Creatine

I’ve been asked a lot lately about creatine, so here’s what you need to know:

Creatine monohydrate (Cr), the popular supplement form has been widely available and well studied for over ten years.  In this form it can be considered safe, although any supplement carries with it some degree of risk discussed in previous posts.

The results of Cr supplementation on training and performance have demonstrated benefits in many cases, and no benefit in others.  The one near-constant result in the studies is that Cr results in significant increases in body mass.  These gains are rapid (occurring within the first 2 weeks), and temporary (return to normal baseline shortly after supplementation cessation) because the increase comes from water retention.  You see, once creatine monohydrate passes through the digestive system, into the blood stream it eventually makes its way into the muscles cells.  Here it picks up a phosphate molecule generated by the metabolic processes in the muscle.  It now becomes creatine phosphate (PCr) where it sits in the watery muscle cell, until such a time that the phosphate is needed.

Since it is stored in a watery medium, increasing Cr results in increasing water within the muscles.  This water weight gain is typically in the 5-10 pound range.  Is this good? Possibly.  For athletes, increasing body weight, unless its actually the contractile components (the structural proteins that generate force), results in a decrease in performance.  Increasing fat, water, or uniform/equipment equal to 2% of body mass (3-5 pounds) decreases vertical jump by almost 2 inches and slows 40yard sprint speed and short agility by almost 1/3 of a second.  Make that a 5% increase and we’re talking 3 inches and half a second.  This is a big problem, particularly in season.

For body builders, this may help with your vanity and insecurity early on, but it just represents more weight to be cut prior to competition.  There are some anecdotal reports of increased incidences of muscle cramping when cycling off of CR, especially when combined with activity in hot environments.

Does it allow you to train more or train harder? It can. To fuel muscle contraction, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is required, the chemical reaction breaks ATP into adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and a free phosphate.  In the process this releases energy which the contractile proteins use to do their thing.  We can only store a tiny amount of ATP in our muscle cells, so we need to somehow reattach the free phosphate to the ADP to make ATP.  Creatine phosphate is one readily available source that will give up is phosphate.  We can store a bit of CrP naturally, and about 40% more with supplementation.  As the need for energy persists other forms become available, mainly forms of sugar.  These sugar pathways are a bit slow to get going at optimal levels, so CrP can help bridge that time frame.  As soon as the activity stops (the set or lap is over) or decreases to moderate levels, the ATP and CrP reserves are restored by the sugar pathways which continue to operate until everything is back to “normal” resting levels.

Natural levels of CrP are typically depleted after about 10-20 seconds, depending on the training status of the individual.  The sugar pathways, also depending on training status, take about that same time to get going at full speed.  This is assuming the activity is very high intensity; spints, or loads in the 3-8 repetition maximum (RM) range.  These loads are often used for increasing strength, so Cr supplementation can be beneficial here allowing more reps at a given load. To get a hypertrophic (increase in muscle mass) effect, loads corresponding to an 8-15RM are generally superior, as they permit the 8-12 repetitions per set typically advocated for hypertrophy training.  In this case, Cr supplementation is unlikely to be beneficial.

For sprint training, the goal is increased linear speed.  This requires rest periods in the 5-10 minute range for optimal development of the neuromuscular system. The work periods are kept under 10 seconds.  Obviously here, Cr supplementation is of no physiological benefit as the work intervals are too short to deplete CrP, and recovery periods are many times longer than required to restore resting CrP levels.  There may be some benefit from training with increased mass attached to your body, however this is typically best in a belt or vest form so that some training is done at competition weight (unloaded) in combination to the loaded repetitions.

For conditioning (interval work-outs) CrP supplementation may allow more high quality repetitions in a given workout by slightly increasing the time/distance, or decreasing rest duration.  This increased training volume may be beneficial.  Shuttle runs, medicine ball work, sled drills, or calisthenics all can involve large muscle masses working at maximum power (force x distance x speed) for the requisite 20 second burn.

To sum up:  Supplementation with creatine monohydrate has demonstrated a to have a positive effect on training adaptation in studies where the exercises were performed against heavy loads, at maximal effort for 10- 20 seconds, with rest periods under 2 minutes between sets.  The time for completion of each set is the variable that should be progressed with this protocol (as opposed to increasing the load).  The resulting training adaptation will be specific to this type of repeated burst of maximal efforts that last between 10 and 20 seconds.  As I write this, I can’t think of a single sport where this is the type of metabolic demand in competition, though it can have it’s place in a periodized training programme.

With other training protocols, creatine monohydrate supplementation typically has no positive effect on training adaptation.

With any type of training, or no training at all, creatine monohydrate supplementation will result in increased lean body weight (mostly in the form of water mass) during the supplementation period.

Concussion Library

Check this out:
http://www.sportconcussionlibrary.com/

Athletes coaches and parents should go here NOW and complete the e-module.

There is information on the SCAT2, links to news media, and a myriad of up-to-date information on sports concussions from the latest research.

Study: Concussion Testing Should Not Overlook Physiology

Study: Concussion Testing Should Not Overlook Physiology

This is really neat.  In a nutshell (no pun intended), what my friend Dr. Neary found was that despite being symptom free in terms of headache, sight, concentration, thinking, mood, memory, etc. concussed individuals can still have problems with blood flow in the brain under the stress of exercise.  Therefore supplemental testing is required before clearing an athlete to return to sport.

This is from the press release.  I can't get the full text version of the study yet to read it. I'm unsure of whether they re-tested patients symptoms after exertion, or only looked at pre-exercise symptoms.

Supplements II

Here’s the basic genesis of a supplement:

1. ‣A biologist doing fundamental research identifies the role played by a particular molecule in a specific biochemical pathway and publishes this in a peer-reviewed journal.
2. ‣A marketing company reads the article and begins to identify if this molecule can be cheaply concentrated from natural sources or synthesized in a laboratory.
3. ‣If so, they find a fitness model and a photographer (with some good lighting, razors, spray-on tan, oil, and photoshop) to take the before and after photos on the same day.  YES THIS IS COMMON PRACTICE AND EASILY DONE.  Ask any good portrait photographer how simple this is.
4. ‣The marketing company tenders the manufacture of the product to the lowest bidder.
5. ‣The winning bid may be a food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, or supplement factory that has a slot to fill in it’s production schedule.  In any case the equipment is unlikely to be cleaned after the last batch of whatever, before the supplement is made.
6. ‣The marketing company writes an article for a handful of fitness magazines that agree to publish the story, provided the company buys a few pages of ads.  Most often, the magazine and the supplement company are owned by the same parent company, so this is really easy.
7. ‣If the supplement sells well, and goes into another production run (which, again, will be tendered to the lowest bidder), the marketing company may give some high-quality samples along with some grant money to a university lab.
8. ‣The professor will do a study, which may or may not support the use of the supplement for a particular population engaging in a specific activity protocol.  
9. ‣Regardless of the study results, as published in a peer-reviewed journal, more articles will be written by the marketing company for paid publication in the fitness magazines.  (If it “may be beneficial”, the study will be quoted in the ads as “doubled results”.)
10. ‣Perhaps a professional bodybuilder will be sponsored in exchange for endorsement.
11. ‣Other marketing companies will come out with similar or “improved” formulations, and promote them in a similar fashion.
12. ‣The promotion and sale of the product will continue until sales drop off, or there are enough deaths directly attributed to the product for the federal government to ban it.  
    Scary, huh?