Creatine: what it is used for and why it is useful for athletes

Let’s discover creatine, excellent results and effects for athletes

In the gym, between exercises, have you heard about creatine in relation to muscle mass? Have you been told that it helps put on mass but don’t know whether to trust it? You hear a lot lately about creatine supplements, but what are they? And more importantly, what are they good for? Is it true that they can be useful for athletes? In this article we will try to answer all these questions, talking about what creatine is used for and why to take it.

When we go to the gym or start a sporting activity, whether competitive or amateur, each of us has goals to achieve. Whether it’s to increase muscle mass, endurance or break a personal record, having a goal to achieve encourages us to give more and more. And so each workout becomes a challenge to ourselves, in which we put all our energy into with commitment, perseverance and determination.

Hard training followed by proper recovery, coupled with a proper diet and plenty of hydration, are the starting points that pay off over time. However, it is important not to forget to replenish certain nutrients at the right time to help the body when it needs them most.

What is creatine

Creatine is an amino acid naturally present in the body synthesised by the liver, pancreas and kidneys from three other amino acids (arginine, glycine and methionine) essential for muscles to produce ATP. Its main function is to bind to a phosphate group, transforming into creatine phosphate or phosphocreatine, and it is involved in meeting the energy demands of the alactacidic anaerobic mechanism.

Phosphocreatine reserves in the body are depleted very quickly, so it is essential to replenish them during sporting activity in order to maintain high performance. It is considered that in a man of about 70 kg, the body’s creatine quantity is 120 g and the daily requirement is usually 2 g. Of this amount, half is obtained through endogenous synthesis and half through a specific diet (creatine is present in foods of animal origin, especially meat and fish) and proper supplementation. By replenishing creatine through specific products, it is possible to increase the supply by up to 40%.

Creatine: what it is used for

Once we understand what it is, let’s try to understand what creatine is used for, especially in sports. Over the years, numerous studies have shown the benefits of creatine especially from an ergogenic point of view, more specifically during short duration but high intensity exercise. But that’s not all that makes creatine the queen of sports supplements. Its intake can bring many benefits to the body, but it is also effective from an athlete’s point of view.

In particular, it is used to:

• increasing muscle strength due to its anabolic effects on muscle cells
• improvement of contractile capacity and neuromuscular function
• improvement of the body’s hydration, thanks to creatine’s osmotic properties
• increase in critical power
• reduction of muscle atrophy in the event of a forced stop, and subsequent easier recovery in terms of muscle strength, mass and vigour
• increase in glycogen reserves

CREAFos by Sprintade® fot your integration

The Sprintade® products line was created with the aim of supporting athletes during intense training in the gym, providing the right nutrients in highly concentrated formulations and in convenient and easily transportable formats such as gels, ampoules and chewable gums.

CREAFos by Sprintade® is the new powder supplement perfect for those seeking energy support and performance enhancement, especially muscle strength. The ingenious idea behind this supplement is to combine Creatine with Fructose 1-6 diphosphate, thereby promoting the creation of phosphocreatine useful for creating ATP. Thanks to its high content of these two nutrients, CREAFos can be consumed regularly to increase muscle reserves of creatine and phosphate.