I’ve been covering sports nutrition for years, and I’ve been an active consumer of sports supplements going back even longer. In fact, I’m old enough to remember the Creatine boom of the late 1990s. During that time, some people talked about it in hushed tones, like it was a steroid. Other people talked about it sprinkling it on their corn flakes.
Fast forward almost thirty years, and it’s safe to say the science is in. Now we all know creatine is safe, effective, and widely available. But what exactly is it doing? And more to the point, is it actually boosting our testosterone?
Key Takeaways
Where Creatine Has Increased Testosterone
In a study of amateur swimmers, researchers found a substantial increase in testosterone after workouts and after taking Creatine. Researchers also found that there was no change to cortisol, a hormone that’s known to wreak havoc on healthy testosterone levels.
Another study of active men found that testosterone increased in men after performing intense leg workouts. It should be noted, though, that there were no increases after bench press. Interestingly, a study of rugby players didn’t find any testosterone increases, either. All of the studies found that exercise was the key to the testosterone increases: Creatine itself didn’t boost the hormone.
This plays right into a popular theory that Creatine doesn’t directly increase testosterone, but it does help with exercise–and the more exercise, the better testosterone levels. In each of the successful studies, the larger the muscle groups (legs versus pecs, rugby versus whole-body swimmers), the better the testosterone results.
How Does Exercise Increase Testosterone?
Study after study has shown the health benefits of exercise. It can lower blood pressure, reduce body fat, and improve mood. A lot of these benefits are part of what scientists call a positive feedback loop.
The Feedback Loop of Exercise
It can seem really simple, but like a lot of simple things, increasing testosterone through exercise can be one of the hardest things to do. The basic concept is that as we exercise more, our body sends thousands of messages, from releasing “good” hormones like testosterone, to cutting back on “bad” hormones, like cortisol. When this happens, it makes it easier for us to keep exercising. Anyone who’s lost weight knows it gets easier to go for a run after a few months of good weight loss.
How to Help the Cycle
There are a number of ways to help this cycle move forward. In fact, you can probably tink of a few things without really trying. But in case you want a cheat sheet, here’s a few tips.
Staying Active
It sounds a little pedestrian, no pun intended, but try a few of these ideas to get yourself moving throughout the day.
Find Alternatives for Cravings
We all get cravings–and they’re natural! But as we increase our activity, we’ll have an increased appetite. If our cortisol’s coming down, we’ll want less sugar and salt–but our habits may thwart that.
Now the Cycle is Jumpstarted…
Now that you’re active and laying off of the bad foods, just keep monitoring your body. As you lose weight, increase your exercise load. By constantly moving the goal-posts on your muscles, they’ll start demanding more testosterone from your body. But if we stay plateaued, and don’t up our game, our muscles won’t up their game, either.
How Does Creatine Actually Work?
Okay, you’re thinking, so I want to increase my testosterone, I’ll give it a try through exercise. Where does Creatine come in, exactly? Well, the exact mechanisms of Creatine are still not totally clear. A lot of websites can say this or that–but we’re here to deal in truth and science.
The best theories, published in the last year, indicate that Creatine helps individual muscle fibers to not only trigger faster–through a process called the ATP cycle–and can even increase and stimulate muscle growth.
These powerful indicators are propped up by a number of studies. In fact, every time the science is updated, we find that there is more and more evidence that Creatine supplementation can increase not only physical performance in the weight room, but even endurance activity, and high intensity workouts now in vogue (HIIT, for instance).
Creatine–Now You Know
Like I mentioned at the top, there’s no direct link between testosterone and Creatine. It doesn’t tell the body to increase testosterone production, or help keep free testosterone from getting converted to other hormones.
But we have seen that Creatine is a proven, effective, and safe supplement for increasing exercise outcomes and performance. And these things do directly increase testosterone. There are things we can do to help our bodies out, and well we should. Healthy exercise can improve our hormonal balance, and that can have far reaching effects into the rest of our lives.
FAQs
According to every literature and study source we can find, Creatine is safe for nearly every adult. Some scientists recommend adolescents and young adults should consult a sports nutritionist, and pregnant women should stay away. If you have any questions, consult your physician.
Absolutely! It isn’t clear what the interactions of Creatine are with other hormones, but current studies indicate that Creatine is as safe for women as for men.
Definitely, yes. There is something called the pancreatic insulin response, and how it breaks down is that taking Creatine with protein or carbohydrates can greatly increase its benefits. Other studies have shown that caffeine and Creatine can increase the speed that this supplement is taken to the target muscles.
People taking Creatine preach about the effectiveness of “loading.” This basically means taking larger doses in the first week or so, and then reducing that dose during “maintenance” phases. I’ve also encountered this with certain herbal supplements such as Turmeric. The principle is sound. Loading helps build up a deposit in our muscles that triggers better results.