Every guys strives to be the strongest or have the best physique possible. For many that consists of countless hours in the gym and maintaining the correct diet. At some point we all hit a plateau when our body gets used to your exercise routine and food choices. Many people look to different substances or new programs to help them bust through that pesky plateau and start seeing gains again. One of the most popular choices of our generation is the use of creatine. Many bodybuilder and athletes a like use creatine to boost the efficiency of their workout in multiple ways. Although many people believe it has serious side effects of possible kidney damage because of the excessive amount (Our body produces it naturally) of creatine it must break down. Their hypothesis would as follows:

Null Hypothesis– Taking extra creatine doesn’t have health benefits

Alternate Hypothesis– Taking extra creatine has health benefits with minimal side effects

According to Body Builder, here are a few of the ways that creatine is effective.

1. Increases Intensity – The creatine phosphate is used to supply type 11b muscle fibers, so the are resistant to fatigue, with a sudden burst of energy. This causes the muscle fibers to have a stronger contraction which allows the user to endure more reps and have a higher explosiveness. Being that the muscle had creatine supplied to it, it has the ability to store its energy molecules which facilitates bigger and better muscle strength.
2. Improves Recovery – It is believed to increase the regeneration of cell damage cause by strenuous activity. There was a study completed that monitored whether the use of creatine before a race would increase the recovery of sell damage after the marathon. They had 18 of the 34 athletes take 20 grams of creatine every day for five days before their race. Their results confirmed that the runners who took creatine had less inflammation and cell damage than the control athletes.

In the end studies show that creatine doesn’t have any proven severe side effects and it has many benefits. Even though it seems there may be a lot of evidence I don’t believe we have enough to accept the alternative hypothesis. We have learned that correlation does not equal causation and I would love to see if a study will be done on the possible long term side effects.

Sources: Source 1 Source 2