So all bullocks aside, is creatine going to help you build muscle?

When I first started my own personal training creatine was one of the first muscle building supplements that I ever tried simply because it was one of the most popular ones out there and everybody recommended it.

And to be honest, I really didn’t do much of my own research on creatine and whether or not it was effective at building muscle and if there were any side effects.

Nowadays you’ll hear a lot of teenagers wanting to get on creatine to help them with the muscle building process, and to the dismay of a lot parents.

Creatine is one of the few supplements that has actually been researched and proven to be effective at building strength and muscle size.

It is a popular bodybuilding supplement for a reason, because it works.

And there have been numerous long term and short term studies that have found no correlation between creatine and side effects with those who use it.

In fact, those who experienced side effects were so rare that only about 2% of those consistently using it, which doesn’t mean we should be scared of taking creatine.

Creatine works by intracellular volumization meaning that the muscle cells draw water into them, but don’t believe the myth that creatine will cause bloating.

If you going to go with creatine, go with the old school form creatine monohydrate over creatine ethyl ester simply because the CEE has been a big let down and isn’t nearly as effective as CM.  CEE was supposed to be the next big thing with creatine a few years ago but for some reason it hasn’t been proven to beat CM.

The only thing you may have to worry about is muscle spasms.  Even though it goes against a study which proved that creatine and muscle spasms weren’t correlated.  The reason is because scientists are still not entirely sure why we get muscle spasms but most believe it’s because of dehydration.

So the one catch with taking creatine is that you have to drink a lot of water while you’re on the supplement or else there’s a chance you won’t get the results you’re looking for and might experience muscle spasms and cramps.

So do I recommend creatine for those under the 18 and playing high school sports?

NO.

I don’t recommend taking creatine because at that age young men and women have more than enough natural muscle building hormones in their body to achieve great results.  Also now is the time they should be focusing on getting their nutrition, training and recovery down before they start with supplements.

Not to mention that when most kids start taking creatine, they naturally want to move up to the next step which is steroids.  And we DON’T want that.

So give creatine a shot if you’re looking to build muscle, burn fat and increase your strength.  Take half your dose and take it 45 minutes before your workout and then take the rest afterwards.  I’d also be taking some protein powder postworkout as well to keep the lean muscle gains coming, learn more about them in my Prograde review. Good luck and let me know how it goes!