Creatine Is Not Just a Gym Supplement Anymore

For years, when we heard the word creatine, most of us probably thought about the gym.

Bodybuilders. Heavy weights. Protein shakes. People trying to build bigger muscles.

And honestly, that reputation makes sense. Creatine has been studied for decades, particularly for exercise performance, strength and muscle development.

But recently, I have been seeing a very different conversation around it.

People are asking me, “Ryan, is creatine only for people who work out?”

My answer is no.

And this is where creatine gets interesting. We are now learning more about what creatine does beyond the muscle. Researchers are looking at its potential role in the brain, cognition, memory and mental fatigue.

Before delving into the topic we are going to explore, let's first know what creatine is all about.

Creatine is a nitrogenous compound synthesized from 3 amino acids, arginine, glycine, and methionine. It can be produced naturally in the body, although consuming food, especially meat and fish, also contributes to creatine in your system.

Does not eating meat mean you are deficient in creatine? 

On the contrary, it doesn't.

Your body can produce creatine as long as there are the materials (building blocks) necessary for its synthesis. Creatine production involves both the liver and kidneys after which creatine is fully utilized by the muscles. However, it should be noted that even though it can be synthesized, vegetarians usually have lower amounts of creatine stores in their skeletal muscles compared to meat eaters.

This does not imply that there is a creatine deficiency but rather indicates that sedentary people may have a slower energy system because less creatine is available in the muscles.

The process of creatine conversion to phosphocreatine is initiated as soon as creatine reaches your muscles.

Your muscles need energy to contract. That energy comes from ATP, or adenosine triphosphate. You can think of ATP as the immediate energy currency of your cells. The problem is that your muscles only store a limited amount of ATP. So when you perform a heavy lift, sprint or explosive movement, you use that ATP very quickly.

Your body therefore needs a way to regenerate ATP quickly. This is where phosphocreatine comes in.

During a high-intensity effort, phosphocreatine can donate a phosphate group to ADP, helping regenerate ATP. It is a remarkably fast process, which is why this energy system is particularly useful during short bursts of intense activity.

Think about a heavy set of squats.

• You start the set.

• Your muscles are working extremely hard.

• ATP is being used.

• And your phosphocreatine system is helping you regenerate that ATP quickly enough to keep going.

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This energy system has limitations. Only during the initial seconds of a very intense exercise, about 5 to 10 seconds of exercise, does this system work efficiently. As time goes on, the need of the body to use other energy systems becomes more evident.

Now, imagine the possibility of storing more creatine in your muscles. You can access more phosphocreatine. This won't boost your bench press instantly. However, creatine may offer some extra seconds of efficiency during high-intensity training.

For instance, if you could do six reps of a certain weight with your previous levels of creatine stored, you may manage to perform eight repetitions using creatine supplements.

Maybe you can maintain a sprint for a little longer.

Maybe you can perform slightly more total high-intensity work during a training session.

That additional workload matters. Because if you can consistently do a little more quality work in your training, over weeks and months that can contribute to greater muscle and strength adaptations.

That is why I am very careful when someone says, “Creatine increases strength.”

It is true, but it needs context. 

Creatine doesn't simply switch on a strength button.

It helps support the energy system that allows you to train harder, and that additional training can contribute to greater strength over time. Research shows that many people can increase their muscle creatine stores substantially with supplementation, although the response varies between individuals. And when it comes to supplementation, we don't need to make things unnecessarily complicated.

Creatine monohydrate is the most extensively researched form.

For exercise performance, around 3 to 5 grams per day is commonly used. Some people choose a loading phase of around 20 grams per day, divided into smaller doses, for roughly 5 to 7 days before moving to a maintenance dose. 

But loading isn't compulsory.

You can simply take a regular daily dose and allow your muscle stores to build up over time.

For me, consistency is much more important than trying to make supplementation complicated.

Now, you may be thinking, “Can't I just get creatine from food?”

Technically, yes.

But if you're trying to get around 5 grams of creatine every day from food alone, you would need to eat a substantial amount of meat or fish. That's one reason supplementation is a practical option for people who want to increase their creatine stores. 

But now let's move beyond the gym. This is the part of the creatine story that I find particularly interesting. 

Your brain contains creatine too. 

We tend to think about our muscles when we talk about energy production. But your brain is an incredibly energy-demanding organ. It is constantly using energy to maintain its normal functions. 

So researchers have started asking a very reasonable question. If creatine helps the muscles manage energy availability, could it also help the brain?

And this is where the research becomes fascinating.

Creatine is stored in the brain, including in neurons and supporting cells, where it is involved in the same broader energy-management system. Increasing creatine availability may help support the regeneration of ATP when energy demands are high.

There is now growing research looking at creatine and cognitive performance, including memory and other aspects of cognition. 

But I want to be careful here.

I don't want you to read this and think that creatine is suddenly a brain enhancing miracle. The evidence doesn't justify that.

Some studies have found modest improvements in certain cognitive measures. The effects appear to vary depending on the person, the circumstances and the cognitive task being studied. The research also suggests that older adults may experience greater benefits than younger adults in some situations.

And there is another part of this research that I find particularly interesting. The potential cognitive benefits may become more noticeable when the brain is under greater stress.

