Can You Take Creatine Without Working Out?: Pros and Cons

Gymgoers and athletes have lengthy revered creatine for its capacity to boost efficiency.

Lately, it has additionally gained consideration for a variety of well being advantages, similar to enhanced cognitive perform, higher bone well being, and decreased threat of neurodegenerative illness.

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

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

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

Nevertheless, analysis suggests we must always most likely be cautious about these claims. 

To get the information, we consulted Dr. Grant Tinsley, an skilled 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 prepare, what occurs whenever you cease taking creatine however nonetheless work out, and extra.

What Occurs if You Take Creatine With out Working Out?

A lot of the creatine you eat makes its approach to your muscle tissue, the place it boosts your capacity to regenerate adenosine triphosphate (ATP), probably the most fundamental unit of cellular energy.

Dr. Tinsley explains, “This course of happens whether or not you train or not. The distinction is that whenever you train, you need to use the elevated ATP manufacturing to coach tougher for longer. In distinction, whenever 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 help you construct muscle in a number of vital methods:

1. It increases power, energy, and endurance, permitting you to carry out extra reps with heavier weights, which is essential for gaining muscle. 
2. It draws water into your muscle cells, creating circumstances conducive to muscle progress in your physique.
3. It activates cells that restore and develop muscle fibers.
4. It might reduce muscle protein breakdown, leading to extra muscle progress over time.
5. It could possibly elevate ranges of anabolic hormones like insulin-like progress issue 1 (IGF-1) and influence gene expression to advertise muscle progress.

Nevertheless, 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 acquire vital muscle whereas taking creatine in case you additionally do common strength training.

Potential Advantages of Taking Creatine With out Working Out

Improved Bone Well being

1. By rising muscle power and train efficiency, creatine permits you to contract your muscle tissue extra forcefully. These contractions strain the areas the place tendons hook up with bones, rising compressive forces alongside the bones. Stronger muscle tissue additionally allow you to raise heavier weights, which places extra stress on bones. In each circumstances, the stress spurs bones to turn into stronger and denser.
2. Creatine may increase ATP manufacturing in bones, increasing the exercise of osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) and reducing bone breakdown.

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

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

One other 2023 study discovered that taking creatine for two years had no influence on bone mineral density, however that it might positively have an effect on some structural traits of bone, which can defend in opposition to fractures. 

Thus, there’s presently not sufficient proof to suggest taking creatine solely for bone well being. Nevertheless, 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 uses about 20% of your power. It additionally requires a continuing provide of ATP to perform correctly. 

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

Nevertheless, studies investigating creatine’s results on psychological efficiency have uncovered combined outcomes. 

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

We see these combined outcomes throughout completely different teams of individuals, too, together with younger and older adults, wholesome and in poor health folks, omnivores and vegetarians, and so forth.

So, whereas creatine has the potential to boost cognitive perform, the proof isn’t robust sufficient to attract definitive conclusions but.

Lowered Danger of Neurodegenerative Illness

• Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS): Some research counsel supplementing with creatine could improve bodily efficiency and scale back muscle fatigue within the early phases of ALS but not in superior ALS.
• Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD): Preliminary research shows that creatine monohydrate improves power, endurance, and bone density in DMD sufferers. Nonetheless, we’d like extra analysis to verify these findings. 
• Huntington’s Illness (HD): Whereas some analysis suggests creatine can slow the development of HD, other studies disagree. And though some research suggests creatine reduces DNA harm, there’s no proof this improves cognition or folks’s capacity to maneuver. Subsequently, present analysis doesn’t assist using creatine in treating HD.
• A number of Sclerosis (MS): Individuals with MS who take creatine don’t store extra creatine of their muscle tissue or expertise a rise of their train capability or energy. As such, creatine isn’t an efficient remedy for MS.
• Parkinson’s Illness: Studies show that creatine may help enhance the consequences of dopamine remedy (a typical remedy for Parkinson’s illness) and improve muscle power and performance, nevertheless it doesn’t gradual 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 leave much less water for the remainder of the physique. 

Nevertheless, this can be a misunderstanding. Whereas creatine does trigger water retention in muscle tissue, research exhibits it doesn’t disrupt the physique’s general water steadiness.

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

In actual fact, by encouraging your muscle tissue to carry on to water, creatine could benefit whole physique hydration, which will be particularly advantageous during lengthy bouts of intense train.

Improved Psychological Well being

• Despair: Present knowledge on creatine’s impact on despair is conflicting. Whereas some studies present that individuals expertise an enchancment in temper once they take creatine, particularly once they take it alongside conventional antidepressant remedy, others show no impact. 
• Nervousness and Submit-Traumatic Stress Dysfunction (PTSD): Few research have examined how creatine impacts PTSD. Two small-scale studies found that creatine may assist enhance signs, significantly amongst individuals who don’t reply nicely to straightforward 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 useful matter for future research.

Lowered Want for Sleep

Animal research suggests taking creatine reduces whole and deep sleep length. 

Whereas decreasing sleep length and high quality often harms psychological and bodily efficiency, other studies show 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 unfavorable results of inadequate sleep amount and high quality. 

Ought to You Take Creatine on Relaxation Days?

“To maximise the advantages of creatine, take it every single day, together with rest days,” says Dr. Tinsley.

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

What Occurs if You Cease Taking Creatine However Nonetheless Exercise?

A study by Queen’s Medical Centre discovered that when your muscle tissue turn into saturated with creatine, it takes about 4 weeks with out supplementation to 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 tissue keep saturated with creatine for round 14 days, even after you cease supplementing.

In sensible phrases, in case you cease taking creatine, you might have 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, nevertheless it received’t be an instantaneous drop-off. And in case you resume taking creatine throughout this time, it’s best to see the advantages return rapidly.