Quite possibly one of the most consumed weight room supplements, creatine has made a name as one of the biggest and best supplements for muscle growth.
Due to its role in boosting energy availability, bodybuilders and athletes have flocked to this stuff as a natural way to enhance performance.
Need more energy? Creatine’s got you.Want to max out muscle? Where’s the creatine?Need more power? Oh, it’s creatine.
Popularized in the early 90s, creatine has stuck around as other supplements have come and gone. Today, it’s one of the most heavily researched and widely used ‘ergogenic’ supplements on the market after caffeine.
While your body produces creatine from precursor amino acids, supplementation provides that extra boost to get through long, hard workouts.
So, for anyone looking to pack on mass and maximize explosive power, creatine is a shoo-in. But for endurance athletes who aren’t looking to put on weight, whether it’s from muscle or water retention, can creatine offer any benefit?
We’re diving into the role of creatine in performance and if creatine is beneficial for endurance athletes.
Let’s go.
What Is Creatine And How Does It Work?
Creatine is an amino acid primarily stored in skeletal muscle as phosphocreatine. It is synthesized from the amino acids glycine, arginine, and methionine in the liver, kidneys, and pancreas, and then transported into muscles via the bloodstream 1.
The turnover of creatine to creatinine is estimated to be at a rate of about 1.6% per day, and for an average 70kg man with a total creatine pool of about 120g, this turnover represents about 2g per day.
Creatine is largely replaced via diet (red meat and seafood) but also through endogenous synthesis; the average dietary intake of creatine is around 1g per day, with the remainder being produced by the body. And studies show that the size of the total creatine pool increases with high intensity or heavy resistance training 1.
But what does creatine do?
The major role of creatine is as an energy substrate for muscle contraction via the “phosphagen” pathway 1. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) functions as the immediate energy source of muscle contraction.
When muscles contract, ATP is hydrolyzed into adenosine diphosphate (ADP), which must be continually replenished to ensure sufficient energy reserves.
When energy demands increase, creatine phosphate is degraded, and the phosphate is donated to ADP to regenerate ATP. This reaction leads to the accumulation of free creatine in muscle cells, which is rephosphorylated back to creatine phosphate during the recovery periods
During high-intensity activity, energy demands can sometimes increase 100-fold, which means that energy turnover must rapidly increase to avoid fatigue or decrements in performance.
Based on studies looking at ATP turnover rate during different activities, it’s estimated that crating phosphate stores could be depleted in as little as 10 seconds of maximal, high-intensity work. But degradation happens faster in type II muscle fibers compared to type I.
However, where endurance exercise is concerned, creatine phosphate isn’t considered to be the primary energy substrate during submaximal exercise, so the role of creatine for endurance athletes has been challenged 2; exercise intensity and creatine phosphate levels appear to have an inverse relationship in working muscles during endurance activity.
Here’s what we mean.
A 1989 study found that in cyclists workings at approximately 70% of maximal O2 uptake (VO2max) for 65 minutes (first trial) and 21 minutes (second trial) experienced increases in inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) in working muscle and decreases in creatine phosphate to roughly 40% of baseline levels at the end of exercise 3.
Based on this, it’s apparent that even during submaximal exercise, creatine phosphate levels decrease but not to the same extent as during high-intensity exercise.
Endurance Athletes: Can Taking Creatine Help?
You may have segregated creatine to the people looking to put on serious mass, but not so fast.
Before we get into the benefits, it’s vital to know that regardless of whether it’s endurance exercise or resistance training, everything has a strength component to it—running, swimming, jumping, lifting. While the degree to which muscular strength is involved varies, the foundation is the same.
A runner needs a strong foundation or base to support their body weight during running, whereas a football player might need to bench 300lbs to prepare to fight against a 300lb opponent.
And while strength changes over time, it has an impact on endurance. With that said, the point for endurance athletes is that as you gain strength, movements get easier, and you can move for longer with greater ease.
As we’ve typically thought of creatine as a supplement for only the strength department, research suggests that it could be beneficial for several components of endurance performance.
However, not all athletes want to deal with the adverse effects that can come alongside high-dose creatine supplementation, especially for weight-sensitive sports like running or cycling.