Think about the end of a long working day.

You've been sitting in meetings.

You've been answering emails.

You've been making decisions for eight or nine hours.

Now someone asks you to solve one more complicated problem.

You know that feeling when your brain almost says, “Bas, enough.”

Now add poor sleep to the equation.

You went to bed late. You woke up early. You had a busy day ahead.

Your body is functioning, but mentally you don't feel as sharp.

Researchers are interested in whether creatine can provide some additional support under these kinds of high-energy-demand conditions. Some studies have specifically investigated creatine during sleep deprivation and cognitive stress, with findings suggesting potential benefits for maintaining aspects of cognitive performance.

But please don't misunderstand what that means. 

Creatine is not a substitute for sleep. 

If you slept four hours last night, I am not going to tell you to take creatine and forget about getting adequate sleep. No supplement can turn four hours of sleep into eight.

Sleep remains one of the foundations of physical and mental health.

The interesting question is whether creatine can provide some additional energetic support when the brain is already under pressure. And that is still an area of active research.

This is also why I think the future conversation around creatine may be very different from the one we have had for the last few decades.

For a long time, creatine was marketed almost entirely towards young men who wanted to build muscle. But what about an older adult who wants to preserve muscle and physical function?

• What about someone who does resistance training regularly?

• What about someone who eats very little meat?

• What about someone interested in healthy aging?

And what about the brain? These are very different populations, but they all bring us back to the same molecule.

Creatine is fundamentally involved in energy metabolism. And energy metabolism isn't only relevant to your biceps. 

That said, I don't want us to get carried away. 

There is a tendency in nutrition to take an interesting study and immediately turn it into a miracle solution. We have seen this happen with almost every supplement. One study suggests a possible benefit. Social media turns it into “the supplement you need.”

A month later, everyone is taking it. That's not how science should work.

With creatine, we have a strong evidence base for exercise performance. The research around cognition and other potential benefits is interesting, but we should allow that evidence to continue developing.

Another question I often hear is, “Is creatine safe?”

Creatine monohydrate has been studied extensively and is generally well tolerated in healthy adults when used appropriately. But that doesn't mean everyone should blindly start taking it.

If you have a medical condition, take medications, have concerns about kidney function or are unsure whether supplementation is appropriate for you, speak to an appropriate healthcare professional.

Supplements should be personalized to the person, not chosen because everyone on Instagram is taking them. There is also a common misunderstanding about body weight.

Some people start taking creatine, step on the scale a few days later and see the number go up. They panic. 

“Ryan, creatine is making me fat.” Not necessarily. 

Creatine can increase the amount of water stored within muscle cells. An increase in body weight after starting creatine does not automatically mean an increase in body fat. This is why I don't like judging a nutrition intervention by one number on a weighing scale.

• Look at your strength.

• Look at your training performance.

• Look at your body composition.

• Look at your waist circumference.

• Look at how you feel and perform.

And look at the trend over time.

The same principle applies to almost every supplement. Don't let one number tell you the entire story. 

And please remember something else. Creatine is still a supplement. It is not your foundation.

If your diet is poor, you aren't eating enough protein, you aren't exercising, you're sleeping five hours a night and you're constantly stressed, creatine isn't going to solve those problems.

I would rather see someone get the basics right before worrying about another supplement.

• Eat enough protein.

• Get enough fiber.

• Eat a variety of minimally processed foods.

• Move your body.

• Do resistance training.

• Sleep properly.

• Recover.

Then we can ask whether a supplement has a useful role. This is something I say often because we have become very good at looking for shortcuts.

• Someone wants to lose weight, so they look for a fat burner.

• Someone wants better sleep, so they look for a supplement.

• Someone wants more muscle, so they buy five different powders.

• Someone wants better brain function, so they look for a “nootropic.”

But sometimes the answer is much simpler. Your body needs the basics first.

Creatine can be useful because it works within a very specific biological system. It supports the body's ability to rapidly regenerate ATP, particularly during high-intensity activity. And when you understand that, you also understand why the same molecule might be relevant to tissues beyond muscle.

Your brain needs energy too.

Your muscles need energy.

Your cells need energy.

That is the bigger story behind creatine.

And this is why I don't think we should call it simply a “gym supplement” anymore.

Its benefits for high-intensity exercise, strength and muscle development are well established. Its potential effects on cognition, memory and mental fatigue are an exciting area of ongoing research.

But the responsible way to look at this is not to say, “Creatine will make you smarter.”

It is to say, “Creatine is involved in cellular energy metabolism, and researchers are finding interesting potential effects beyond muscle.”

That distinction matters. Because good nutrition isn't about finding the next miracle ingredient. It's about understanding how the body works and then deciding where a particular food, nutrient or supplement actually fits.

Creatine is a great example of that.

For years, we looked at it and thought, “Gym. Muscle. Strength.”

Now we are asking a much bigger question.

What else could a molecule involved in energy metabolism do for the human body?

We don't have every answer yet. And that's okay.

In fact, that's what makes science interesting.

So the next time someone tells you that creatine is only for bodybuilders, you can tell them there is a much bigger story. 

Creatine may have built its reputation in the gym. But the science is taking it far beyond the gym.

And I think we are only beginning to understand how interesting that story could become.

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