Creatine isn't that great. A lot of the cheap creatines do a lot of damage to your liver and kidneys, and it mostly keeps water in your muscles too.
I disagree with MrImagination's post.
Like any supplement, creatine isn't going to make a tremendous difference if not paired with proper diet and nutrition. However, creatine does directly improve overall performance (1,2). I very much endorse that every bodybuilder (recreational inclusive) should be supplementing with
creatine monohydrate daily.
You would be very hard pressed to find even non-Creapure creatine doing any damage to healthy liver or kidneys. Here is some evidence that suggests that creatine does no damage on the liver or kidney (3). Typically, those with current disorder may experience problems. Therefore, as with any supplement, it's imperative that one takes a trip to the doctor before starting adding a new supplement to their regimen.
In regard to hydration of muscle tissue, can you please expand on the negative aspects of that? I'm pretty sure I have an idea of what you are thinking, but I'd prefer not to put words in your mouth.
(1)
Effects of creatine supplementation on body composition, str... : Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
(2) Creatine Supplementation Enhances Muscular Performance During High-Intensity Resistance Exercise
Journal of the American Dietetic Association, Volume 97, Issue 7, Pages 765-770
(3)
Long-term creatine supplementation does not significantly affect clinical markers of health in athletes
Well is creatine any good? I mean it's probably the most common workout product in my high school but is it effective? Also what exactly does it do?
In short, yes...it is good when paired with a proper diet and training program (don't throw that to the wind, I'm serious about that...no need to waste money on supplements if you aren't positive that your diet and training is as perfect as it can be).
Are you familiar with ATP (adenosine triphosphate)? You say you are in high school and I don't remember what they teach there nowadays so I'll go ahead and explain. ATP is the primary energy source in the body. Your body stores ATP to be utilized by your cells. After the ATP is used, one of the phosphate groups is cleaved off, and you are left with a molecule of ADP (adenosine diphosphate). In order to turn the ADP (not preferably functional as an energy source) to ATP (the primary energy source) another phosphate atom needs to be added on to the ADP to create ATP. Makes sense?
Your body uses these ATPs as a primary energy source while you train . However, your body can only store so much ATP and after your body 'runs out' of ATPs, you ] are left with a bunch of 'useless' ADPs . 'Running out' of ATPs is a primary reason why you fatigue when you train. Also, after you run out, your body goes to work breaking down glycogen in order to get more ATP (see: 'fermentation' --- you'll notice that the final product is lactic acid --- this is what explains for the 'burn' that you feel sometimes while working out.)
Fortunately, your body already has endogenous creatine phosphate (creatine molecules are created in your liver and ultimately phosphorylated by ATP to create creatine phosphate) in order to replenish those phosphates needed to convert ADP to ATP (the body just 'rips' the phosphates off the creatine phosphate and 'slaps' them onto the ADP).
Unfortunately, your body doesn't carry very much endogenous creatine phosphate --- you 'run out' far quicker than you would like to.
Back to fortunately, creatine monohydrate supplementation allows you to saturate your muscles with creatine phosphate with allows you to quickly re-phosphorylate ADP. Per the description above, you can imagine why this would be beneficial. Especially in the first half or so of a workout, the effects are pretty clear.
You can get creatine from food sources, however, it's significantly easier to just supplement with a comically inexpensive
creatine monohydrate supplement.
but in this case you being only 16 they are right..for once
