Can You Mix Creatine with Pre-Workout?
Creatine and pre-workout are two giants in the workout supplement industry. In fact, they are the dominating and driving force of the supplement industry, and it’s not even close. If you look at your pre-workout supplements, the odds are good that Creatine is already in them.
You can mix Creatine with your pre-workout, even if it already has Creatine. How effective it will depend on several factors, mostly on what’s in your pre-workout and which of the two types of Creatine you’re taking.
Creatine Monohydrate and Creating HCL are basically the same, except Creatine HCL absorb more rapidly in the body. HCL also helps avoid bloating, a common theme when consuming Creatine supplements.
Key Take Away
Read to the end. You’ll learn why adding creatine to pre-workout is a good idea. And how pre-workout and creatine work together to improve workout performance
Why Add Creatine to Pre-Workout?
Your body produces Creatine on its own. However, when you first start taking Creatine, and you take it for an extended period, your body will reach a point known as “saturation.” The effort to reach this point is called “loading.”
Once your body achieves saturation, whether you take Creatine with your pre-workout or not becomes irrelevant. Once the loading phase is over, you can take Creatine whenever you want, though it’s still a good idea to stick to your schedule.
Think about it like this—your body uses the water you consumed the day before. That’s why it’s easy to have a heat stroke if you didn’t drink any water the day before, even when you are consuming water currently. Creatine works much the same.
Once you’ve achieved saturation, your body uses Creatine already there, not what you are consuming today. The reason you should keep taking it with your pre-workout is that it forms habitual behavior. And it ensures your body always has a reserve once today’s supplement is expended.
Improves Both Stamina and Muscle Development
Creatine’s existence in the body facilitates several functions, all of which are strongly related to energy, sustained energy, and muscle growth.
- Cellular Hydration
- IGF-1
- Cumulative effect
- Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
- Supplement support and coordination
Creatine helps the body flood the muscles with water. This is why creatine users frequently experience both “bloat” and a more cut, pumped appearance during and after workouts. For obvious reasons, your muscles need water when you’re tearing them apart under duress.
Not only do they need water, but they also need the deliverables that water brings via the blood supply. Creatine also makes ATP, a crucial form of energy stored in the body when needed. Lifting weights definitely qualifies as one of those occasions.
You know when you run out of ATP. As you’re hitting your last rep, straining with all of your might to get it up before the spotter has to step in, you can imagine your ATP needle plummeting into the red. Once it’s out, it’s out—and so are you.
Once the weight is down, your body works feverishly to draw more energy from ATP reserves. The Creatine in your body is also hard at work, manufacturing fresh energy reserves to draw on for the next set.
Creatine Works Well with Other Supplements
While there is no boost or advantage to taking Creatine with your pre-workout, outside of the fact that it’s simply a good habit to form, Creatine does work well with other supplements in your pre-workout mix.
Since Creatine plays a role in flooding muscle tissue with water, it is an excellent supplement for establishing a nutrient delivery structure in the body. There are a ton of benefits found in pre-workout supplements, but they don’t do you any good if your body has trouble getting them where they need to go.
As we stated earlier, Creatine is a supplement that is stored by the body. No matter how much you mix in your pre-workout, your body is not going to use that Creatine when your work out that day.
Get The Most Out of Creatine Video
What your body will do is use the Creatine it has studiously stored over time, with the Creatine you took today serving as replacement storage for what’s expended. However, Creatine is an excellent facilitator when it comes to the following supplements:
Okay, so Melatonin isn’t exactly high on your list of workout supplements, but Creatine does facilitate your body’s naturally produced Melatonin, making your sleep/wake cycle more productive. This is important for bodybuilders since 8 hours of sleep per night is critical for muscle recovery and growth.
Beta-Alanine is used by your body to stave off fatigue as you lift. It’s not naturally produced by the body. And your body can only use it if you consume it through meats and seafood or take it in supplement form.
Glutamine is a recovery amino acid. Without it, you would find those small breaks between sets nearly useless. Glutamine also helps you avoid soreness after your workout, so your next workout session is just as energetic and brutal as you want it to be.
BCAAs (leucine, valine, and isoleucine) improve your body’s protein synthesis, improving your body’s ability to utilize your maximum abilities during a workout. BCAAs improve strength and endurance as well.
Protein is responsible for repairing your muscles, bigger and better than they were before. When you lift, microscopic tears occur throughout the muscle you focus on. Protein hastens the repair of these muscles post-workout, building a bigger and better version each time.
Creatine is largely responsible for your body’s coordinated and efficient energy production, long-term endurance, and muscle-growing recovery.
Why Take Creatine with Pre-Workout if There is No Boost?
You take it with your pre-workout because it establishes a habit. Forming the habitual behavior in taking Creatine is crucial since your goal is to reach saturation and then maintain it.
Once you’ve achieved saturation and the loading phase is over, there really isn’t any need to take Creatine at a specific time of day or with other supplements.
However, it’s a good idea to continue taking it with your pre-workout, especially if your pre-workout already has Creatine in it. Especially if you want to establish a good routine and habit of taking your supplements each day.
Does Caffeine Affect Creatine?
One of the biggest beneficial factors of taking pre-workout is the energy boost, facilitated mainly by a large serving of caffeine. It’s often said, mostly in close-knit weight-lifting circles, caffeine cancels out Creatine.
A 1996 study created the overall assumption that Creatine is rendered useless when you consume caffeine with it. Unfortunately, the study was weak, and the testing sample was so small it was ludicrous as an example of the scientific process.
Nevertheless, the study was held up as the pinnacle of all studies and rigorously defended by the bodybuilding industry. In reality, most weightlifters won’t notice any difference in the effects of Creatine just because they drink a cup of coffee in the morning.
Both caffeine and Creatine are responsible for energy production; they just go about it in two drastically different ways. That’s just one way in which the benefits of taking both stacks on top of each other.
If there is one thing that caffeine and Creatine share, it’s how they affect the water in your body. Creatine uses water to flush the muscles, while caffeine is a diuretic, flushing the bladder with water that would otherwise be useful in the body.
In other words, if you’re taking Creatine with your pre-workout, you need to consume water like the stuff is running out. Even working out in an air-conditioned gym won’t stave off heat stress, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke.
Can You Mix Creatine With Pre Workout – Bottom Line
You can take Creatine with your pre-workout safely. However, since Creatine is a stacking/storing supplement, it has no immediate benefit just because you take it with your pre-workout.
The biggest reason you should take Creatine with your pre-workout is that it forms a good habit, providing your body with immediate and long-term resources so you can get the most out of your workout, now and later.
Citations and References
(March 9, 2022). #1 REASON WHY CREATINE IN PRE-WORKOUT IS SUPER BENEFICIAL
Retrieved from: https://mri-performance.com/creatine-in-pre-workout
(February 26, 2021). Are Creatine and Caffeine Dangerous Together?
Retrieved from: https://www.performancelab.com/blogs/pre/are-creatine-and-caffeine-dangerous-together
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