Creatine is one of the most studied and used supplements there are, both for lean muscle gain, energy, endurance and recovery, but also for reaction time, cognitive health and focus, affecting the brain, nervous system, heart and much more.

It’s used by athletes for more explosive power: sprinting, heavy lifting and intense exercise.

It allows for greater endurance in training, more reps per set before fatigue sets in, faster recovery between sets or sprints and can help lengthen workouts and exercise time.

It also helps with lean muscle creation, reduced muscle damage and even helps maintain lean muscle during calorie restriction or fasting — without breaking the fast.

And it adds fullness and denseness to our muscles.

But it does more than this. Just as it supports muscle, it also supports the neurons that make up our brain and nervous system, supporting focus, cognition and mental fatigue, and many people take it solely for this.

Due to this it helps with reaction time, memory and exhaustion.

It also helps with aging, helping prevent muscle loss as we get older, supporting bone density and improving overall cellular energy levels, as energy failure is central to nerve degeneration.

And for vegans and vegetarians it’s a must as creatine comes almost exclusively from meats, not plant sources. 

So if we’re not eating meats we have to rely solely on creatine being created inside our body, which happens at lower levels due to lower amounts of amino acids received from plant foods.

This can lead to lower energy levels, less muscle mass, mental fatigue and stress.

As creatine is vegan, vegans and vegetarians supplementing with it can experience some of the most noticeable benefits both in energy and muscle, as well as focus and stress levels.

So that’s what it does and what it affects.

But what is it, how does it work and, most importantly, how can you use it to help you?

Let's find out.

What Is Creatine & How Does It Work?

While it affects much more, at its very core, creatine has to do with energy creation. And while that seems simplistic, it affects everything.

When our cellular energy levels are high, we’re generally doing well, physically and mentally.

When they’re low, we can experience more stress, exhaustion, loss of focus and reduced strength, and physical and neurological issues can start to set in over time.

Energy levels are key to the health of our body.

Now, our muscles, brain, heart, immune system and every cell in our body run on an energy form known as ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate).

This is the final energy form created and used by our cells to operate after all nutrients from our food have been absorbed by our cells and mixed with oxygen.

It’s what powers our whole body, physically and mentally.

But our cells only hold a few seconds worth of ATP at any give time.

So during intense exercise, hard work, stressful situations when our cortisol levels rise, or even just when we’re going about our day to day activities, our cell’s stores of ATP energy are used up quickly, in just a few seconds.

To keep going, our cells need to be able to generate more ATP — fast. Not only that, they need to be able to continuously generate more energy so we can keep moving, keep thinking and keep focusing.

The more we’re moving, acting, lifting or thinking, the more we need.

That’s where creatine comes in.

In the body it acts as a cellular energy buffer, helping to continuously regenerate ATP in the cells — muscle cells, brain cells, heart cells, etc.

About 95% of creatine is stored in muscle tissue, and the rest in the brain, heart and other tissues.

Now, creatine is something naturally produced by our bodies in the form of phosphocreatine.

And this phosphocreatine is used by our cells to rapidly generate more ATP (cellular energy), and to do this continuously, every second of the day.

But our cells can only make and hold so much phosphocreatine naturally. When it’s gone or runs low, we run out of energy, get tired, and can lose mental focus.

That’s where creatine supplementation comes in. When we supplement with creatine, we increase the amount of phosphocreatine our cells can make and hold by up to 40%.

That’s a lot. And it has a significant impact.

This leads to more energy creation for longer more intense workouts.

We get more explosive strength in our lifts, more repetitions before fatigue, and faster recovery time between sets, allowing us to train harder and longer.

We have more energy for runs or intense physical activity. We have more energy for work and concentration before burn out.

We even sleep better as it allows our nervous system to operate at more balanced levels.

Another thing creatine does is pull water into our cells, especially our muscle cells. And this helps with hydration. But it also creates more muscle fullness and density.

And it stimulates increased protein synthesis.

That’s how creatine works.

But, while it increases energy levels for physical and mental performance and stimulates protein synthesis… it doesn’t directly supply the essential amino acids needed for the protein synthesis and muscle and nervous system repair to occur.

And without these essential amino acids being present, this heightened performance can actually lead to muscle breakdown.

That’s where essential amino acids come in.

THE SYNERGY OF CREATINE & ESSENTIAL AMINO ACIDS

For performance, endurance, recovery and mental focus we need both creatine and essential amino acids.

PerfectAmino is pure essential amino acids in the precise ratios needed by the body to build new proteins for muscle, nervous system, heart, bone and every other cell in the body.

Creatine stimulates protein synthesis, causing our cells to be more 'receptive' to amino acids and other necessary nutrients, vitamins and minerals and helps to pull them in.

At the same time, essential amino acids help the uptake of creatine into the cells.

Back and forth this happens, increasing uptake of each in turn for maximal result.

This is why we’ve added 2 grams of PerfectAmino to PerfectAmino Creatine.

PerfectAmino provides the building blocks of protein to help accelerate the repair of micro-tears created by the workout.

