Creatine is one of the safest and thw most spectacularly effective supplements. It allows achieving greater gains in muscle mass in people who regularly do bodybuilding. On the other hand, you must remember that creatine, just like any other suplement, cannot be demonized or put on a pedestal. Safety and spectacular results can be achieved by other methods ,even more natural. What about creatine? It is most reasonable to treat it as an add-on. By the way, it is actually a perfect addition for people who have already been trainingd.
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What can help gain muscles, apart from creatine?
Changes in training and diet
The body gets used to training rigor very quickly, and as a result, it stops responding as expected, e.g. muscle growth. Sometimes training brings results for two weeks, and sometimes several months, and everything depends on the individual program. It is important that with time the growth decreases, the body itself forces a certain change in this way.
Similarly, the human body reacts to diet. To maximize growth, you must change sources of protein and individual nutrients in individual cycles.
Carbcycling as an example of dietary changes
Carbcycling is a rotation of carbohydrates. This diet requires a transition from high carbohydrate days to low carbohydrate days. As a result, we obtain an anabolic effect (muscle growth) without the risk of the body becoming excessivly fat. This is how variable dietary stimuli work.
Anabolic diet
As far as this diet is concerned, carbohydrates should be manipulated as well. Generally it can be said that the anabolic diet involves using a low-carb diet for five consecutive days and a high-carb diet on the other two days of the week (for example, during the weekend). (1)
From a bodybuilder’s point of view, manipulating the supply of protein may seem more beneficial as part of developing larger gains in muscle mass.
Protein pulsation
Protein pulsation is not a scientifically refined diet (it lacks a solid foundation) but a large number of bodybuilders have practiced it. They stated that the method contributes to achieving truly spectacular results. Protein pulsation is based on dividing the protein during meals so that the daily requirement is met. However, the distribution of proteins in foods should be clearly different at the same time. As a result, hormones are stimulated and muscles gain positive stimulation to develop in the most desirable direction.
Hunger for muscle mass
The diet manipulation can go much further. Namely, use fasting from time to time. Temporary fasting can stimulate anabolic reactions, i.e. gains in muscle mass. Of course, there is no question of long-term fasting (they are too debilitating) but one fasting day in a month should be enough and it is unlikely to harm your health.
Creatine
You can also add creatine to all the above-mentioned elements. By experimenting with doses and forms of creatine, bodybuilders achieve truly spectacular results, while (obviously) training and diet remain the main pillars of the mass building process.
In order to achieve the largest increases, it is worth reaching for forms of creatine other than monohydrate. Creatine phosphate and pyruvate are particularly useful. Research shows that they work faster and more spectacularly in clearly smaller (than monohydrate) doses. (2)
The composition of these three creatines can be found in Creadrene, a product whose producer has combined ingredients so that the maximum growth is achieved even with short trainings and short creatine cycles.
- Medically reviewed by Katherine Marengo, LDN, RD, specialty in nutrition, on May 30, 2019 — Written by Alexandra Caspero | Anabolic Diet Basics: Build Muscle and Lose Fat | healthline.com
- Chia-Chi Wang, Chu-Chun Fang, Ying-Hsian Lee, Ming-Ta Yang and Kuei-Hui Chan | Effects of 4-Week Creatine Supplementation Combined with Complex Training on Muscle Damage and Sport Performance | Published online 2018 Nov 2. doi: 10.3390/nu10111640
