Coaches Nutrition Tip 17# : Creatine and muscle power, endurance, and sprint performance
CrossFit is a sport of mixed modalities, multiple differing exercises and sports are culled to create workouts – gymnastics, sprinting, weightlifting, powerlifting, rowing, etc. are used within our workout programs and our competitions. Multiple days of the week at Synergy Strength athletes are asked to take their bodies to the end limits. The end limits of muscular force, power and endurance depending on what the prescribed workout is.
Given the multiple different pathways our bodies and workouts operate within, it is no doubt that one of my favorite supplements is Creatine monohydrate. Creatine improves our max effort strength work, our ability to produce power in Olympic weightlifting, our ability to resist fatigue, and our ability to stay lean and muscular. Creatine can assist in all aspects of our fitness goals.
Researchers completed a study recently on 19 trained male handball players. The athletes were tested on max one rep squat and bench press numbers, one set to exhaustion at 60 and 70% of their max efforts, as well as a repeated sprint running test. Subjects were given 15 grams of creatine during the study and were found to have increased lean body mass, max effort strength numbers, and increased total power output on max rep bench and squat numbers.
Think of the workouts you may have done in the last few weeks at Synergy – have you completed any heavy lifts (5 reps or less to max effort), have you completed any conditioning workouts requiring high rep sets to fatigue, and finally have you completed any sprint or very short interval type workouts. If you have trained at Synergy for more than one week you should have answered yes to at least two of the three examples given, as our programming is sure to involve these styles of workouts within our program on a weekly basis.
Think of the potential benefits that creatine supplementation can have on your performance if you are able to;
- Increase max force development (strength)
- Increase your potential to develop power and sustain it (olympic weightlifting)
- Decrease fatigue rates in repeated efforts (high intensity interval training)
- Increase lean muscle mass and decrease fat mass (drop weight and increase strength to bodyweight ratio)
This is a short list of creatine supplementation benefits and performance improvements. I firmly believe that all athletes should involve creatine supplementation in their program in order to maximize workout performance and reap the highest benefit for the time put into training.
Many times studies are completed with untrained individuals and their performance improvements could theoretically be attributed to their lack of familiarity to training, but in this study trained athletes were used and positive benefits were seen to all who participated, backing creation supplementation even further.
This study used a dose of 15g/athlete, but we have found that a dose of 5-6 grams daily is sufficient to increase performance.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2002 Feb;34(2):332-43.
