Is creatine good for runners?

Creatine’s been used by elite and recreational athletes for years. Its popularity and claimed benefits are down to fundamental exercise physiology.

Creatine’s an organic compound found in your body’s muscles as well as the brain and is a natural energy source. It cranks up phosphocreatine stores, which helps to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

ATP is the key behind your swim, bike and run performance as it yields energy for functions like muscle contraction. It’s both synthesised in the body – you make 1-2g of ATP each day – and consumed in your diet, but not to significant levels.
 
Your muscular stores of phosphocreatine are limited to supporting five-to-10-second all-out maximal efforts. That’s why increasing the amount of phosphocreatine in the muscle helps to resynthesise or recover this store of phosphocreatine quicker during exercise.

In turn, it’s of particular benefit for those who sprint and weight train, boosting their all-out efforts and helping them increase muscle mass and strength.

Will creatine help my run leg?

Well, the majority of research has focused on short, high-intensity exercise because of the energy system involved. However, a 2023 journal concluded that it could help endurance runners, especially in high-intensity moments like if you’re sprinting to the line.

In fact, that 2023 paper provided many takeaways…

• For non-weight bearing endurance activities, a creatine-loading phase of 20 g/day (or 0.3 g/kg/day) separated into four equal proportions for five to seven days is sufficient to saturate muscle creatine stores. A maintenance dose of 5 g/day (or 0.03 g/kg/day) can be sustained thereafter. For weight-bearing endurance athletes, like runners, the loading phase should be avoided due to the potential impact on water retention and gains in body mass. A lower dose of creatine (3–5 g/day) is sufficient to saturate creatine stores over a four-week period.
• Creatine can be added concomitantly as part of an athlete’s training routine where considering aerobic high-intensity intervals are used to enhance aerobic capacity because of creatine’s ability to augment high-intensity performance.
• When loading with creatine, it appears beneficial to ingest creatine close to exercise training due to the upregulation of creatine transporters and co-ingestion of creatine with carbohydrates appears to be an effective strategy to enhance both the uptake of creatine and for glycogen re-synthesis. 
• You’ll notice that there’s focus on supplementation rather than just topping up creatine levels through real foods. There’s a reason for that as while creatine’s usually found in red meat and shellfish (which is why vegetarians and vegans, in particular, are advised to take creatine), it’s only in small amounts. So, potentially supplement, but if you do, go for creatine monohydrate as it’s the most researched form of creatine, and there’s a lack of evidence for the efficacy of alternative forms of creatine to be superior to creatine monohydrate.

James Witts Freelance sports writer and author

About

Former 220 Triathlon magazine editor James is a cycling and sports writer and editor who's been riding bikes impressively slowly since his first iridescent-blue Peugeot road bike back in the 80s. He's a regular contributor to a number of cycling and endurance-sports publications, plus he's authored four books: The Science of the Tour de France: Training secrets of the world’s best cyclists, Bike Book: Complete Bicycle Maintenance, Training Secrets of the World's Greatest Footballers: How Science is Transforming the Modern Game, and Riding With The Rocketmen: One Man's Journey on the Shoulders of Cycling Giants