One of the best things about fitness is that there are just so many different ways you can keep your body in shape and improve your physique and well-being within a controlled environment (your house, the gym, a proper outdoor location) – provided you a have balanced and appropriate planning and guidance.
Among the most popular workout disciplines in recent times we can find CrossFit, a fitness program centered on training and nutrition that has been adopted by millions as an invaluable part of their fitness program. Meanwhile, creatine has also been chosen by many as their go-to nutritional supplement to improve athletic performance due to its contrasted efficacy. In this article we will analyze in depth how well these two work together, as well as discuss their respective benefits.
Enter THE TRUTH BEHIND CREATINE AND CROSSFIT!
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO CROSSFIT AND CREATINE
In a nutshell, creatine is a natural substance produced by the body which plays an essential role in muscle performance by rapidly regenerating adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a molecule that provides cells with the energy they need to function.
This way, creatine gives our muscles on-demand energy when it’s required. The general benefits of creatine on athletic performance include muscle mass growth, lower fatigue levels, and quicker recovery times after workout.
CrossFit, on the other hand, is an increasingly popular fitness program based on high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which is alternates short periods of intense or explosive anaerobic exercise with brief recovery periods aiming to the point of exhaustion. HIIT involves exercises performed in repeated quick bursts at near maximal effort with periods of rest or low activity between bouts.
In CrossFit, this is usually achieved through a combination of weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and gymnastics movements. For the purposes of this article, we will narrow the benefits of CrossFit down to three basic fields:
-
– Cardiovascular health and reduced risk of injury
-
– Strength and endurance
-
– Weight loss
how does creatine help cardiovascular health?
As we have mentioned before, CrossFit is all about high-intensity interval training (HIIT). A proper training in this aspect can lead to improved cardiovascular health in the midterm. Fortunately, creatine supplementation has demonstrated to be of great help in this sense too.
Since creatine keeps ATP systems running to enhance performance in real-time, it buffers the development of lactic acid and allows for longer workouts, fundamentally increasing cardiovascular endurance. The combination of cardiorespiratory endurance brought about by target-oriented training, in addition to the extra contribution of creatine to muscular endurance, work towards for the positive effects of CrossFit training regarding cardiovascular health.
Consequently, the improvement of our cardiovascular health has a direct impact in the risk of heart disease, contributing to the decrease of the factors that may lead to heart failure.
WHAT ABOUT REDUCED RISK OF INJURY?
Oh yeah, we almost forgot! CrossFit also is also directed towards the improvement of your flexibility and mobility by involving full body movements that require a wide range of motion. Creatine has proved to be an all-around beneficial supplement regarding muscle endurance and strength, lean muscle mass and muscle growth. Consequently, the combination of these properties with proper stretching and flexibility training are a solid formula for the development of a strong and flexible body.
what can creatine do for strength and endurance?
CrossFit training usually incorporates weightlifting, bodyweight exercises, and gymnastics movements to build strength and endurance in all areas of your body. Constant variations of the exercises are introduced so that your body is always challenged in new ways. These high-intensity, weight-bearing movements like deadlifts, squats, and push-ups use several different muscle groups simultaneously, speeding up the process of building strength.
One of the primary benefits of creatine is an improvement in strength and power output during exercise, promoting greater gains in performance of high intensity exercise tasks. Let’s remember that creatine supplementation during training has been reported to quickly regenerate ATP levels, which is crucial for short and intense strength workout.
Similarly, the role of creatine in the promotion of muscle mass creation works directly toward this process. Creatine helps increase the production of IGF-1, a key hormone for muscle growth. This creation of new muscle mass aids the reduction of muscle breakdown during exercise, helping generate a greater amount of muscle in the long-term.
Additionally, creatine will help you lower your demand for oxygen by using phosphocreatine in your body. This process translates into higher resistance levels for long-running activity. Over time, it may lead to an improvement of your muscular endurance.
CREATINE AND WEIGHT LOSS
CrossFit workouts are also designed to burn fat with its high-intensity workouts that combine strength training and cardio, which are very helpful in burning calories at a quick rate.
In this regard, creatine has proven to combine greatly with several common diets, as we already analyzed on our blog. This is a crucial factor, since the combination of a balanced diet and the aforementioned workout exercised oriented towards fat burning is an optimal combination to achieve the desired effect of weight loss.
A QUICK SUMMARY
We’ve come to end of our article THE TRUTH BEHIND CREATINE AND CROSSFIT. After a brief overview on the nature and benefits of both creatine and CrossFit, we have analyzed the role that creatine plays in the improvement of cardiovascular health and endurance. We also established the ways in which it can help reduce the risk of both heart failure and flexibility/mobility issues. Furthermore, we have also looked into how creatine can improve muscular strength and muscular endurance in our body. Finally, we have capped it all off with a rundown on the importance of a balanced diet and the possibilities that creatine offers in that regard.
Taking all this into consideration, we believe the reputation of creatine as a nutritional supplement and its role as a complement to CrossFit is out of the question. Two of the perks of creatine are the absence of a loading phase requirement and its variety of formulas. However, we would recommend one is that which contains both creatine monohydrate and phosphocreatine — about which you can learn more in this article.
This would make the exclusive formula of Clonapure® the one product in the market that gives you immediate energy for your muscles, which translates into more energy, shorter recoveries and better performance. Clonapure® is manufactured in a GMP site and has had its purity and quality consistently verified through continuous testing (HPLC). Do you want to give Clonapure® a go? This is the right place!