But recent studies suggest that, when taken in conjunction with carbohydrates, creatine can enhance the amount of both creatine and carbohydrates stored in muscles, which may provide a greater energy pool to draw from during endurance sports.
A 2018 study set out to determine how creatine and carbohydrate loading affected cycling time trial performance 4. Eighteen well-trained men completed three performance trials under different conditions comprising a 120-km cycling trial interspersed with alternating 1- and 4-km sprints (six sprints each) performed every 10 km, followed by an incline ride to fatigue.
All cyclists completed the first trial as a baseline, then half were loaded up with 20g creatine per day for five days followed by a maintenance dose of 3g/day for nine days; the other half received a placebo.
Along with creatine or a placebo, the subsequent two trials were performed with either moderate carbohydrate (6g/kg/day) or high carbohydrate loading (12g/kg/d) for two days before the trial.
Results were interesting, showing that athletes who creatine-loaded could produce greater power in the final 4K sprints than those taking a placebo.
Researchers concluded that power output during closing sprints of exhaustive time trial cycling increased with creatine ingestion despite seeing an increase in weight because of supplementation.
As such, creatine + carbs may be a beneficial strategy for increasing performance during the latter period of endurance events.
What You Need To Know About Creatine And Running
With all of that said, the majority of research shows that creatine supplementation is more effective for anaerobic intermittent exercise, but there is some evidence showing positive effects on endurance activities 5.
One study noted that endurance activities lasting more than 150 seconds (2.5 minutes) rely on oxidative phosphorylation as the primary energy system supplier, which means that the benefit of creatine for activity exceeding 150 seconds would be reduced.
However, some research suggests that creatine may alter substrate utilization during aerobic activity, which may lead to increases in steady-state endurance performance.
A couple of studies show creatine could have the potential to boost running performance, although results remain largely mixed.
The first study published in 2003 looked at creatine supplementation on aerobic performance and anaerobic capacity in elite rowers in the course of 7-day endurance training 6.
Researchers observed a significant decrease in blood lactate accumulation with low-intensity exercise along with an increase in lactate threshold in elite male endurance rowers after a mini creatine load (5 days 20 g/d) protocol.
Another study published in 2009 looked at the effects of four weeks of creatine supplementation and high-intensity interval training on cardiorespiratory fitness 7.
They found a greater increase in ventilatory threshold with creatine supplementation but no significant differences between groups concerning oxygen consumption.
The total work presented no interaction and no main effect on the time for any of the groups. On the other hand, Thompson et al. showed no beneficial effects with 2g/day of creatine supplementation for six weeks on aerobic and anaerobic endurance performance in female swimmers 8.
Long story short, the link between creatine and endurance performance isn’t as strong as it is with resistance training, but there is a lot of potential for supplementation to boost running performance.
So, if you’re looking for the best possible route to improve your performance with creatine, Performance Lab Maintain is it.
References
- PD Balsom, K Söderlund, B Ekblom. Creatine in humans with special reference to creatine supplementation.Sports Med. 1994;18(4):268-280.
- E Hultman, J Bergström, NM Anderson. Breakdown and resynthesis of phosphorylcreatine and adenosine triphosphate in connection with muscular work in man. Scand J Clin Lab Invest. 1967;19(1):56-66.
- S Broberg, K Sahlin. Adenine nucleotide degradation in human skeletal muscle during prolonged exercise.J Appl Physiol (1985). 1989;67(1):116-122.
- KA Tomcik, DM Camera, JL Bone, et al. Effects of Creatine and Carbohydrate Loading on Cycling Time Trial Performance.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2018;50(1):141-150.
- R Cooper, F Naclerio, J Allgrove, A Jimenez. Creatine supplementation with specific view to exercise/sports performance: an update. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012;9(1):33.
- J Chwalbiñska-Moneta. Effect of creatine supplementation on aerobic performance and anaerobic capacity in elite rowers in the course of endurance training.Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2003;13(2):173-183.
- JL Graef, AE Smith, KL Kendall, et al. The effects of four weeks of creatine supplementation and high-intensity interval training on cardiorespiratory fitness: a randomized controlled trial.J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2009;6:18.
- CH Thompson, GJ Kemp, AL Sanderson, et al. Effect of creatine on aerobic and anaerobic metabolism in skeletal muscle in swimmers.Br J Sports Med. 1996;30(3):222-225.
