Do you need to take Creatine?

by | Jul 28, 2026 | News

Do you do Creatine? It may or may not be a question you’ve been asked before. Depending on who you ask, you might also get a series of recommendations of how to take it, from dry scoop “shotting it”, to mixing it with some water or a protein shake, or consuming it in gummy form. Regardless, it’s hard to go very far in the fitness industry without coming across or discussing Creatine. So, what is it? Importantly, why do people take it and do you need to use it for your health and fitness goals? At Sydney Strength Training we believe everyone should be Stronger For Life and that starts with sustainable habits. Is taking creatine one of those?

 

What is Creatine?

Creatine is a natural compound made up of three amino acids: Arginine, Glycine and Methionine. It is found in foods like red meat and fish but also produced by your own body. The amino acid building blocks are combined primarily in livers and kidneys to form creatine. Once made, creatine is distributed through the body. Creatine is essential for producing and managing energy at a cellular level and also acts as a power reserve for energy recycling. Our muscle cells use Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) to rapidly and powerfully contract, producing force but ATP depletes fast. Creatine steps in to rapidly regenerate ATP so muscles can keep working without fatiguing as quickly. Our body store about 95% of creatine in skeletal muscle (as phosphocreatine), with the rest found in brains and other organs. The standard available form of supplemental creatine is Creatine Monohydrate.

 

Creatine sources

 

Why do people take it?

Safety, effectiveness and cost are the main reasons people take creatine, specifically, creatine monohydrate. To begin with, creatine is considered a safe and effective supplement to use ¹. The International Olympic Committee has released a consensus statement discussing the use of creatine. This statement acknowledges acute and chronic benefits. Acutely, creatine use increases performance during high intensity activity such as quickly sprinting to defend the back line in football. Additionally, lifting weights is considered a high intensity activity, and creatine increases performance in the gym leading to chronic improvements in lean mass, muscular strength and power. In fact, creatine is one of the most widely researched supplements, of which, about 99% of the safety and effectiveness data has been about creatine monohydrate compared to other ingestible forms of creatine ², ³.

Lastly, creatine is relatively cost-effective. At doses of 5g once a day a 1kg bag from Bulk Nutrients will last you 200 days ⁴. That comes to a cost of about 0.24c a serve. Creatine is easily mass produced and is well researched so there’s no special patent and is widely available across a variety of brands, driving prices down.

 

Do you need to take creatine?

The short answer is No. There’s very few things people need to be doing for their health besides following physical activity and nutrition guidelines, limiting alcohol intake and avoiding smoking. Taking creatine is not essential, but it also may not harm either. Dietary supplements are exactly that – supplements. If someone is lacking adequate nutrition from their daily eating patterns, failing to get enough sleep or lack consistency in both routine and effort with resistance training, then 5g a day of creatine won’t go far at all. That being said, with high-quality and abundant safety and efficacy data available, it’s easy to say “yes” to creatine if you’re someone who cares about maximising strength, muscle mass and power. Taking creatine isn’t so much about being Stronger For Life, but about being as strong as you possibly could, if that’s what you want to make your life about.

 

A balanced view on supplements

When it comes to seeing results, we believe in evidence-based sustainable habits, applied consistently over time. Creatine is a safe and easy recommendation to make but it’s certainly not necessary. Our expert coaches can help you best determine fact from fiction and figure out the tricky and deceptive world of fitness supplementation. Importantly, our coaches will help you best determine what is worth your energy and importantly, financial investment. If you’re looking to get Stronger For Life and cut through the fluff, contact us today.

 

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