Browse evidence-based analysis of health-related claims and assertions
People who lift weights and take creatine either before or after their workout eat about the same amount of protein and calories — so if one group gains more muscle or loses more fat, it’s probably because of the creatine timing, not what they ate.
Correlational
Taking 5 grams of creatine every day for a month won’t help you lose fat, no matter if you take it before or after your workout—it mainly helps you build muscle instead.
Causal
Taking 5 grams of creatine daily along with weight training for 4 weeks can help young male bodybuilders gain muscle and get stronger on the bench press, no matter if they take it before or after their workout.
If you're a young guy who lifts weights for fun, taking a 5-gram creatine supplement right after your workout might help you gain a little more muscle and get a bit stronger than taking it before your workout — but we're not super sure because the study was small and the results weren't clear-cut.
When young adults train really hard until they can’t do another rep, it doesn’t matter whether they’re working their arms, legs, or doing squats vs. bench presses — the results for muscle growth and strength stay pretty much the same.
Descriptive
Lifting weights until you can't do another rep won't stop your muscles from growing bigger, and it's probably safe to do—even if you're doing the same total amount of work as someone who stops short of failure.
If you don’t push yourself to the absolute limit during weight training, you might actually get stronger faster—because you can do more total lifts overall.
If you lift weights until you can't do another rep, you might build more muscle than if you stop before reaching that point—but we’re not totally sure yet.
If you lift weights until you can’t do another rep or stop before that—as long as you do the same total amount of work—you’ll get just as strong either way. You don’t have to push to absolute exhaustion to build strength.
If you're already experienced with weightlifting, pushing your muscles to failure might help them grow bigger—but if you're new to lifting, doing the same thing doesn't seem to give you the same benefit. Your experience level changes how effective this technique is.
If you lift weights until you can't do another rep, it won't hurt your muscle growth or strength—as long as you're doing the same total amount of work as someone who stops short of failure. So going all the way to failure is totally fine.
If you're someone who already lifts weights regularly, pushing your muscles until they can't do another rep might help you grow slightly bigger muscles than if you stop before reaching failure.
If you lift weights without pushing yourself to total exhaustion, you might get stronger faster—especially if you end up doing more total lifts overall compared to people who do go all the way to failure.
If you lift weights until you can't do another rep or stop a little earlier—but do the same total amount of work—your muscles will grow and get just as strong either way. So you don’t have to push to absolute failure to see results.
Even though muscles grow bigger after weight training, the protein parts of the protein-making machines don’t increase — it’s the RNA parts that go up, meaning the cell makes more RNA, not more protein parts.
When older people do strength training and their muscles grow a lot, the muscle cells add more nuclei—and those who grow the most gain about 32% more nuclei than those who don’t grow much.
When scientists block the production of ribosomes in human muscle cells grown in a dish, the cells can't get bigger even when given signals that normally make them grow—suggesting that making ribosomes is essential for muscle cells to enlarge.
Mechanistic
When older people do strength training, those who get the biggest muscle gains also tend to have a much bigger rise in a protein called c-Myc—some see it jump 250%, while others only see a 50% rise.
When older people do strength training for four weeks, those who get much bigger muscles also see a big jump in the cellular machinery that helps build muscle, while people who don’t gain muscle don’t see this change—so it seems like making more of this machinery is tied to getting stronger and bigger.
Taking creatine supplements might cause some unwanted side effects or might not even be made properly, so what’s in the bottle isn’t always what it claims to be.
Your body makes creatine on its own, and you also get it from eating meat and fish — it’s not something you have to take as a supplement to have it in your body.
People have tried giving creatine, a supplement often used by athletes, to patients with several serious muscle and brain diseases, and some studies say it helped them feel better.
Taking creatine supplements might help athletes lift heavier, sprint faster, build more muscle, and feel less tired when doing short bursts of intense exercise.
Taking creatine supplements might help your muscles and brain store more energy, which could keep your cells from running out of power, help build muscle, stop muscle from breaking down, and keep your cell walls stable.