Can You Take Creatine With out Working Out?: Professionals and Cons

Gymgoers and athletes have lengthy revered creatine for its potential to reinforce efficiency.

Just lately, it has additionally gained consideration for a variety of well being advantages, equivalent to enhanced cognitive operate, higher bone well being, and diminished danger of neurodegenerative illness.

This newfound hype has led many to marvel: can you’re taking creatine with out understanding?

In different phrases, are there advantages to taking creatine for individuals who don’t train repeatedly?

On-line well being and health “gurus” usually say unequivocally sure.

Nonetheless, analysis suggests we should always most likely be cautious about these claims. 

To get the info, we consulted Dr. Grant Tinsley, an knowledgeable within the subject and one of many researchers who helps formulate dietary supplements for Legion.

On this article, you’ll get his evidence-based takes on creatine’s advantages for non-exercisers. You’ll additionally uncover whether or not it’s best to take creatine on days you don’t practice, what occurs if you cease taking creatine however nonetheless work out, and extra.

What Occurs if You Take Creatine With out Working Out?

Many of the creatine you devour makes its solution to your muscle mass, the place it boosts your potential to regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), probably the most fundamental unit of mobile vitality.

Dr. Tinsley explains, “This course of happens whether or not you train or not. The distinction is that if you train, you should use the elevated ATP manufacturing to coach more durable for longer. In distinction, if you don’t train, you don’t make use of the potential efficiency advantages.”

Does Taking Creatine With out Train Construct Muscle?

Taking creatine can assist you construct muscle in a number of important methods:

1. It will increase power, energy, and endurance, permitting you to carry out extra reps with heavier weights, which is essential for gaining muscle. 
2. It attracts water into your muscle cells, creating circumstances conducive to muscle development in your physique.
3. It prompts cells that restore and develop muscle fibers.
4. It might cut back muscle protein breakdown, leading to extra muscle development over time.
5. It could actually elevate ranges of anabolic hormones like insulin-like development issue 1 (IGF-1) and affect gene expression to advertise muscle development.

Nonetheless, as Dr. Tinsley factors out, “These advantages are solely discernible when mixed with common resistance coaching. With out the stimulus of lifting weights, the muscle-building results of creatine are possible too minor to note.”

In different phrases, you’ll solely achieve important muscle whereas taking creatine when you additionally do common power coaching.

Potential Advantages of Taking Creatine With out Working Out

Improved Bone Well being

1. By growing muscle power and train efficiency, creatine lets you contract your muscle mass extra forcefully. These contractions pressure the areas the place tendons hook up with bones, growing compressive forces alongside the bones. Stronger muscle mass additionally allow you to elevate heavier weights, which locations extra stress on bones. In each circumstances, the stress spurs bones to change into stronger and denser.
2. Creatine may increase ATP manufacturing in bones, growing the exercise of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) and decreasing bone breakdown.

Regardless of these theoretical advantages and a few promising animal proof, human research are much less conclusive.

A meta-analysis of 5 research discovered that taking creatine didn’t result in dependable or important enhancements in bone well being. 

One other 2023 examine discovered that taking creatine for two years had no impression on bone mineral density, however that it could positively have an effect on some structural traits of bone, which can defend towards fractures. 

Thus, there’s presently not sufficient proof to advocate taking creatine solely for bone well being. Nonetheless, given the theoretical potential and a few promising examine outcomes, it warrants additional investigation.

Enhanced Cognitive Perform

Regardless of making up solely about 2% of your physique’s mass, your mind makes use of about 20% of your vitality. It additionally requires a relentless provide of ATP to operate correctly. 

Provided that creatine helps preserve ATP ranges within the mind, it’s logical to assume that taking creatine dietary supplements may enhance cognitive operate.

Nonetheless, research investigating creatine’s results on psychological efficiency have uncovered blended outcomes. 

Some research present creatine can cut back psychological fatigue, enhance reminiscence, and improve cognitive efficiency, particularly in traumatic circumstances (like sleep deprivation), whereas others present it has no impact.

We see these blended outcomes throughout totally different teams of individuals, too, together with younger and older adults, wholesome and sick individuals, omnivores and vegetarians, and so forth.

