Wrestling Practices and Creatine Monohydrate
.... The creatine compound, or methyl guanidine-acetic acid, appears mostly in the bodies of non-vegetarians (Greenhaff, 1997). Creatine appears in the heart muscle tissue, smooth muscle tissue, skeletal muscle tissue, sperm, and in the neural tissue of the brain, eye, and nerves (Clark, 1998). The total amount of creatine compound is stored in the skeletal muscles and exists in free phophorylated forms (Clark, 1998). Muscles become tired when the skeletal muscles are unable to maintain required creatine. In other words, if you take creatine before a workout, you will mist likely have enough energy to go hard the whole time. In order to boost total muscle, creatine consumers are encouraged to take 20g of creatine per day for the first six days (Greenhaff, 1997). After the initial loading period, consumers may reduce intake 2g of creatine per day to maintain total muscle (Greenhaff, 1997). When taking creatine, the body can go harder and longer during a workout. This means that the body will usually sweat much more. Profuse sweating can cause the body to become severely dehydrated. If the athlete doesn’t drink large amounts of water, he/she had a greater chance of getting injured or even dying. Wrestlers usually have to cut back on their water intake for weight loss purposes. If a wrestler takes creatine but doesn’t drink a lot of water, he risks the chance of dying. Creatine is effective in enhancing sport or exercise performance and recovery. Creatine significantly increases strength, speed, and energy. More specifically, Volek (1997) stated, “athletes participating in a resistance training program may benefit from creatine monohyrdrate supplementation because the supplementation allows them to complete their workout at a higher intensity.” Bosco (1997) did a study to investigate the effect of creatine monohyrdrate ingestion on performance in 45 seconds of maximal continuous jumping and in all-out treadmill run. Creatine significantly enhanced performance in the jumping and running exercises, but performance seemed to even whenever the contribution of anaerobic metabolism was decreasing (Bosco, 1997). Creatine seems to be beneficial in anaerobic exercise and not beneficial in aerobic exercise. Creatine has also been shown to increase body mass. A study by Volek (1997) showed an average increase of one point four kilograms after creatine was taken. The increase probably was a result of muscle gain, which shows that creatine can be effective if taken properly. Finally, an eight week study don’t by Stout (1999) reported an increase in fat-free body weight and enhanced performance in bench press strength, vertical jump, and 100yd sprint to athletes that took creatine. The advertisers at Nutrisoy.com claim “creatine has been used safely for years (Creatine Monohydrate, 2000).” In fact, the only major side effect of creatine is weight gain. Within the past couple year’s, some doctors have raised concerns about using creatine. Some reports link creatine with renal dysfunction, gastrointestinal disturbanc...