How long does it take for creatine to kick in?

How long does it take for Creatine to kick in?

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How long does it take for Creatine to kick in?

Research shows that a creatine loading phase can maximize your muscle stores and kick in within one week or slightly less to kick in. This creatine strategy involves taking 20 grams of creatine daily for 5–7 days to saturate your muscles rapidly, this is then followed by 2–10 grams daily to maintain high levels.

If you want to know what our best creatine is click that link and it’ll take you to our top list for the year. However if you just want to know how long it takes for creatine to kick in, read on in this article and we’ll give you our findings.

How long does it take for Creatine to show results?

Creatine can typically take up to a month for it to show significant results with your workouts. Your muscles needs to be saturated in the creatine overtime, which means it is not an instantaneous process.

You need to have repeated supplementation of creatine on a regular basis to keep it stored in high amounts within your muscles to help speed up the time it takes for it to kick in within your body.

Below, is a great video from Gabriel Sey who takes you on his journey of taking Creatine for 30 days. Who suggests that you should be taking it and also working out at full capacity to make sure that you get the most benefit out of it:

Here’s another video from Cole Baker, who again, took creatine for 30 days and saw a great boost from supplementing creatine over time:

He did another video after supplementing it for a 100 days and saw an even more aggressive progression in his lifts and overall strength power output:

These are all great videos and give you a good idea of how creatine works for you over time.

How long does it take for Creatine to kick in before workout?

As we’ve mentioned, Creatine doesn’t kick in immediately after you take it. It’s something that has to be saturated into your muscles and in doing so takes a lot longer for you to see the results.

Ideally you need to be taking creatine for at least 30 days a month regularly while pushing your body to lift more throughout the process. As long as you’re pushing towards something of a progressive overload (lifting more than the last time you trained that muscle group – i.e. more volume or overall weight).

In summary, using Creatine as a pre workout may be a flawed process. You can take creatine as a pre workout – but this should be in combination with taking it on a regular basis outside of workout days as well to make sure that your muscles stay saturated and that your body gets the most out of it.

How long does it take for Creatine to work without loading?

There is some mild evidence that loading creatine at 15 – 20 grams for the first week or few days may help to saturate your muscles faster and speed up the time it takes to start edelivering benefits.

However, if you start on a low dose such as 3 – 5 grams a day without a loading phase, you’ll reach the same levels of saturation soon or later. Typically within 2 – 4 weeks. There’s not a lot of difference.

Personally, I haven’t ran a loading phase whenever I start up again on creatine in years, and struggle to notice the difference in my improvements between running a loading phase and not running a loading phase.

Bottom Line: How long does Creatine take to kick in?

In summary, if you’re taking creatine regularly, you’ll typically notice it ‘kick in’ and make a difference within a 4 week period.

Whether you’re running a loading phase or not, you’ll start to notice the difference after a month of running a creatine cycle. If you continue to use it, you should continue to see improvements as long as you’re chasing progressive overloads and beating your last sessions.

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