So, whereas creatine has the potential to reinforce cognitive operate, the proof isn’t sturdy sufficient to attract definitive conclusions but.

Diminished Threat of Neurodegenerative Illness

• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Some research counsel supplementing with creatine might enhance bodily efficiency and cut back muscle fatigue within the early levels of ALS however not in superior ALS.
• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD): Preliminary analysis exhibits that creatine monohydrate improves power, endurance, and bone density in DMD sufferers. Nonetheless, we’d like extra analysis to substantiate these findings. 
• Huntington’s Illness (HD): Whereas some analysis suggests creatine can sluggish the development of HD, different research disagree. And though some analysis suggests creatine reduces DNA injury, there’s no proof this improves cognition or individuals’s potential to maneuver. Due to this fact, present analysis doesn’t assist the usage of creatine in treating HD.
• A number of Sclerosis (MS): Individuals with MS who take creatine don’t retailer extra creatine of their muscle mass or expertise a rise of their train capability or energy. As such, creatine isn’t an efficient therapy for MS.
• Parkinson’s Illness: Research present that creatine might help enhance the consequences of dopamine remedy (a typical therapy for Parkinson’s illness) and improve muscle power and performance, however it doesn’t sluggish the development of the illness.

Total, creatine supplementation appears to have little to no impact on slowing down or managing neurodegenerative illnesses.

Improved Hydration

Many individuals consider that creatine causes dehydration. The logic is that since creatine attracts water into muscle cells, it should depart much less water for the remainder of the physique. 

Nonetheless, this can be a misunderstanding. Whereas creatine does trigger water retention in muscle mass, analysis exhibits it doesn’t disrupt the physique’s total water steadiness.

In different phrases, taking creatine will increase the entire quantity of water in your physique, however the steadiness of water inside and out of doors your cells stays the identical, which is probably going why research present creatine doesn’t trigger dehydration.

The truth is, by encouraging your muscle mass to carry on to water, creatine might profit whole physique hydration, which will be particularly advantageous throughout lengthy bouts of intense train.

Improved Psychological Well being

• Despair: Present knowledge on creatine’s impact on melancholy is conflicting. Whereas some research present that folks expertise an enchancment in temper once they take creatine, particularly once they take it alongside conventional antidepressant treatment, others present no impact. 
• Anxiousness and Submit-Traumatic Stress Dysfunction (PTSD): Few research have examined how creatine impacts PTSD. Two small-scale research discovered that creatine may assist enhance signs, notably amongst individuals who don’t reply effectively to plain remedies.

Whereas we don’t but have sufficient analysis to find out how creatine impacts psychological well being, some preliminary findings are promising. This makes creatine a precious subject for future research.

Diminished Want for Sleep

Animal analysis suggests taking creatine reduces whole and deep sleep period. 

Whereas decreasing sleep period and high quality normally harms psychological and bodily efficiency, different research present that taking creatine makes you mentally and bodily sharper, even when sleep-deprived.

Whereas speculative, this might imply creatine reduces your want for sleep and offsets any detrimental results of inadequate sleep amount and high quality. 

Ought to You Take Creatine on Relaxation Days?

“To maximise the advantages of creatine, take it each day, together with relaxation days,” says Dr. Tinsley.

“Constant day by day consumption ensures your muscle mass stay saturated with creatine, permitting you to coach and recuperate optimally.”

What Occurs if You Cease Taking Creatine However Nonetheless Exercise?

A examine by Queen’s Medical Centre discovered that after your muscle mass change into saturated with creatine, it takes about 4 weeks with out supplementation on your creatine ranges to return to baseline. 

Furthermore, the decline in saved creatine solely actually begins after two weeks of stopping creatine consumption. In different phrases, your muscle mass keep saturated with creatine for round 14 days, even after you cease supplementing.

In sensible phrases, when you cease taking creatine, you have got a two-week window the place your efficiency ought to stay comparatively unaffected.

After this era, you’ll most likely discover a gradual decline in your power, endurance, and restoration, however it received’t be an instantaneous drop-off. And when you resume taking creatine throughout this time, it’s best to see the advantages return shortly.