• Anyone in a structured strength and conditioning program or HIIT training.

• Endurance athletes.

• Basically every athlete in any sport that utilizes ATP.

• Older adults.

It can also be useful for:

• Youth athletes (when supervised and properly dosed).

• Older adults looking to maintain muscle and strength and preserve/improve cognitive function.

• Individuals with low dietary creatine intake (low red meat consumption) and women.

• Women tend to have lower phosphocreatine stores than men do.

  
  

  How to Use It

Keep it simple:

• Dose: 5-10 grams daily. Lighter individuals use less. I use up to 20 grams when on a day I am sleep deprived and it's so helpful.

• Timing: Anytime (consistency matters more than the timing). I take mine (10g/day) in my morning cup of coffee or a shake.

• Loading phase? No need for it. Wasting your money on that first jug.

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Who should not take it?

If you’re healthy, training hard, and hydrated—creatine is one of the safest and most effective supplements available.

If you have underlying medical conditions or take medications, treat it like anything else performance-related—get clearance first. These populations might include:

• Kidney conditions (e.g., Chronic Kidney Disease)

• Liver disease (e.g., Cirrhosis, Hepatitis)

• Those on kidney-impacting medications (diuretics, chronic NSAIDs, etc.)

• History of Rhabdomyolysis

• Pregnant or breastfeeding women. Talk to your doctor first.

• Individuals with known kidney impairment.

• Youth athletes should always have parent supervision for any supplement they take. Parents, if you're not feeding them a healthy diet full of whole foods don't even consider supplementing with anything. You need to master the basics first and foremost.

The Bottom Line

Creatine monohydrate remains a highly effective supplement because it works at a fundamental level—giving your body the ability to produce energy when it matters most.

It won’t replace hard training. It won’t fix poor programming. And you can never out supplement a bad diet! But if those pieces are in place, creatine can help you get more out of your physical and mental performance. And over time, that’s what drives real progress.