07/23/2025
Q: Should I take creatine daily?
A: Creatine is made by the body and found naturally in the muscles and brain. Active individuals often take creatine supplements to help with performance and recovery. Here are a few facts you should know.
* Choosing your supplement: It should only contain one ingredient - creatine monohydrate. This formulation has the most data for safety and performance. Make sure your supplement is third party certified to verify you are taking what you think you are taking.
* Dose: 3-5 grams daily. More is not better.
* Potential benefits: Not everyone sees benefit from taking creatine. Performance gains are typically seen in short, high-intensity exercise (power, speed, jumping) and short strength activities that last less than 3 minutes. Body composition changes may include less exercise-induced muscle damage (less damage=quicker recovery), small increases in muscle mass and increased lean body mass. Unfortunately, for endurance athletes there is typically no benefit and possible decline in performance with routine creatine supplementation.
* Possible side effects: Muscle cramps, GI upset, bloating, weight gain, headache.
TLDR: Taking 3 grams of creatine monohydrate daily is generally considered safe and may improve short, high intensity and strength exercises while increasing muscle mass and speeding recovery. A great resource for supplement information is opss.org.
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