We're all looking for the best and fastest ways to reach our fitness goals. In that search, we often come across supplements that offer a lot of promise.

However, the promise is almost never realized with many supplements. There is one supplement, though, that's been through the proverbial ringer and has come out smelling like a rose. What is that supplement?

Creatine

How Does Creatine Work?

There may be 2 possible ways in which creatine works. The first has to do with how our bodies produce the energy that muscle cells need in order to contract. Muscular contractions give us the ability to move things.

For anaerobic work, there are two mechanisms by which the muscle cells derive energy, but both come from adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. For very short bursts of energy, like that needed for a shot-put or single maximum lift, ATP sheds a phosphate molecule, which releases energy in the muscle cell. ATP is stored in muscle cells, and under all-out effort, all muscular ATP can be depleted in less than 2 seconds!

Creatine phosphate, which is also stored in the muscles, can replenish ATP by "donating" a phosphate molecule to depleted ATP, aka ADP (adenosine diphosphate). Once the ATP is replenished, it's able to go back to work again by releasing another phosphate molecule and a burst of energy.

This cycle, also called the ATP/CP Energy Pathway, is good for between 10 and 60 seconds of energy production, or within the time boundaries of a typical weightlifting set.

The idea behind creatine supplementation is that you can raise your creatine phosphate levels inside the muscle cells, thus giving muscles a more potent and long-lasting source of replenishing phosphate.

Now that the muscles have more potential energy, you can lift weights for more reps. This also equates to a moderate increase in strength.

The other way that creatine may work is in the following way:

• Creatine pulls water from the space surrounding a muscle cell into the interior of the cell, causing it to swell like a giant water balloon
• The increased water content inside the muscle cell places a great strain on the muscle cell membrane
• This strain sends a message to increase muscle protein synthesis, triggering it to build more muscle protein and grow larger

The jury is still out on this second method, but the first is the most researched and plausible method. In any event, you should try creatine. It works for most people, on the order of around 70 percent and you'll know within days of its effectiveness for you.

If you want to learn more about creatine, grab a copy of the Creatine Report, written by Will Brink, author of Bodybuilding Revealed.

• How to Consume More Protein Without Supplements Food supplements can be very expensive. Whey protein powders are all the rage. They're made from milk, are easily digestible, and hit the bloodstream very quickly. However, they are fairly expensive. For the guy or gal who wants to build quality, lean muscle mass, the typical guideline is to take......
• Get Metabolic Surge by Nick Nilsson... UPDATE: The program has been massively updated and is no longer for sale at the prices listed below. But the upgraded information is so good that you don't want to miss it. but only if you want to burn body fat and build muscle, all at the same time! Here's......
• January Updates A lot of things have been going on lately! Here's a recap: There's a new user forum. Check it out. If you register and make a post (it can be "Hi"), I'll make you a  Platinum member for free (normally it costs $$$). I wrote a book on building a......
• How To Gain Weight And Bulk Up If you want to gain weight and bulk up your muscle mass, there are specific aspects of your diet that you must attend to, although the main key is to understand the energy equation. If you take in less energy than you use in exercise, then you will lose......
• Building Muscle in 30 Minutes a Day – Advanced Training Building muscle in 30 minutes a day Yesterday we talked about basic training principles and gave you a workout routine to follow that would build muscle in only 30 minutes a day every other day. Today, we're going to discuss various methods for increasing your workout intensity. There are many......

• Study Shows Homeowners Using Landscaping to Save Energy and Water In this current day and age, where common activities among people include the tightening of wallets and the fearing of soaring energy bills, almost everyone has had to adopt some substantial practices inside and outside of their own homes. Americans are also incorporating techniques in their landscaping that are allowing......
• Embryonic Stem Cells: USA, Stem Cell Therapy to be Performed on Humans for the First Time Image by Getty Images via Daylife A stem cell injection bound to create a stir is about to take place. For the first time ever the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) (the United States government agency regulating scientific research) has authorized a company to transfer embryonic stem cells to......
• Starting the Day with Supplements For many people, starting the day means taking an over-the-counter (OTC) multivitamin, or vitamins, and various other supplements. After all this, it's time to go to the gym to get in a early workout session or some jogging time. Well, what should a person really be taking in the morning?......
• STEMCELL Technologies Applauds Feeder-Free Derivation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells In a landmark paper, researchers at Stanford University have described a new way to derive human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) without the use of contaminating mouse feeder cells. Using adipose cells as the starting cell population and mTeSR1, a defined medium that allows the expansion of human embryonic and......
• Facts about Weight and Weight Loss Here are some little known facts about your weight, and how to lose it. - The difference between people who are thin and those who are obese is not how many fat cells they have, but rather the size of these cells. You do not generate more fat cells when......