Creatine has been one of the most popular bodybuilding supplements since the 1970s. If you’re a naturally skinny guy, one of the best investments you can make is in a high-quality creatine powder.
Creatine is one of the few supplements that have science-backed information regarding its benefits. Creatine will help you increase the energy output of your hard working muscles, which will result in you lifting more weight during the muscle-building compound lifts. Creatine will help you lift more weight on the squat, bench press, and dead lift, which will help you increase your anabolic hormones and pack on rock-solid lean muscle mass.
I remember the days when I first started working out and was overwhelmed with all of the misinformation and “bro science” around creatine. It seemed that every single person had a different theory on why a certain kind of creatine was the best type of creatine.
I even had friends who were clueless and told me that creatine would make me fat, cause major stomach problems, and that it was even a type of steroid!
I am sure that if you are reading this article and you are under the age of 18, you have experienced some of this bad information regarding creatine from friends, peers, and other weight lifters.
I want to help you get the proper facts on creatine and help you decide what the best creatine supplement is for your muscle-building goals. The best creatine supplements are not necessarily the most expensive ones, so I will dive in and break down 4 very popular types of creatine in this article and discuss the science, pros, and cons of each.
Creatine Monohydrate
Creatine monohydrate is the original and old school form of creatine. This is the stuff that the old school bodybuilders would take and that you have probably taken if you have simply just bought the cheapest form of creatine.
Does creatine monohydrate work? It does work, but it also has a few issues. For one, your body won’t be able to absorb much of the creatine monohydrate, so you have to supplement with more, and many people even go through a loading phase. This means that you take an accelerated amount of creatine monohydrate for a 5-day period to “load it into your muscles.”
The creatine that is not absorbed by your muscles will convert to creatinine, which is the by-product, and this has to be filtered through your kidneys. This is why it is important that you drink a lot of water when you take the cheap forms of creatine. Almost every bad side effect associated with cheap creatine formulas can be avoided when you drink enough water.
For every 10 grams of creatine, your body might only be absorbing 1-2 grams. This means that you have a lot of creatinine going into your system.
Regular creatine monohydrate is not the best form of creatine, so let’s continue to go down the list and figure out what the best creatine powder is for your needs.
Buffered or Kre-Alkalyn
Buffered creatine, also known as kre-alkalyn, is a different kind of creatine that has had the PH level adjusted so it’s able to be more efficiently absorbed. This means that you get less of that by-product of the cheaper creatine and your body is able to utilize more of it.
I have taken kre-alkalyn at numerous points of my training, and it helped me increase my strength and lean muscle gains. Kre-alkalyn is a much better creatine supplement than regular creatine monohydrate for the simple fact that your body absorbs it more efficiently.
Kre-alkalyn is more expensive than creatine monohydrate, however. It can be about twice as expensive depending on the brand of creatine that you purchase.
Kre-alkalyn is a very good form of creatine, and I recommend that you try it out at some point to see how your body responds to it.
Creatine HCL
Creatine HCL is the new and improved fancy type of creatine that you may have seen being sold under the name “Con-Cret.” Creatine HCL is marketed as the most perfect form of creatine ever made, and it’s almost 100 percent fully absorbed by your body.
This means that you can get by with taking a lot less creatine HCL, and you won’t experience any kind of water retention, creatinine by-product, or bloating associated with the cheaper forms of creatine.
I tried creatine HCL for about 4 weeks and can honestly say that it did not help me any more than kre-alkalyn or the last type of creatine I am going to be discussing (micronized creatine).
It did, however, set me back almost 40 dollars – twice as expensive as kre-alkalyn and almost 5 times as expensive as regular creatine monohydrate. If you can afford to spend an extra 30 dollars a month on creatine, try the creatine HCL, but from personal experience, I did not notice any difference in my strength or muscle building. I would much rather save my money and buy the last type of creatine on my list – micronized creatine!
Micronized Creatine
Micronized creatine is the best creatine supplement, in my opinion, when you factor in the science behind it and the cost per serving. Micronized creatine is absorbed much easier than your body because it has smaller (micro) particles. This results in better absorption and less creatinine by-product.
Micronized creatine is also very cheap and is only slightly more expensive than regular creatine monohydrate. When you factor in the cheap cost and that your body can almost fully absorb it, you get the perfect storm for the best creatine supplement.
When you take into account all the different forms of creatine, creatine HCL is the best creatine monohydrate supplement for lean muscle gains in the gym and gains in your bank account!
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