Which supplement helps preserve muscle and maximizes the muscle you're building? In this episode, I illustrate how creatine fights age-related muscle loss. I detail misconceptions about creatine and how to decide if supplementation is right for you. And of course, I include tips on how to shop for creatine and incorporate it into your routine! 

After the age of 30, you lose between 3–8% (or more!) of your muscle mass each decade. I will share everything you need to know about creatine and why it supports lean, quality muscle mass. So keep listening. This episode is for you. 

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Topics Covered:

• Three facts about creatine
• Three considerations about creatine 
• Four ways creatine fights age-related muscle loss
• Is creatine supplementation right for you?
• Nutritional strategies > supplementation
• How to incorporate creatine into your routine

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the first 12 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• See the research on creatine ingestion strategies HERE
• See the research on sarcopenia, frailty, and diabetes HERE
• See the research on muscle tissue changes with aging HERE
• See the research on creatine questions and misconceptions HERE
• See the research and recommendations for ISSN nutrition HERE

Follow Me:

Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

Holly Perkins 0:00

Sarcopenia is the age related loss of lean muscle tissue. And it happens to every single one of us. After the age of 30, you'll lose between three and 8% or more of your muscle mass each decade, and that rate accelerates with each passing year. loss of muscle has a profound negative effect on functional independence and your overall quality of life. loss of muscle is also associated with an increase in body fat, especially around your midsection, diabetes, and osteoporosis. The only way to combat this is through strength training. And there is one supplement that can help you preserve the muscle that you have and maximize the muscle you're building. So keep listening.

Holly Perkins 0:56

Holly Perkins 3:30

Let's get into today's episode. Now. You and I might have different goals. But I think we can agree that we both want to avoid the decline that we see in our aging parents. It's terrible. I hear this every day from my clients, frailty, loss of independence, and weight gain are all things that we worry about in our future. The decline of aging is terrifying. If you worry about deteriorating as you age and not being able to be active with your family and your loved ones. Today's episode is going to be revolutionary. In this episode, you'll learn the facts about the supplement creatine and the research behind it. If supplementing with creatine is right for you, and when you should consider it and how to take it effectively if it's right for you so that you can actually get the benefits and don't waste your time or your money. There's a lot that we can't control about our future. The one thing you have complete influence over is the quality of your lean muscle mass. And each ounce of muscle that you build pays big dividends over the years ahead. Building muscle slows the rate of aging. It helps reduce body fat. It improves energy and stamina and improves mood states and depression.

Holly Perkins 5:00

I've always said, building muscle is the panacea for everything, but more specific for aging. And I believe it's the panacea for most of life's struggles. Wouldn't the future be much brighter if you knew you'd be strong, resilient and full of energy? Yes, you know that strength training is a must, in order to live your best life, right. And there is one supplement that rules them all, when it comes to helping you preserve and build lean muscle mass. And that's creatine. One thing I want to get out of the way before we dive into the creating conversation is this. You cannot and will not build the muscle unless your strength training in a progressive manner. I say this because there is a ton of sneaky advertising these days. That will lead you to believe that certain foods or supplements or even protein powders will build muscle. And there are products that you can incorporate into your life that will help build muscle if and only if you are first lifting weights consistently. If you are someone who knows that you should be strength training more, but you're a bit erratic, this may not be the time for you to consider supplements. First, get your strength workouts on track. And then you can consider adding in things to really optimize your body's response to your workouts. Right? Deal.

Holly Perkins 6:45

Awesome. Let's move on. If you're new around here, welcome. I help women use strength training and intentional nutrition to build muscle, improve body composition, and boosts energy. So you can have the body that you need to live your life to the fullest. My community tends to be women over 40 who are interested in educating themselves about health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness. My community is not bodybuilders or professional athletes, although I have worked with both. Therefore, the supplement creatine is not really a household word around here. Although personally I think it should be and I'm going to explain it first, before getting into the facts about it, and how to know if or when you should or shouldn't incorporate it.