As it’s absorbed within approximately 23 minutes for most, it actually helps repair these micro-tears as they occur, as well as after, leading to more endurance during the workout and less muscle breakdown

And creatine increases the absorption and utilization of these amino acids so they can do that.

So during intense activity creatine helps reduce fatigue through energy creation, while PerfectAmino accelerates muscle and nervous system repair in real time.

If we were to train or work harder due to the energy and performance provided by Creatine, but without the essential amino acids necessary for muscular repair, we would get catabolism — breakdown of muscle tissue.

And more of the creatine we took would go toward preventing muscle loss instead of staying on target for muscle creation.

But with Creatine drawing water into the cells, an anabolic signal (muscle creation), plus PerfectAmino to synthesize new protein quickly for muscle repair, we get an enhanced anabolic state for maximal muscle creation.

So creatine boosts energy, performance and endurance, PerfectAmino accelerates repair and growth, and together they speed recovery, reduce fatigue and soreness, and maximize lean muscle creation.

As creatine also creates energy for the brain and nervous system and pulls in essential amino acids there as well… and as the neurotransmitters that pass the communications up and down our nervous system are made of essential amino acids… the combination of both creatine and PerfectAmino also significantly affects our mental focus, stress levels, cognition and reaction time.

But for the very best results, we need to go a little further.

HOW TO TAKE CREATINE FOR MAXIMUM RESULTS

We know that one way creatine works is by pulling water into the cells. For this to happen we also need key electrolytes, particularly sodium, potassium, magnesium and chloride.

Sodium helps creatine enter the cells. Magnesium is necessary for the creatine to be converted into phosphocreatine so it can be used. And potassium and sodium keep water levels balanced within the cell.

And each of these, plus trace minerals, along with neurotransmitters, are necessary for the neurons in our nerves to fire.

Without these, creatine uptake and use is less efficient and effective.

So the most effective way to get the best results from creatine is taking PerfectAmino Creatine with PerfectAmino and PerfectAmino Electrolytes.

Here’s how:

Creatine effectiveness is based on saturation of our cells with creatine. This is not instantaneous, but the best time to do this is when the cells are clamoring for it the most, which is right after a workout.

This then saturates the muscle, nerve and heart cells with creatine that is present the next day for the next workout.

At the same time, as electrolytes are necessary for this to occur, taking electrolytes just before this (during the workout) or at the same time as the creatine, is the best.

PerfectAmino then provides the building blocks of protein for protein synthesis and repair.

This is best taken 20-30 minutes before a workout so that these essential amino acids are in our blood vessels ready to be absorbed into creatine-saturated muscle tissue.

So the common, and most effective, way to do this is to:

• Take 2 servings of PerfectAmino 20-30 minutes before a workout.
• Drink electrolytes during the work out for hydration, energy and electrolyte saturation of the muscle and nervous system cells.
• And upon completion of the workout, along with any low glycemic carbs, take a serving of PerfectAmino Creatine.

This provides us with 10 grams (2 servings) of PerfectAmino before the workout and another 4 grams of PerfectAmino from the PerfectAmino Electrolytes and PerfectAmino Creatine. This is enough for continued muscle repair after the workout or exercise.

If it was a very long workout or activity, we can also take one more serving of PA along with the PerfectAmino Creatine.

One more thing, as covered above, creatine operates based on saturation. We want these cells fully saturated with creatine.

So when we first start taking creatine, our cells need time to saturate. Then, once fully saturated, we just keep taking creatine daily and they stay saturated.

If we start taking PerfectAmino Creatine at 1 serving per day, this saturation period takes about 3-4 weeks.

That’s why most people taking creatine do what’s called a loading phase, where they take 3-4 servings or 15-20 grams of creatine per day.

This speeds up saturation and within 5-7 days our cells are fully saturated and we can move down to 1 serving per day.

But either method can be done with saturation occurring and results coming: starting at 1 serving per day with saturation occurring in 3-4 weeks, or doing a creatine loading phase of 3-4 servings per day for 5-7 days and then back down to 1 serving per day.

Now, that’s for working out and exercising.

But creatine does more than that. It affects overall energy levels, mental focus, mood, sleep and recovery.

If we want to be able to work longer during the day, not get so tired out, keep focus and get better sleep, we can also take it just for this.

Some people take half a serving daily for this and some people take a full serving. Either is fine. There is no need for creatine loading here and the effect will rise over the first 1-3 weeks.

And you will notice a difference.

Now, in upcoming articles we'll go over more on how to take it and what it affects to ensure you get the very best results from it.

But the above covers all the key data to get started with.

If you haven’t tried PerfectAmino Creatine, you absolutely should. It's quite amazing the difference it can make.

And make sure to get your PerfectAmino and PerfectAmino Electrolytes as well to maximize creatine’s effect.

And if you really want to supercharge it, take Multi Complete with food during the day to ensure cells have all the nutrients they need to operate at their peak, and Body Calm magnesium at night to help with relaxation, mood, recovery and deeper sleep.

I hope this helps.