By far the most popular sports supplement available today is creatine monohydrate. Research has shown that supplementing with creatine will increase your energy levels, help increase your stamina, endurance and muscle power, improve your ability to train at high intensity and also speed up your body\'s recovery rate. All great things for those of us that love the iron sport.

If these aren\'t enough good reasons for you to include this supplement in your supplement arsenal then how about these other advantages. Creatine will increase the rate of protein synthesis in your body while also minimizing protein breakdown. And if you\'re still not sold on the benefits you should know that it will also accelerate fat loss while helping to increase your lean muscle mass!

While it\'s more complex at the cellular level, creatine primarily does this by super hydrating your muscle cells with water. It isn\'t unusual to see users gain 5-10 pounds within a 2-3 week period when using this supplement.

How Does Creatine Work?

Creatine is produced naturally in the kidneys, pancreas and liver and once produced it gets sent to the muscles via the bloodstream. Once in the muscles the creatine is converted to creatine phosphate and that is used to rebuild the muscle\'s primary energy source which is adenosine triphosphate or ATP.

Here\'s what happens in the muscle. During the first 10 seconds of exercise your muscles use ATP to fire off the contraction. This is accomplished when a phosphate molecule splits off from the ATP to power the contraction leaving a new compound called adenosine diphosphate (ADP). The creatine is then used to replace the phosphate molecule and create fresh stores of ATP which are then used to power more contractions, etc.

Creatine Loading and Cycling

You\'ve probably heard about creatine loading before. It requires taking in huge amounts of creatine (up to 30 grams daily) for about a week in order to saturate your muscles. The loading phase is only necessary if you\'re a first time user or if you\'ve been off creatine for a month or more. Once the loading phase is complete you can decrease your intake to 5-10 grams per day to keep your muscles saturated.

You\'ll get the best results from creatine when taking it immediately after training and combining it with around 75 grams of a simple carbohydrate like glucose (non-acidic fruit juice). You should also dramatically increase your water intake to compensate for your muscles demand for water.

To maintain the effectiveness of creatine you should consider cycling it by taking it for 6 weeks on and then one week off. Simply keep repeating this throughout the year as long as you\'re weight training.

As a final note I would recommend that you use a powdered creatine product as it is more easily absorbed into your blood stream than the capsule and liquid forms of the supplement. You\'ll also want to experiment with dosages to determine the most appropriate dose for you, keeping in mind that the larger you are the larger your maintenance dose of creatine will be.