Holly Perkins 7:42

Holly Perkins 8:37

Number two, creatine is a naturally occurring compound that already exists in your muscles. And it's the primary constituent of something called phospho kriya team, which is used to regenerate ATP within the muscle cells. Now I know this is quite a bit sciency and I'm gonna break it down and spell it out a little bit more. But it is naturally produced in your body from the amino acids glycine and arginine, but itself is not an amino acid, it's a derivative. So what all of this means, in simple terms, is that your muscles rely on creatine for energy in the form of ATP. And your body produces the creatine from the amino acids that you ingest through food. So it's already happening. It's already in your muscles. And if you eat animal meat, you're actually eating it in chicken or turkey or some of the animal foods that you're eating.

Holly Perkins 9:44

Number three, research shows that creatine supplementation is not only safe, but has been reported to have a number of therapeutic benefits in healthy and diseased populations ranging from infants to the elderly, by using creatine as a supplement, you're able to increase and maximize the concentration of creatine in your skeletal muscle to support activity. In other words, it helps your muscles regenerate energy within the cells, so that the muscle has fuel when it needs it. Despite being in practice for 30 years now, and being very well aware of creatine throughout those years, I personally didn't get creatine supplementation right until about 15 years ago, and saw firsthand how powerful it is. Especially because I'm someone who struggles with building muscle, and I'm often fatigued. So for several years, I was religious about creatine supplementation, and I very much credit it for helping me to transform my body in my 40s, I know that it was a key part of being able to build muscle. Since then I use creatine on and off as recommended, during the times when I'm working hard in the gym to really like proactively improve my muscle mass. I'm just like most people, I tend to go through cycles where I'm training hard. And then I go through seasons where I'd let up on my workouts, and I'm not quite as dedicated or active or specifically interested in the gym hard to really build muscle. Personally, I love creatine, and I find that I feel so much stronger in the gym when I take it perform my workouts. And I also notice that I'm less sore, and I just feel better in general. Beyond the fact that I personally love it, I do keep a neutral position on it when it comes to my clients. Not all of my clients use it. In fact, I would say the vast majority of my clients don't use it. And that's because you may or may not need it. Now need is in quotation marks because I might not need it right. But I do find it to be so clearly helpful as a supplement is intended. If you're someone who feels fabulous all the time, has awesome workouts all the time, who eats the right amount of protein every day and builds muscle easily, you're probably someone who doesn't need it. Despite that, if that's you, I think it's worthwhile to understand this information because I believe there's going to be time in the future where creatine is a household name.

So let's get into the three considerations here. So you can understand creatine and determine if it's something that you even want to consider. So number one, again, I want to be clear here that I'm talking about creatine supplementation in conjunction with a strength training regimen, where you're really going for it where you're truly working hard, and you're doing it consistently. This is where it's the most powerful. Now, I do believe in the future, like I said, where it's going to be used more commonly to treat things like mood disorders, depression, chronic fatigue, fatigue in general, and there is research on it being used to treat Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. And I suspect it's going to be the next big thing. Even though by the way, it's been around forever. It's just not mainstream yet. So why would you consider supplementing with creatine? Studies show that creatine helps to number one, improve your strength ability during your strength training workouts, it actually improves how the ATP is cycling in your muscles so that you're actually truly stronger.

Number two, creatine supports recovery. So if you're someone like me, who tends to struggle with recovery, if you have any kind of an autoimmune issue, if you're older than let's say 50 or 55, and recovery is hard for you. That's what the game is all about. And creatine is has been proven to be super, super effective at helping to facilitate the recovery process. Number three, creatine improves energy both in and outside of your workouts. So We commonly think of it being related to your workouts and I personally take it before our workout. But as I said, it is being used Just as a medicinal treatment for other things, and so it isn't specific to your workouts, it can actually just help you throughout the day, if you like me, tend to struggle with energy and fatigue.

