Creatine? To use or not to use...

There is much debate going on about the effectiveness of creatine. Some people believe that it's gods gift to muscle builders, others think it's a crock. I, honestly, think that it lies somewhere in the middle of these two, and I'll explain why.

Let's begin with why it could be a bit of a crock. If you've done much research on creatine, I'm sure you've seen that there are tons upon tons of different types of creatine on the market. There's CEE (Creatine Ethyl Ester), Creatine Monohydrate, amongst others that companies pin a name on and try to make it sound like it's the "Best, most effective form of creatine ever made, with lots and lots of thorough research." The sad truth, though, is that it tends to be lies and all that they really want is your money with little to no substantial results from their overpriced concoction. Also, a great deal of creatine powders have so little creatine in them that you really aren't reaping the benefits of creatine supplementation by using them. What this all boils down to is that your best bet is to stick with creatine monohydrate, it's creatine in its purest, most effective form. That, and you can buy it in bulk for extremely cheap, rather than spending $50 on some name brand sludge that has some trace amounts of creatine in it.

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As for the good things about it? It's known to help some (and I won't say all because not all people react well to all substances, just like there are some who wouldn't benefit from using steroids, it's all about the way your body is made up...its chemistry), while others don't really get any results. In most cases, however, studies have shown that creatine supplementation not only can make muscle mass larger (because of the way that creatine pushes water into the muscle cells..."hydrating" them), but creatine supplementation is also shown to give extra energy for lifting as well as helping the muscles recover after a hard lifting routine.

So, in the end, what it ends up boiling down to is...give it a try. If it works for you, then keep using it, it's not like it's an illegal substance, nor is it toxic to your body (unless you use ridiculously high amounts of it, ie in excess of 20g a day), and it has actually been proven to work in most test subjects. I use it (about 8g a day) and while there is no supernatural amount of change, I feel that it does its job, and that it keeps me going, so I will continue to use it.