TN50#157_Should I Take Creatine?_19 March_2024
Hi Team,
Last week I wrote about what form factor of supplements works best for me. Which is capsules that I can take with water over powder that has to be mixed water or some other liquid. I also mentioned the 2 supplements that, until recently, I was slacking on because I only had them in powder form. Creatine and Magnesium. Today I’m going to push you to consider your options on supplementing with creatine. Please make sure you do your own homework before adding supplements recommended by anyone, including me; that being said the safety profile on creatine is really solid.
Happy First Day of Spring, 2024 and welcome to The Next 50 #157. I like to think of personal performance in 3 components: physical, mental and emotional. My frameworks focus on 4 Buckets: Eat, Sleep, Move and Think. This blog is my sandbox for sharing information that you might find useful for your personal performance.
As a review: Creatine is described, by some, as the most useful legal supplement for getting the most out of physical training – PERIOD! Here’s the bottom line from a Cleveland Clinic article:
“…creatine helps maintain a continuous energy supply to your muscles during intense lifting or exercise. In addition to providing more energy and helping to increase muscle growth, creatine helps: Speed up muscle recovery.” (Link to full article)
But wait, there’s more.
Check out this short clip from a long form discussion between Huberman and Andy Galpin. They get to creatine pretty quick so just be patient. Also be careful or you will end up watching for much longer than intended, which is fine, just pay attention if you only want to hear about creatine as they finish up on that within a few minutes. Go ahead and listen, I’ll wait.
That’s right, creatine seems to be a player in the cognitive space – actually, a major player. So let’s see here: Creatine helps cells produce energy more better, Creatine crosses the blood brain barrier and our brain is made up of cells. HMMMM. So creatine probably helps the cells in our brain produce energy more better. If this is true, and all the science seems to be indicating it is; all the really excellent things that Andy mentioned in the video link above makes total sense and makes taking creatine (a very inexpensive supplement, even if you buy it in capsules) a no brainer (see what I did there?).
If you prefer a little more information to read, here’s an article from Psychology Today (please be careful as you read through this, there are a million ads. You should be able to scroll through the article without having to click on anything)
Who do you know that could use this information? I bet you can think of a couple of folks before you click the next email, so please share the post with your team and anyone who might find it useful and let me know what you think!
Have a good one, Alex
PS. Do you have a Performance question I can answer? Let me know: alex@fpp.llc
PPS. If you’re new to First Principles Performance Coaching, here’s a one stop shop for my stuff.