And lastly, some studies are showing it to be used to treat neurological diseases like Parkinson's, ALS and Alzheimer's. So remember how I mentioned sarcopenia at the top of the show, Several studies show and I quote, that the combination of creatine supplementation and resistance training has the potential to serve as an effective countermeasure to the age related loss in lean tissue mass and strength, possibly by influencing anaerobic energy metabolism, calcium and glycogen regulation inside of the muscle, muscle protein kinetics, inflammation and oxidative stress. And quote, I realize that this all sounds like a lot of sciency jargon. But what the interpretation is, is it works to fight age related muscle loss by number one, improving the energy metabolism of muscle cells. Number two, improving how your muscles use and manage the carbohydrates that you eat. Number three, facilitating the repair of muscle proteins. This is extra important after your workouts, and number four, helping to manage inflammation. And as you know, I am all about this conversation around inflammation. Because we know that inflammation is linked with chronic disease. These are some really powerful things simply and specifically, creatine supplementation improves recovery between your workouts, something a lot of people don't realize is that your workout is actually only as good as your recovery.

I've always said that today's workout is dependent on yesterday's recovery. So if you're able to recover better and faster from your workouts, you're able to go into your next workout better prepared, and therefore you get results faster. But you also feel better during the process. I don't know about you, but I do not like to be sore. It really bothers me. I think a big part of it is because I do have an autoimmune condition, which means that inflammation is particularly distressing on a body with an autoimmune disorder. But recovery is really really key after your workouts. And if you don't like being sore, this is one of those things that can really help. Creatine also improves your actual strength during your workouts, which is why I started taking it. I was going through a long period of time. I mean, it might have been a year around my 40th birthday, when I was so committed to high quality workouts I was eating right going into my workouts doing everything I could possibly do to get stronger and I was just bonking my weight loads weren't going up, I always felt exhausted. And I just never felt like I could increase those weight loads even by small amounts, like five pounds or 10 pounds. And that was when I actually discovered how effective creatine is. I always knew about it. But I think I kind of always felt that I didn't technically need it until I got to the point where I truly needed it. Creatine also just it helps you to just feel strong during your workouts. Even if you're not particularly interested in building muscle, let's say I'm sure you can relate to that feeling of when you feel good during a workout or you feel strong during a workout. And this is a bit of an elusive animal for me because most of the time, I go into my workouts and I don't feel great. It's because of the workout afterwards. I feel better. But I tend to go in having to work out the kinks if you know what I mean. Creating really helps me to show up to my workout, get through my warmup, and then actually feel good during which means you're going to perform better in your workout. And performance in your workout is what leads to results. So if you're not getting the results that you want in your workouts, the first place I always look as your coach is to say well, what's the quality of your workouts? Are you actually getting the right intensity, the right frequency and the right over All effort that's needed to really produce results.

One misunderstanding about creatine is an old school, really fear mongering, that it's bad for your kidneys. This is something gosh, I remember hearing about this when I was in high school. And the truth is the research is mixed. But if you have known kidney issues, you do want to check in with your doctor first. And yes, if you have any documented illness or chronic condition, you should check in with your doctor just to make sure before you start a supplement like creatine, in fact, the truth is, you should always check with your doctor before beginning any kind of new program or supplement strategy. Now, I never talk about anything super controversial here on this podcast and everything that I say is backed by number one, my education and my credentials, but also my 30 years in practice. And lastly, research. That all being said, if you have a known health condition related to your kidneys, do your research. But if you're generally healthy, and you don't have any major health complaints, the outdated idea that creatine is dangerous to your kidneys is false. And like I said, there is research to support this. Again, it is one of the most widely used and most studied supplements, ever.

Next, I'm going to review some things to consider if you're trying to figure out if creatine supplementation is right for you. But first, if you're still listening, you are probably wondering if creatine supplementation is something that you should consider. And as I'm saying this, it literally just popped into my head that I should let you know something important about this podcast. I want this show to be a safe haven from the endless advertising that you're bombarded by every single day. And I want to do this so that number one, I can talk honestly with you without restriction about the things that I think are important, and so that you can know that I'm not endorsing something because of paid sponsor. So at this time, I am not taking sponsors for this show. And I don't intend to in the future, in no way am I compensated if you start taking creatine or anything else that I talk about on my podcast. Generally, I'm talking about topics that I think are important to be aware of, especially if it's something that I believe is going to help you I just wanted to get that off my chest because I feel like these days, there's a tendency to assume that if someone like myself is promoting a product, it's because we're paid to promote it, and I am not. Let's move on.

