Exercise and diet are the best combination for muscles to grow progressively and at a natural rate without affecting health. This union is essential to achieve the desired results, since, otherwise, it will not matter how much sport you do or what diet you follow.
However, there are food supplements that speed up the muscle gain process as long as you take them within a diet adjusted to your needs and sports practice; In this case, one of the best known and most effective is creatine, an essential product for a large number of athletes.
If you want to know how to take creatine to increase muscle mass, as well as discover what its properties are, how long you should take it and the side effects it may have, don’t miss this article.
Table Of Content
1. Creatine to increase muscle mass: properties
2. How to take creatine to increase muscle mass – tips
3. how long to take creatine
4. Side effects of taking creatine
Creatine to increase muscle mass: properties
Taking creatine provides the body with a large number of beneficial properties for health. The most important are the following:
- Regenerating properties: creatine speeds up muscle recovery after great efforts and long training sessions.
- Energizing properties: being a carrier of energy, creatine makes the muscles work more intensely during training and, in general, increases the physical capabilities of the athlete in question.
- Although creatine is essential to increase muscles, since 90% of this supplement is concentrated in muscle mass, it has beneficial properties for the brain, as this product improves cognitive response in elderly people.
- Osmotic properties: thanks to its composition, creatine attracts water to muscle cells, which leads to an almost instantaneous enlargement of the body’s muscles.
How to take creatine to increase muscle mass – tips
Creatine can be taken in various ways. To introduce it into your diet in the best possible way and without excessively altering your eating habits, we give you the following advice:
- One of the options with which creatine is better absorbed by the body is through fruit juices since they accelerate the transport of its active ingredient to the muscles. You can opt for grape or apple juice and add this food supplement.
- It is always important to take it with plenty of liquid, giving preference to water to maintain proper hydration.
- Avoid the consumption of alcohol and caffeine, as they reduce the effect of creatine on muscle mass.
- There are a large number of supplements that include creatine in their composition, but mixing it with different components makes it difficult to determine its effect on the body. For this reason, we recommend that you take it separately to have greater control over its evolution, as well as being cheaper compared to other products.
How to take creatine and protein
Taking creatine and protein brings benefits to the body, as it helps to reach the necessary nutritional values on a daily basis through supplementation. Combining them in the same smoothie is the easiest way to consume them, however, each one has a specific moment in which it reports a greater positive impact on the muscles.
You can take creatine both before and after training, although it is better absorbed after finishing them. In the case of protein, muscle mass needs it after exercise, so it is essential to consume it after sports practice.
When making the shake that contains creatine and protein, bet on creatine monohydrate, as it contains a large number of benefits: it increases muscle hydration and, with it, promotes muscle growth; increases physical performance between 5 and 15% and helps balance the amount of creatine found inside the body.
What is the best time to take creatine?
The daily amount you should consume of creatine is 3 grams to get the muscles to increase progressively. As with other supplements, you can take it at any time of the day, as it has an effect that accumulates in the body, but there are specific contexts in which it will provide you with greater benefit:
- In strength and speed training, consume creatine half an hour before exercise.
- For workouts lasting less than an hour and high intensity, take during exercise.
- In long-term and aerobic training, it is preferable to take it at the end of the exercise.
In this other article on How and when to take creatine, we offer you a long list of tips that you can take into account before taking this supplement.
How long to take creatine
Having clarified how to take creatine to increase muscle mass, it is important to determine the time intervals in which you should consume it. They are divided into three categories:
- 3 months: supplementation ranges from 2 to 5 grams daily for three months, subsequently taking a one-month break.
- Overload: In the first five days of the process, consume 0.3 grams for every kilo of your weight. Divide the shots into 3 or 4 a day. At the end of this phase, the dose is reduced by a maximum of 5 grams per day for 3 months.
- Cycles – Consume 5 grams of creatine for six weeks. Then take a 3-week break.
Before opting for any of these methods to take creatine, consult with a doctor the convenience of each plan.
Side Effects of Taking Creatine
Despite the great benefits that its consumption contains, creatine also produces side effects if it is taken improperly. These are the most prominent:
- Weight Gain – Although it is obvious that creatine will make you gain weight by enlarging your muscles, many people exceed the recommended intake dosages and experience unwanted weight gain caused by fluid retention.
- Diarrhea or stomach pains: although it is uncommon, if you take more creatine than recommended for your case, you can suffer from some of these pains.
- Kidney dysfunction: In very extreme cases, poor consumption of this product can lead to kidney problems.
In addition, it should be noted that the intake of creatine is not recommended for pregnant or lactating women. Are There Any Side Effects Of Creatine? | Know more with BeerBiceps Fitness