Creatine
Best-in-class: Creatine
The single most-studied sports supplement. Rapidly regenerates ATP for high-intensity work by expanding phosphocreatine stores. Thorne's is NSF Certified for Sport (clean for tested athletes).
How Creatine actually works
Creatine works by buffering, not by adding energy. Muscle stores it as phosphocreatine, and creatine kinase transfers that phosphate to spent ADP to regenerate ATP almost instantly — faster than glycolysis or mitochondria can respond. That matters only in the first seconds of maximal effort, which is why the benefit is concentrated in repeated hard sets rather than endurance. Loading raises muscle stores by roughly 20–40% in most people. The same phosphocreatine system operates in the brain, which is the mechanistic basis for the cognitive work in sleep-deprived and vegetarian populations.
Creatine quick facts
| Suggested dose | 3–5 g daily, every day, timing-independent. No loading required. |
| How often | Daily |
| Who it's for | Every strength/power athlete, and increasingly a general-health/cognition staple across ages. |
| Best-in-class brand | Creatine |
✅ Clinically validated
- Consistently increases strength, power and lean mass when combined with training (hundreds of RCTs; meta-analyses robust).
- Improves high-intensity/repeated-sprint performance.
- Emerging RCT evidence for cognition/memory benefits, especially under sleep deprivation or in older adults.
📊 Correlative data
- Higher muscle creatine stores track with better anaerobic performance; vegetarians (lower baseline) tend to respond most.
🧪 Theoretical / extrapolated benefits
- Proposed neuroprotective and mood roles via brain bioenergetics are promising but earlier-stage than the muscle data.
These tiers tell you how much human evidence exists — not how well something works. This is the research space, and most of what’s in here is new rather than disproven. Something sitting at “theoretical” usually means nobody has funded the trial, not that the trial was run and failed.
The trap runs the other way too: something can be clinically validated and still do very little for you specifically. A statistically significant result in a study population is not a promise about your body.
- ✅ Clinically validated — human randomised trials or meta-analyses support it. The strongest footing available.
- 📊 Correlative — observational or epidemiological data. Suggestive, and genuinely useful for direction, but it cannot establish cause.
- 🧪 Theoretical / mechanistic — the mechanism is understood and often demonstrated in cells or animals, and the human trial doesn’t exist yet. Unproven is not the same as ineffective. Plenty of what’s standard practice today sat here five years ago.
✗ is a safety flag, not a grade. Where you see it, the concern is harm — not a disappointing trial. A compound tested for one purpose and found not to help there can still be worth studying somewhere else, so a negative result never gets rendered as a cross. It sits alongside the tier, because something can be both well-studied and genuinely risky.
My job is to tell you which one you’re looking at, and let you make the call. Grading something low isn’t me dismissing it — it’s me refusing to oversell it. This is the research space, and being able to reason forward from a mechanism matters as much as waiting for the trial.
The most evidenced supplement in sport, and unusually one where the cheap version is the correct version — monohydrate is what essentially every trial used, and the exotic forms exist for margin, not results. Loading is optional; 3–5 g daily reaches the same saturation in about three to four weeks. The weight gain in the first fortnight is intramuscular water, not fat. It does not damage kidneys in healthy people, though it does raise serum creatinine — which will look alarming on a blood test if nobody warned you first.
Creatine — safety & side effects
- Weight gain of 1–2 kg in the first weeks is water inside muscle, not fat, and it is expected. GI upset and cramping usually mean the dose is too high or too concentrated at once.
- It raises serum creatinine without harming the kidneys — creatinine is its breakdown product. This routinely causes an eGFR to look worse and triggers unnecessary investigation. Mention it before a kidney panel, or use cystatin C instead.
- In *existing* kidney disease the evidence is reassuring but limited; that is a conversation with your nephrologist rather than a flat contraindication.
- One of the most studied supplements in existence, with a good long-term safety record. Loading is optional.
Not medical advice. If you take prescription medication or have a diagnosed condition, check this against it with a pharmacist or doctor — pharmacists are underused and free.
Where to get Creatine
Buy Creatine at Thorne →Get the complete breakdown for Creatine — inside the Academy alongside the full interactive Vault.
Unlock in the Academy — $10/mo →Bloodwork to run alongside Creatine
Run these before you start, and again after 8–12 weeks. A baseline you didn’t take is one you can never go back for.
| Marker | What it’s watching for |
|---|---|
| Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) | Creatine raises creatinine WITHOUT harming kidneys — expect it, don't panic |
| Cystatin C with eGFR | The kidney marker creatine doesn't distort. Use it to settle the question |
| Complete Blood Count (CBC) with Differential | General baseline before a long-term daily supplement |
The Athletic Performance & Recovery panel covers these in one order — 12 markers, $207.90 with the discount applied.
Check results you already have → · All 102 markers A–Z
Creatine — frequently asked questions
What is Creatine?
The single most-studied sports supplement. Rapidly regenerates ATP for high-intensity work by expanding phosphocreatine stores. Thorne's is NSF Certified for Sport (clean for tested athletes).
What is the suggested dose of Creatine?
3–5 g daily, every day, timing-independent. No loading required. This is a general reference for education only — statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and this is not medical advice.
What are the researched benefits of Creatine?
Consistently increases strength, power and lean mass when combined with training (hundreds of RCTs; meta-analyses robust).
Who is Creatine for?
Every strength/power athlete, and increasingly a general-health/cognition staple across ages.
Where can I buy Creatine?
Coach Cam sources Creatine from Thorne, with 10% off auto-applied at checkout — use the buy link on this page.
Build your foundation with Coach Cam
The full Supplement Vault — 350 products across 14 categories with clinical, correlative & theoretical evidence, plus my Thorne partner links — lives inside the Academy alongside 237 peptides.
Join the Academy — $10/mo →What Creatine is used for
Creatine appears under 8 goals in the Vault’s goal router, grouped by the mechanism it works through rather than by how much trial evidence exists. Each link opens that pathway in full, with the alternatives beside it and the bloodwork that tests it.