The “swiss army knife” of Mitochondrial support supplements
Creatine was one of the first supplements I used out of the behemothic box I received from PureBulk.com because it’s the swiss army knife of Mitochondrial support supplements. I use it as both a Nootropic and workout performance enhancer which I’ll describe here along with summarizing the most recent science and research done on Creatine.
Nootropic
While I won’t call it a smart drug, it does have subtle Nootropic effects; I notice myself being a bit more energized, optimistic, and motivated after taking a few grams of Creatine in the mid-morning. I did stack it with about 800 milligrams of N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine (NALT) which enhanced the Nootropic effects and kept me alert on a few days when I was a little underslept. I did take a heart rate variability measurement with my Heartmath device on this stack and achieved a coherence score of 1.2 while working on my laptop — which is a little of an uptick over my baseline.
I would like to stack it with Cordyceps; a combination highly recommended by my friend Dinnin.
Workout performance enhancer
One of the most reliable effects of Creatine is that you’ll be able to push yourself a little harder in the gym. You’ll walk home from the gym a little sorer than usual but with a proud smile on your face for the gains you’ve made; pushing more weight, achieving more reps, or sweating it out more doing cardio. I stack it with one of my other favorite workout performance enhancers, HMB, for epic workouts that I’d be sore from for days if it wasn’t for the recovery hacks I employ: red light therapy on my muscles, healing PEMF frequencies, and a before-bedtime massage from my lady.
The other thing I like about Creatine is the muscle pump; it does make your muscle look bigger if you take it and work out consistently. HMB has a complementary effect, it essentially preserves muscle mass if you’re slacking on your workouts. So a vain yet economically-minded Biohacker would want to use them both; take 5 grams of Creatine and HMB on workout days to build muscle, and then if you need to take a few weeks off the gym for travel, work, or over the holidays take just a few grams of Creatine daily as a Nootropic and HMB to preserve your strength gains.
A caveat on workout performance enhancers: as Jeff Cavaliere of ATHLEAN-X preaches, you earn the right to take workout supplements. You probably shouldn’t be cramming supplements in your mouth your first week or month in the gym — you should put in the work for a couple of months building up foundational strength and competence before turning to supplements. The kinds of performance enhancers I name here do unlock an extra reserve of power and motivation. They can make you overconfident in the gym when you shouldn’t be; risking an injury that will ultimately set you back in your fitness.
I appreciate having both the powdered and capsuled Creatine. Many mornings I’d mix a couple of grams of powdered Creatine (which has a not-awful, tangy taste) in a beverage or yogurt with other supplements. Then before rushing out the door to the gym I’d drop a capsule or two for extra energy in the domain of iron.
Overview of Creatine Science
In the past year alone over 100 articles of scientific research specifically on Creatine have been published on Pubmed, including 8 clinical trials. Let’s take a look at several of them that jumped out at me…
A Spanish study compared Morning versus Evening Intake of Creatine in Elite Female Handball Players. It concluded that while circadian rhythm certainly affects performance, it didn’t make much of a difference after 12 weeks in terms of performance and body composition. However, unless the evenings are the only time you can make it to the gym I would only take it in my mornings or early afternoons as it is a stimulating Nootropic that might mess with your sleep.
A Canadian-Italian study looked at the synergy of Creatine and caffeine. Gym buddies have occasionally looked at me funny when I showed up to the gym with a coffee in hand but caffeine indisputably increases power output. And in my experience, black coffee doesn’t mess with my stomach during a workout. Although the study reports that the uptick in performance from the combination was negligible. A recent systemic review evaluated ten different studies combing the two and the conclusion there’s no clear answer on whether the two actually complement each other. You’ll have to try the stack for yourself and see if you like it.
Another Spanish study gave it to 23 basketball players for 8 weeks which resulted in an improvement in both Abalakov jump power test performance and A significant interaction effect was also observed in points per game.
A shorter Canadian-Iranian study administered Creatine to Twenty male military personnel for a week and noted an uptick in cognitive performance that could make all the difference for warfighters.
I did find a meta-analysis specifically on the Creatine and HMB stack that I’m taking that evaluated six papers and concluded…
In summary, the combination of 3–10 g/day of [Creatine] plus 3 g/day of HMB for 1–6 weeks could produce potential positive effects on sport performance (strength and anaerobic performance) and for 4 weeks on body composition (increasing fat free mass and decreasing fat mass).
A recent review sheds light on its anti-inflammatory effects…
Accumulating research also suggests that creatine supplementation has anti-inflammatory and anti-catabolic properties, which may help create a favorable environment for muscle and bone accretion and recovery from exercise. Creatine supplementation has the ability to decrease markers of inflammation and possibly attenuate cancerous tumor growth progression.
And it does strengthen your bones but only if you’re actually working out. So get grandma Creatine and some pink dumbells for Christmas!
Another European study suggests that it also improves anaerobic athletic performance; it increased power output during repeated sprints for Sixteen recreationally active males. It concluded…
[Creatine] supplementation improved the mean power and speed in the second half of a repeated sprint running protocol, despite the increased body mass. This improvement was due to the higher power output and running speed in the last 5 [seconds] of each 10 [seconds] sprint.
So if you’re hiking in the woods with a buddy DON’T SHARE YOUR CREATINE WITH HIM just in case the two of you are chased by a hungry bear! The verbal fluency-enhancing effects of Creatine will surely enable you to deliver a moving eulogy at his funeral.
Bottom Line
If you’re interested in supporting your Mitochondria but a little confused by the dizzying number of supplemental options to do so out there, just start with Creatine which is very affordable. Creatine is a no-brainer…
You can take just a little or as much as 5 grams
You can take it just on workout days or every day
Stack it with other performance enhancers or don’t
You don’t need any fancy form of Creatine — just go with Creatine Monohydrate
Regardless it will benefit your myriad Mitochondria — you’ll feel (and likely look) better!
Purity-verified with COA
The final thing I like about this Creatine is that it’s verified as pure with a certificate of analysis from an accredited American lab. This evidence of purity is something you should demand that your local gym supplement shop or the sellers on Amazon likely can’t provide.
