How does creatine work?
There have been many people asking about creatine. Creatine is probably the most well known sports supplement on the market.
Here is some basic information about creatine.
Creatine is a substance that is naturally formed in our body. It is an amino acid-based compound and stores energy from the already existing amino acids and foods in the body. Some creatine rich food are fish and red meat.
Creatine is stored in human body as a compound know as “phosphocreatine”, which further works as a reservoir of phosphate. Phosphocreatine is a substance that stores energy in the muscular tissues and provides energy for the muscular contractions. Phosphate produced from creatine is needed for regenerating adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecules, which is the main fuel for the enzyme motors of the muscle in initial high-intensity muscle activity.
During muscle contraction, ATP (adenosine tri phosphate) loses a phosphate molecule to create energy and gets converted to adenosine di phosphate (ADP). In order to produce more energy ADP must be converted back to ATP. Now when ATP is depleted, creatine acts as a source of phosphate and converts the ADP molecule to ATP molecule.
The more creatine is availaible to the body, the faster the body can produce ATP molecules, so that more and more energy is availaible for the muscle contractions. This is how creatine acts as a great energy source for short bursts of exercise such as sprinting, bodybuilding and other athletic activities.
