How Creatine Can Help Improve Performance During High Intensity Workouts

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How Creatine Can Help Improve Performance During High Intensity Workouts

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A 2022 meta-analysis pooling 14 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials found that 3 to 7 days of creatine loading raised mean power output across repeated sprints of 10 seconds or less. The same analysis found an average gain of 0.79 kg in body mass. Peak power and the rate of fatigue did not change, so the benefit appeared as a higher average across the whole set of sprints, which is the number that matters across a set of intervals.

Phosphocreatine in Short Efforts

During a sprint or a heavy set, muscle draws on phosphocreatine to regenerate ATP for the first seconds of effort. After high-intensity exercise, phosphocreatine is rebuilt with a half-time of roughly 30 seconds, and a study of 30-second maximal sprints estimated a half-time closer to 57 seconds, with stores still only about 85% restored after 6 minutes of rest.

Supplementation raises the amount of creatine held in muscle, so there is more phosphocreatine available at the start of each effort. A 1994 study by Paul Greenhaff and colleagues found that in 5 of 8 subjects, creatine loading increased muscle creatine and sped up phosphocreatine resynthesis during the second minute of recovery.

Repeated Sprint Results

The 2022 meta-analysis by Glaister and Rhodes covered adults aged 18 to 60 who took about 20 g a day for 3 to 7 days. Every included test used sprints of 10 seconds or less with recoveries of 90 seconds or less. Mean power output rose with creatine, with an effect size of 0.61. Peak power, fatigue across the test, and blood lactate after it did not differ from placebo.

An earlier meta-analysis by Branch, published in 2003, found benefits for high-intensity tasks lasting under 30 seconds. It found no effect on running and swimming performance.

In a 2022 trial with 16 recreationally active men doing 6 treadmill sprints of 10 seconds, creatine raised mean power mainly in the last 5 seconds of each sprint. A crossover study of 9 highly trained sprinters found no effect on single or repeated 40 m sprint times.

Loading and Daily Doses

The International Society of Sports Nutrition’s 2017 position stand describes 2 ways to fill muscle stores. The faster method is about 0.3 g per kilogram of body weight per day for 5 to 7 days, which is close to 24 g a day for an 80 kg adult, followed by 3 to 5 g a day to maintain the higher level. Taking 3 to 5 g a day from the start fills the stores over 3 to 4 weeks, although the position stand notes that early performance effects are less established with that slower route.

Creatine monohydrate is the form used in nearly all of this research. Powder mixed into water remains the standard way to take it. For people who prefer not to measure powder, creatine gummies or capsules can deliver the same daily 3 to 5 g. The dose matters more than the format, since the benefit depends on keeping muscle creatine high from one week to the next.

Rest Intervals and Workout Design

How a workout is structured changes how much creatine helps. A study of swimmers found performance gains with 3-minute rest intervals and no gains with rests of about 30 seconds. Phosphocreatine resynthesis was no faster with creatine in that trial, so the gain with long rests is better explained by larger stores at the start of each effort, which only a long rest gives time to refill.

For interval training, that points toward sessions such as 6 to 10 sprints of 6 to 10 seconds with 1 to 3 minutes of recovery. Tabata training, the best-known protocol built on short bursts of exercise with very brief rests, comes from a 1996 study by Izumi Tabata, in which athletes cycled at their highest intensity for 20 seconds and then rested for 10 seconds, in repeated rounds. Those 10-second breaks are far shorter than the half-time of phosphocreatine recovery, so the swimming results suggest a smaller creatine effect in that format.

Training Adaptations Over Several Weeks

A 4-week randomized trial in college-aged men combined high-intensity interval training with 10 g of creatine a day, 5 days a week. Both the creatine and placebo groups improved peak oxygen uptake and time to exhaustion by similar amounts. Ventilatory threshold, a marker of submaximal endurance, improved by 16% with creatine against 10% with placebo, and total work done did not change in either group. A companion study from the same period found no change in anaerobic working capacity, although its authors suggested creatine may add to the endurance gains that intense interval training produces.

The best-supported long-term benefits of the supplements come from pairing them with resistance work. Combined with resistance training, creatine has helped adults add about 2 to 3 pounds of lean mass in studies, and Abbie Smith-Ryan of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has noted that the gain is especially useful for older adults, who lose muscle with age.

Diet and Baseline Stores

Creatine is a workout staple, but the body also makes its own, about 1 to 2 g a day from the liver, kidneys, and pancreas, and a similar amount comes from protein-rich foods such as red meat and dairy. A pound of beef contains about 2 g. Vegetarians often have lower levels of creatine than people who eat meat, and lower starting stores leave more room for supplementation to raise them. A trained athlete who eats red meat and fish daily may see a smaller change. The sports nutritionist Graeme Close has pointed out that matching a supplement dose through food would take most of a kilogram of chicken a day.

Use in Elite Sport

Creatine reached elite sport as a legal aid. British athletes used it at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, when scientists were claiming it could improve explosive performance by 1% to 3%, and by the 1996 Games an estimated 80% of athletes were taking it. It remains a legal supplement used by athletes in Olympic and college sport, since the International Olympic Committee and the NCAA both permit it. The sprinter Linford Christie was among its early users.

Safety and Body Mass

The 2017 position stand found short- and long-term use, at doses up to 30 g a day for 5 years, to be safe and well tolerated in healthy people. Reviews of kidney function in healthy adults have found no adverse effects, and the rise in blood creatinine that sometimes appears comes from the breakdown of the extra creatine. People with existing kidney disease and pregnant women lack good safety data and should get medical advice first. The weight gain, close to 0.8 kg in the sprint meta-analysis, is mostly water held inside the muscle.

The Cost of a Late Start

An athlete who starts 3 g a day on the first morning of a 4-week interval block will not have full muscle stores until that block is nearly over. That means most of the hard sessions are done without the extra mean power the 2022 meta-analysis measured. Starting the low dose a month ahead, or using the 5- to 7-day loading protocol before the block begins, puts the stores in place for the first sprint. The difference is a few weeks of planning, and without it most of the benefit arrives after the training block has ended.