Muscle for Life with Mike Matthews - Which Form of Creatine is Most Effective?

Episode Date: April 3, 2018

You’ve probably heard that creatine is one of the few supplements that don’t suck…and you’ve heard right.It’s the most well-researched molecule in all of sports nutrition–the subject of hundreds of scientific studies–and its benefits are clear: It helps you build muscle faster. It helps you get stronger faster. It improves anaerobic endurance. It improves muscle recovery. What isn’t so clear, though, is which form you should take and why.Is something fancy sounding like creatine nitrate worth it?What about ethyl ester or hydrochloride?Liquid or powder?Buffered or micronized?Or can the old faithful creatine monohydrate give you everything you need?Well, this episode is going to answer all these questions and more, and by the end, you’ll know how to get the most bang for your creatine buck. Want to get my best advice on how to gain muscle and strength and lose fat faster? Sign up for my free newsletter! Click here: https://www.muscleforlife.com/signup/

This episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in. So instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural fat loss supplement, Phoenix. It has sold over 100,000 bottles in the last several years, and it helps you lose fat faster in three ways. One, it increases your metabolic rate. Two, it amplifies the power of fat-burning chemicals produced by your body. And three, it increases the feeling of fullness from food. In short, it speeds up your metabolism,

it helps your body burn fat more efficiently, and it helps you control hunger and cravings and maintain high energy levels. Phoenix also contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary junk. And all that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a four-star average and another 250 reviews on Amazon with a four star average and another 250 reviews on my website with a four and a half star average. So if you want to burn more fat every day and have an easier time sticking to your diet without having to pump yourself full of harsh stimulants or potentially harmful chemicals, then you want to head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Phoenix today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout, and you will save

10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.lesionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot. Alrighty, that is enough shameless plugging for now at least.

Let's get to the show. Hey everybody, Mike here from Muscle for Life and Legion Athletics. And in this video, we're going to talk creatine, specifically which form of creatine is most effective. Now, you've probably heard that creatine is one of the few supplements that don't suck. One of the few supplements that are actually worth taking. And that is true. It is one of the most researched molecules in all of sports nutrition and hundreds and hundreds of studies have confirmed that it can help you build muscle faster. It can help you get stronger faster. the most researched molecules in all of sports nutrition and hundreds and hundreds of studies have confirmed that it can help you build muscle faster. It can help you get stronger faster. It can help you recover faster from your workouts and it can improve your anaerobic endurance.

What isn't so clear though is which form you should take and why. Should you stick to the tried and true monohydrate form or should you go with something fancier like creatine nitrate or maybe ethyl ester or maybe hydrochloride? What about liquid versus powder? What about buffered versus micronized and on and on and on? Well, we are going to get to the bottom of it in this video podcast. Now I'm going to skip the creatine 101. I'm not going to talk about what creatine is or how it works in the body exactly. If you want to know that stuff, just click here to check out an article that I wrote, an in-depth article on creatine. What I want to do here is just go through

the different forms of creatine that are on the market and break down which are good and which are not. So let's start at the top with creatine monohydrate. This is the form of creatine used in the majority of studies demonstrating its benefits. It is the gold standard of creatine, if you will. Next on the list is creatine citrate, which is creatine bound with citric acid. Research shows that it is more water soluble than creatine monohydrate, but that does not mean that it is better absorbed or that it is more effective, which is what many supplement marketers try to tell you. Next on the list is creatine ethyl ester, which is supposedly a form of creatine that converts back into usable creatine in the body. And if you listen to the

marketers, it is better absorbed by your muscles than creatine monohydrate. However, studies show that it's actually less effective than creatine monohydrate on par with a placebo. And the reason for this is instead of being converted back into usable creatine in the body, it's converted into an inactive substance called creatinine. Hey, quickly, before we carry on, if you are liking my podcast, would you please help spread the word about it? Because no amount of marketing or advertising gimmicks can match the power of word of mouth. So if you are enjoying this episode and you think of someone else who might enjoy it as well, please do tell them about it. It really helps me.

