The Pros and Cons of Creatine For Weightlifters

Creatine is a substance found in certain meats and fish. However most people are likely to recognise it from supplements rather than a balanced diet. Creatine can be bought from many large providers such as the likes of MYPROTEIN, USN, Optimum Nutrition and many others. Creatine is essential for high intensity short movements or activities such as 100 metre sprint or a heavy clean and jerk.

The actual use of creatine lies within a complex coupled reaction within the body where Phosphocreatine (which is essentially a phosphate ion combined with creatine) is broken down releasing a phosphate which is able to produce ATP from ADP in the muscle. This reaction is coupled meaning that when ATP is broken down during muscle contraction it forms ADP and phosphocreatine and so forth when phosphocreatine is broken down ATP and creatine are the products. This reaction is rapid and produces ATP quickly in a very short space of time up to 10 seconds. No fatiguing products such as lactic acid are produced either.

Now onto the actual topic of conversation after some science babble. For weightlifters creatine is an incredibly important part of nutrition. It increases our phosphocreatine system in the muscle fibre which essentially allows us to produce more ATP and produce it more quickly via the ATP-PCr system (what was explained above). The benefit to the weightlifter of having this is that it allows more ATP to be available for muscle contraction so essentially a lifter will be able to contract their muscles faster and with more force this in turn allows them to increase the acceleration of the barbell and result in a faster turnover and better lift overall. The ability to produce maximal force for longer down into the ground by having greater phosphocreatine stores will mean that the athlete can accelerate the bar for longer so the bar doesn't slow down prior to the turnover which can result in bar crash or other issues beyond my knowledge in the lift.

There are cons of creatine however, possibly less specific to weightlifting but these factors can still affect weightlifting performance. One of the negatives of creatine or taking too much can be diarrhoea, by taking too much too much water can enter the intestine increasing the water within the intestine increasing bowel movements. The obvious effect of this is that weightlifters may have to miss training sessions or may experience discomfort when training, this will clearly decrease the training load which an athlete can do. This may mean less overall training before a major championships.

Another side effect which is less likely but still key to consider is how it affects organs such as the liver and kidneys.