Creatine Pairing For Maximum Results
Creatine is a long known supplement that aides athletic performance, especially among those who are involved in high-intensity anaerobic activities such as sprinting and weight lifting. It’s common knowledge that when taking your creatine you should also be taking it with some form of fast-acting carbohydrate as this will spike insulin levels, driving the creatine into the muscle cells.
Researchers out of the University of Saskatchewan wanted to look at the impact of pairing creatine with arginine alpha-ketoglutarate, a precursor for nitric oxide production and helps improve the blood flow in the body along with nutrient delivery to the muscle tissue, on performance in comparison with just supplementing with creatine alone.
They had 35 men who were an average age of 23 years old take either a creatine and A-AKG supplement, just creatine, or a placebo for ten days and then were tested for body composition, muscle endurance on the bench press, as well as peak and average power (tested through Wingate tests).
After the test was completed, the bench press reading showed increases when performed over three sets with both the creatine and the creatine with A-AKG with no change occurring in the placebo group.
Peak power on the other hand only increased in the creatine and A-AKG group with no changes being demonstrated in the creatine alone group or the placebo group. Finally, only the group that was supplementing with creatine noticed an increased total body mass, however there were no significant changes in lean-tissue or fat mass indicating this was likely accountable to water weight.
From this study we can conclude that if you’re looking to increase your muscle endurance, supplementing with creatine will be sufficient, however if you are looking to increase your peak power output, you are better off supplementing with both creatine and A-AKG.
Reference:
Candow, DG. (2008). Creatine, arginine alpha-ketoglutarate, amino acids, and medium-chain triglycerides and endurance and performance. International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Oct;18(5): 493-508.
