How Creatine Works

At the core of our muscles (and all cells in our body for that matter) we utilize a substance called ATP (Adenosine triphosphate) which is a chemical that can produce energy for our cells to use.

I'm making an emphasis on the tri (meaning three) phosphates in the name so remember that for later. When we go to do work our muscles are loaded with ATP which provides them with the energy to contract whether that is doing a sprint or a heavy set of squats - for short bursts of energy.

In order for our cells to produce energy the ATP stored in the cells produces a chemical reaction that separates the third phosphate cell from the chain of three producing energy leaving us with energy + Adenosine diphosphate (ADP‎‎, di meaning two - because we broke off that third cell to produce the energy). Our muscle cells need ATP to produce energy so after ATP has been used and we have leftover ADP, what do we do with that now? Creatine you say? Ah yes here comes creatine to ADP's rescue!

Creatine in scientific terms is also called phosphocreatine (remember back to the definition of creatine?) - if you take a look at the prefix to creatine you notice that is has phosphate in front of it. Remember back that when we need energy ATP separates a phosphate cell off of itself to generate energy.

Well look at what we have here - creatine with a phosphate cell ready to be handed off to anyone who needs it. ADP sure could used it because if we add that phosphate cell back onto ADP it would become... drumrolll... ATP! More energy! Creatine hands off its phosphate cell to the ADP which in turn creates ATP - more fuel for our muscle cells to use during exercise.

Step 1

Our bodies use ATP for energy, so in the diagram you can see that the ATP separates off one of its phosphate cells in a chemical reaction to produce energy for our muscles.

Step 2

After the ADP has split off one of its phosphate cells we are left with ADP but we're not able to do anything with that.

Step 3

Creatine comes into this chemical reaction and donates one of it's phosphate cells to the ADP making it back into ATP - which then allows our bodies to use it as energy once again.

Step 4

Now that we have ATP back in our system we can now use that again for more energy and then the cycle starts over again.

Now you can see what a crucial role creatine plays in our bodies and how it could potentially provide us with extra energy when working out.

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