And if you are going to post about it on social media, definitely tag me so I can say thank you. You can find me on Instagram at MuscleForLifeFitness, Twitter at MuscleForLife, and Facebook at MuscleForLifeFitness. And next we have liquid creatine. Creatine suspended in water, usually just creatine monohydrate suspended in water. And unfortunately, studies show that liquid creatine is less effective than taking just creatine monohydrate suspended in water. And unfortunately, studies show that liquid creatine is less effective than taking a creatine monohydrate powder because once it has

sat in a liquid for a long enough period of time, the creatine breaks down into that inactive substance creatinine. Okay, so next we have micronized creatine, which is simply creatine that has been processed to reduce the particle size to make the creatine, which is simply creatine that has been processed to reduce the particle size, to make the creatine particles smaller. It's usually creatine monohydrate. And while this does increase water solubility, it does not increase effectiveness or muscle absorption or anything else. Okay. So now we have creatine nitrate, which is, as you can guess, creatine bound with a nitrate group, and this increases water solubility and also nitrates do have ergogenic properties however no studies have been done comparing creatine nitrate to creatine monohydrate so we don't really know yet if it's better okay next is creatine magnesium

chelate which is creatine bound with magnesium and the reason why it is combined with magnesium is magnesium plays a role in creatine metabolism. And therefore, it is theorized that by combining them, you can make the creatine more effective. Now, it's an interesting theory, but it hasn't exactly panned out in research. One study found that creatine magnesium chelate was more or less the same as creatine monohydrate in terms of effectiveness, but did result in less water weight gain. The bottom line here is we just need more research on creatine magnesium chelate to know if it has any considerable benefits over creatine monohydrate. Next is buffered creatine, which at this point, as you probably guessed, it's more marketing than anything else. Buffered creatine is a form of creatine that has been processed to raise its pH level. And somehow that's supposed

to make it more effective. However, research shows otherwise. It shows that it is no more effective than creatine monohydrate. Okay, next is creatine malate, which is creatine bound with malic acid. And while studies show that malic acid may have ergogenic properties, it may be able to enhance physical performance. It has not been studied in conjunction with creatine, so we just don't know. Okay, the last form I want to talk about is creatine pyruvate, which is creatine bound with pyruvic acid. And research shows that it may produce higher plasma levels of creatine than creatine monohydrate, but this doesn't make it better absorbed or more effective. So the bottom line here is there's no reason to

pay for these fancier, more hyped up versions of creatine when creatine monohydrate remains the gold standard, remains the best bang for your buck as far as creatine goes. That's why I chose creatine monohydrate for my post-workout supplement recharge, which has two other ingredients that help with post-workout recovery and reducing muscle soreness. If you want to help me make this the most popular health and fitness podcast on the internet, then please leave a quick review of it on iTunes or wherever you're listening from. This not only convinces people that they should check the show out, it also increases its search visibility and thus helps more people find their way to me and learn how

to build their best bodies ever too. And of course, if you want to be notified when the next episode goes live, then just subscribe to the podcast and you won't miss out on any of the new goodies. Lastly, if you didn't like something about the show, then definitely shoot me an email at mike at muscleforlife.com and share your thoughts on how you think it could be better. I read everything myself and I'm always looking for constructive feedback, so please do reach out. All right, that's it. Thanks again for listening to this episode and I hope to hear from you soon. And lastly, this episode is brought to you by me. Seriously though, I'm not big on promoting stuff that I don't personally use and believe in,

so instead I'm going to just quickly tell you about something of mine, specifically my 100% natural fat loss supplement Phoenix. It has sold over a hundred thousand bottles in the last several years, and it helps you lose fat faster in three ways. One, it increases your metabolic rate to it amplifies the power of fat burning chemicals produced by your body. And three, it increases the feeling of fullness from food. In short, it speeds up your metabolism. It helps your body burn fat more efficiently, and it helps you control hunger and cravings and maintain high energy levels. Phoenix also contains no artificial food dyes, fillers, or other unnecessary

junk. And all that is why it has over 700 reviews on Amazon with a four-star average and another 250 reviews on my website with a four-and-a-half-star average. So if you wanna burn more fat every day and have an easier time sticking to your diet without having to pump yourself full of harsh stimulants or potentially harmful chemicals,

then you wanna head over to www.legionathletics.com and pick up a bottle of Phoenix today. And just to show how much I appreciate my podcast peeps, use the coupon code podcast at checkout and you will save 10% on your entire order. And lastly, you should also know that I have a very simple 100% money back guarantee that works like this. You either love my stuff or you get your money back, period. You don't have to return the products. You don't have to fill out forms. You don't have to jump through any other hoops or go through any other shenanigans. So you really can't lose here. Head over to www.legionathletics.com now, place your order and see for yourself why my supplements have thousands of rave reviews all

over the internet. And if for whatever reason, they're just not for you, contact us and we will give you a full refund on the spot.