So how do you know if creatine supplementation would be beneficial for you? I think that the questions you want to ask yourself are number one, do you struggle? Do you struggle to feel strong and energized during your strength workouts? If it's a yes, you might want to consider this supplement. But first, let me continue. Number two, do you do all the things but find that you can't increase your weight loads, no matter what you do, no matter how you try, and it's as if you just can't seem to actually get stronger? Number three, are you often sore for days after your workouts, irrespective of the nature of that workout? Is soreness, a familiar friend to you? If so, this might be relevant. Number four, Have you struggled in the past to build muscle, despite really trying and you want to ask yourself this objectively, because you might say, Oh, I've been trying for years to build muscle, but you want to ask yourself, you know, have you really, really, really, really been trying? And lastly, if you answered yes to any of these? Do they exist after getting your diet, right? Because a lot can be resolved simply by getting your nutrition right.

I really believe nutrition is the foundation to everything that you do with your body. And it's a big part of whether you get results or not. This is exactly why I created the nutrition project, which is my coaching program that teaches you exactly how to eat for better energy, reduce hunger, eliminate cravings, and better fat burning 24/7 many struggles will be overcome simply by getting your diet right. So again, you want to ask yourself, honestly, is your diet right? Because if not, let's clean that up so that you can really uncover if you have a hard time building muscle and or recovering from workouts. And on that note, it's important to address nutrition because As you may have heard, the idea that supplements aren't needed if you're eating correctly, I've heard people say that if you eat me, you don't need to supplement with creatine, I encourage you to always start with your diet first, and get it optimized so that you're getting the vitamins and minerals that your body actually needs. Nutrition first, always, then if you're still struggling, despite trying all the other things, that's the time to consider supplements. I don't ever, ever, ever recommend supplements first, unless I try nutritional strategies. And once I really uncover the cause of what a client's symptoms are, we bring supplements in as a support when we can't get there through other means.

Why spend your money on supplements when you simply just need to eat better, right? If you commit to a strategic diet, and then you find yourself still struggling with energy or recovery, or building muscle, that's when you want to start to consider supplements. And this was the case for me. My diet could not have been better at the time. It was highly strategic and incredibly intentional. I did all the things and I was still struggling. So for me supplementing with creatine was the missing link. And oh, by the way, it was a game changer.

The next thing to cover is how to use it. If you're like I was and suspect that creatine could be a beneficial thing for you. The next question is Okay, So exactly how do you do it. And this could be an entire whole podcast episode on its own. So I'm really just going to give you the Cliff's Notes version based on how I address this with my clients. Because if you're someone who wants all the details, I know you'll do your research. And even just the research that I did for this episode took me hours on top of the education that I already have. And like I said, I've linked several sources below wherever you're listening that you can click through if you want to do research, because here's the thing, if you're struggling, and creatine will help, then I've done my job. And that's what I'm all about.

So next I'm going to cover what form of creatine to look for, where you can get it, how to take it and when to take it. So first is the forms of creatine, there are several different forms of creatine that you can buy. And I say this because you might like a lot of people show up to a health food store and talk to a representative and they're going to give you their opinion, on what form to buy. And these days, there are a lot of different forms, and there's a lot of different money put into the technology behind it. Creatine monohydrate is the one that is most extensively studied. And it has been proven safe and effective. And it's the most economical, there is a ton of advertising on all of the other forms and a lot of money gone into the advertising and I've tried them all, but the truth is, I always come back to creatine monohydrate. So where do you get it? I want you to think of creatine like any other supplement like vitamin D or vitamin D or protein powder. You can usually find creatine wherever you find supplements just like grocery stores or health food stores or certainly online.

One thing to note that's really important, please shop around literally just this past weekend, I was desperate to refill my stock on Korea, Tina had run out. And I knew that a workout was coming. So I stopped by at a national chain that I'm sure you would recognize. Because I wanted to buy it in an attempt to shop locally, I was feeling really good about myself, showed up grabbed the bottle that I always get and it was $50 More at the store than what I normally pay online. So do your research. Don't just show up at a health food store and let the representative tell you what to get. Like I said do your research especially when you're looking at the cost of it because Wowzers since the COVID times the prices and creatine have really fluctuated.

