Best Time To Take Creatine

The Best Time To Take Creatine

Whenever you find it easiest to take creatine is probably good enough. There's not a lot of research indicating that taking it at one particular time is significantly better than any other.

Personally, I like to take a blend of creatine, carbs (in the form of juice), and protein about half an hour before training, and the same blend after training. This is also the basic approach that Dr. Jim Stoppani advocates in the article "Ask the Supplement Guru: When Should I Take Creatine?"

This "bracketing" technique helps set up an anabolic (muscle-building) state for your muscles and helps prevent muscle breakdown from a workout (catabolism). You'll be well stocked with anabolic amino acids when you're most receptive to them, you're topped off with carbs both during and after training, and you're always full of creatine.

If the before-and-after technique is too complicated for you, just taking 5 grams post-workout is also very effective at producing strength and size gains, according to a 2013 study.1 Third place would be 5 grams whenever works for you.

When you first start taking creatine, it's common to load with 20-25 grams per day in 5 gram servings for five days. This is effective, but not totally necessary. Just 3-5 grams a day will get you to the same place soon enough, writes Ciaran Fairman in "Do I Need to Load With Creatine."