ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Build Lean Hard Muscle with Creatine

Updated on January 7, 2019

Lean Hard Muscle With Creatine

Learn How To Build Lean Hard Muscle With Creatine

One of the most popular and effective bodybuilding supplements on the market today is creatine. In fact, studies at the Mayo clinic and several major universities have proven that athletes and bodybuilders who use creatine supplements gain significantly more muscle mass than their peers who rely on diet and exercise alone.

How Does Creatine Work?

Creatine is responsible for increasing the production and transport of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which fuels the cells in your body during explosive bursts of movement, such as when you are sprinting or doing intense weight training. Your liver only naturally produces around 2g of creatine daily, but it is capable of absorbing anywhere from 5g to 10g more creatine per serving, which means that you can really ramp up your body’s fuel stores and power through even the most intense workouts. And that translates into big gains in lean muscle mass.

If you want to incorporate creatine into your training program, follow these 4 important steps:

Step #1

Choosing the right creatine supplement is the first step, just make sure to look past the marketing hype and focus on the actual ingredients and additives. Try to find one that contains creatine monohydrate in its purest form rather than those that have tons of extra ingredients like sugars and flavoring.

Step #2

Once you find the right creatine supplement, it’s important to calculate your dosage as precisely as possible if you want to achieve the best results. The process for doing this is very simple:

During Stage 1 (the loading phase) you should be taking roughly 13.5% of your body weight in grams of creatine each day for the first four or five days. For example, if you weigh 180lbs, then you should be taking 24.3g of creatine (180 x 0.135), spread out equally over four meals. That works out to just over 6g of creatine per meal, and this is important because your body can only absorb so much at one time.

After the loading phase is complete, you should drop your creatine intake to just 1.35% of your body weight in grams of creatine. So if you weigh 180lbs, you would decrease your intake to just 2.43g of creatine per day for the next 30 days. After that, you should stop taking creatine altogether for a full 30 days before restarting the cycle.

Step #3

The creatine will help you to engage in even more intense training than you’ve ever done before. Whether its weight training or sprinting, you will be able to push yourself longer, harder and without any significant weakness or fatigue, thanks to all of the added energy your creatine supplement provides. Make sure that you take advantage of this and lift heavier weights at greater intervals, which will allow you to make big gains in muscle mass. You should also use the boost in energy to incorporate interval training (alternating between slow and fast cardio) into your routine, which will help you to burn excess fat.

Step #4

Finally, you should increase your daily intake of high fiber foods, and eliminate refined or processed carbohydrates as much as possible, such as those found in sugary foods, sodas, chips and cookies. This is necessary because creatine may cause you to gain around 5pounds of water weight during the loading phase, so your nutrition really needs to be dialed in.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)