New research suggests that creatine may help adults aged 45 to 65 build muscle and improve strength, even if they do not follow a regular exercise programme.<\/p>\n
The study, conducted by Texas A&M University in the United States, involved 64 healthy adults.<\/p>\n
Participants were divided into groups based on whether or not they followed an exercise and weight-loss programme.<\/p>\n
They were also randomly given either 10g of creatine monohydrate or a placebo every day for 12 weeks.<\/p>\n
The exercise programme included strength training and aerobic exercise three times a week.<\/p>\n
Participants also followed a diet designed to create a small calorie deficit, which means eating slightly fewer calories than the body uses.<\/p>\n
Those who took creatine while following the exercise and weight-loss programme gained nearly 3lb (1.4kg) of lean tissue.<\/p>\n
In comparison, people who followed the same programme, but took a placebo, saw little change in their lean tissue.<\/p>\n
In addition, participants who took creatine had a greater reduction in their body fat percentage than those who took the placebo.<\/p>\n
The study, published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, also found that people did not necessarily need a structured exercise programme to see some benefits from creatine.<\/p>\n
Among the participants who did not join the exercise programme, those taking creatine gained about 2.4lb (1.1kg) of lean tissue over 12 weeks.<\/p>\n
They also became stronger in leg press and bench press exercises.<\/p>\n
However, the combination of creatine and exercise led to greater improvements in leg press and bench press strength.<\/p>\n
Participants also improved their time-to-exhaustion, meaning they were able to exercise for longer before becoming too tired to continue.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings may have important implications for middle-aged and older individuals seeking to reduce body fat while maintaining muscle mass and cognitive function,\u201d the study authors wrote.<\/p>\n
However, creatine did not appear to provide additional benefits for aerobic fitness.<\/p>\n
Taken as a metabolism pick-up by athletes and bodybuilders, creatine has seen increasing uptake outside of gyms of late, as awareness grows of its potential as an anti-inflammatory, and even as a cognitive aid.<\/p>\n
Creatine as a supplement is best known for its promise of bigger muscles and more power in the gym.<\/p>\n
The supplement is a staple on pharmacy shelves next to protein powders, with fitness influencers on social media swearing by it.<\/p>\n
The body naturally produces creatine in the liver, kidneys and pancreas from various amino acids.<\/p>\n
It plays a central role in energy metabolism, particularly when the body needs a large amount of energy in a short time, e.g. in the gym when lifting a heavy weight several times.<\/p>\n
Supplementing with creatine can therefore increase strength performance.<\/p>\n
This applies particularly to explosive strength training workouts, where the exercises demand maximum force in the shortest possible time. \u2013 dpa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New research suggests that creatine may help adults aged 45 to 65 build muscle and improve strength, even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[1335,674,337,97,12333,269,582,6543],"class_list":["post-875959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-creatine","tag-exercise","tag-fitness","tag-health","tag-muscles","tag-nutrition","tag-supplements","tag-workout"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}