Creatine supplementation and endurance performance: surges and sprints to win the race.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review synthesizing mechanistic reasoning and existing literature without systematic methodology
PubMed 37096381 · doi:10.1080/15502783.2023.2204071
What was done
This was a narrative review evaluating the potential physiological mechanisms and performance effects of creatine supplementation on endurance performance (defined as cyclical, large-muscle-mass activities lasting longer than approximately 3 minutes).
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative values or effect estimates. Mechanistically, creatine elevates skeletal muscle phosphocreatine stores, accelerates ATP resynthesis, buffers hydrogen ion accumulation, enhances glycogen resynthesis when co-ingested with carbohydrates, and may reduce oxidative stress and inflammation. Functionally, creatine improves time to exhaustion during high-intensity endurance exercise and aids repeated surges or end-spurt efforts, while demonstrating mixed results in continuous time trials and increasing total body mass.
Why it matters
It outlines that creatine may be an effective ergogenic aid for endurance events that require intermittent high-intensity surges or sprint finishes, rather than only traditional short-duration power sports.
Limits
This is a narrative review without systematic search criteria, meta-analytic pooling, or quantitative effect sizes. Potential performance gains may be attenuated or negated in weight-bearing endurance disciplines due to creatine-induced increases in body mass.
Cited by
- supports Creatine supplementation increases intramuscular phosphocreatine, which maintains ATP levels during muscle contractions and delays reliance on slower energy pathways.