So next how to take it. I've read mixed reviews in terms of exactly how to take your creatine and whether it should be with a meal or other protein, or in the absence of it. So there's research in both scenarios, if you take it on empty with a carbohydrate in the absence of protein, or if you want to take it specifically with protein, you can buy it as a powder or as capsules, whatever you prefer and take it with or without other foods. That's really what the research is showing. There's kind of pros and cons in both directions. It does help to take it with carbohydrates at the very least. So you're going to notice better absorption. If you take, let's say, a powder with a carbohydrate, I take it with juice, so that the carbohydrate is helping to bring the creatine into the muscle. I use a powder these days just because I like to take it as I said, with a little bit of juice around a meal. But in the past, I would always take capsules, because I just found them to be more convenient, there's really no big difference.

In terms of dosing, the research appears to support Consuming approximately point three grams per kilogram of your current body weight per day, for five to seven days, followed by three to five grams per day thereafter for maintenance, don't worry, I'll give you the cliffnotes on it. What this means is if you weigh 150 pounds, this equates to about 20 Grams of Creatine per day, for the first five to seven days, let's just call it a week. Then after that loading phase, when we can assume that your muscle has maximized its stores of creatine, you then move into a maintenance phase and the research is showing three to five grams of creatine every single day for a period of time. Now, it does seem to be wise to take a break from it every few months. I find with myself and with my clients, those opportunities tend to present themselves naturally like a vacation or you just get off track with your workouts or you get sick and you're off track for a month or whatever it may be. From time to time, you just want to take a break from it. I think that's also wise with most supplements in general and a lot of foods in general to take a break and cycle it through.

The last consideration is when to take it. While it really doesn't matter when you take it. I find it really helps me to feel stronger during my workouts. So I like to take it around breakfast about one to two hours before my workout. I don't pay much attention to if I'm taking it with or without protein. I generally sometimes take it in the morning before I have breakfast. Sometimes I take it after but it's pretty much always one to two hours before a workout. I have noticed that when I take it in the morning, but I don't work out until much later. I still seem to feel those benefits, even if it is several hours after I've taken it.

One last thing before we wrap up is to mention that many women associate creatine supplementation with the big muscle head dudes at the gym or that creatine is a specialty designer supplement used by men who want to build big huge muscles, right? I mean for years throughout my 20s and 30s. I think I kind of balked at creatine because I just kind of thought that's who took it and it was associated with big muscles and I didn't want to have big huge muscles like a dude. So why would you take creatine? It's that you're thinking Welcome to the club. It's very normal. It's actually not true, though. The truth is the very reason why creatine is the oldest supplement in the Gold's Gym book is because it works. There's a reason why the bodybuilders rely on it, it's because it works. But that doesn't mean that you're going to develop big huge muscles. I promise I'm giggling as I say this, because it's really naive to think that building muscle is as easy as taking creatine. The truth is, it is hard to build muscle. Number one is a woman. And then it's even harder yet if you're over the age of 40. And then it gets extra extra hard to build muscle around and after menopause. So don't be afraid that it's going to make you big and muscle bound if that's something that you want to avoid, because it's just not going to happen. You have to work so hard to build muscle beyond the muscle that you want. And as I always say, the muscle that you need to really keep up with a life that you love. Alright, that is it, my friend. I hope that you found this episode helpful. If you did, please leave a review wherever you're listening right now or are over on the episodes blog page on my website at Holly perkins.com.

And while you're there, sign up for my State of the Union address on January 31. It's going to be awesome. I am so excited. I've already got my notes prepared. It's totally free. And it is not a device to sell you into any kind of program. I'm not promoting anything right now. It's really just a great reason to get us all together and for an informal meetup of my community, and to comment on some of the State of the Union topics that we're seeing out there in health, fitness, nutrition and wellness in general. I can't wait to see you there, especially if you're new to my community come early and say hello. And even if you can't make it live, or you're listening to this episode after the fact, you can still sign up and get the recording. Come over to Holly perkins.com forward slash event. And stay tuned for another brand new episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong my friend.