I had two separate conversations yesterday with women asking my thoughts on creatine.
Creatine is widely researched, has significant physical and physiological upsides, and next to zero downsides.
And people much smarter than me back this up:
“Research shows creatine supplementation is most effective for those high-intensity, short-duration, or repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise with short rest periods like hill repeats, resistance training, and plyometric work.”
“Creatine supplementation may be of particular importance during menses, pregnancy, post-partum, during and post-menopause.”
“Creatine might have positive effects on mood and cognition and maybe even more effective for females by supporting brain health, and is especially useful for menopausal women who are more susceptible to increased inflammation.
“The review also included depression research, indicating that women with a major depressive disorder who augmented their daily antidepressant with 5g of creatine responded twice as fast and experienced remission of depression at twice the rate of women who just took the antidepressant.”
“[creatine] can also be helpful for mood swings during the menstrual cycle.”
Source: Dr Stacy Sims Why Active Women Need Creatine
How much creatine do you need?
Take 1-2 grams a day. You can mix it in your breakfast or whatever. Or if you’re really hardcore you can just eat it dry with a water chaser.
A basic creatine monohydrate is your best option. $17 gets you about 250 days worth.
-J