Creatine pulls water into your cells, making them swell a bit, and that swelling is how it helps your body work better.

Taking creatine helps your muscle cells soak up more water, making them swell a bit—and this swelling tells your body to stop breaking down muscle as much.

Taking creatine supplements pulls water into your muscles, making them look bigger, but it might also mess with how well they work by stretching the muscle fibers.

When creatine gets into muscle cells, it brings sodium with it, which pulls water into the cells and makes them swell up a bit — like a sponge soaking up water.

When your cells take in creatine, they also pull in sodium, which makes the inside of the cell saltier. To balance that, water rushes in, making the cell swell up a bit.

Taking creatine makes your muscle cells swell, which tells your body to start building more muscle, and insulin makes this happen even better by boosting muscle-building signals and slowing down muscle breakdown.