Does Creatine Really Make You Stronger?

Short Answer:

Yes, there is strong evidence that creatine will increase power and strength by 5-15% and sprint performance by 1-5%.

Longer answer:

Many years ago, my oldest son started playing football in high school. He was small for football, so he started taking a lot of supplements and lifting weights. One of those supplements was creatine and I was worried because I had never heard of it and it was purporting to make you stronger. I’m old school and thought only lifting weights and steroids would make you stronger. I really didn’t want my son taking unknown supplements, nor did I want him to rely on any “get strong quick” scams (of which there are many).

I started to research creatine and was surprised to learn that it actually worked and it worked really well. Creatine has been studied extensively with over 500 research studies. I prefer “meta-analysis” studies because they will compile the results of previous studies into a consolidated analysis. Any one study could be flawed or show abnormal results, however with meta-analysis you can clearly see the consensus results. All studies include control groups receiving a placebo - don’t trust any study without a control group and never, ever trust anecdotes”.