Does Creatine Improve Recovery? What the Research Actually Shows

Creatine is one of the most tested supplements of all time, and its benefits have been deemed to be so incontrovertible that the International Society of Sports Nutrition has taken an official position espousing its benefits to trainees of all ages, and the improvements that can be made to many areas of health through creatine’s use. (1)

Because of the sterling reputation creatine enjoys, you might be tempted to think that creatine’s role in muscle regrowth and recovery had been scientifically defined beyond a shadow of a doubt. This is where you might be surprised. The scientific evidence that creatine improves recovery isn’t stacked quite as high as you might have been led to believe. 

So that’s the real question: Does creatine improve recovery? Moreover, if you regularly take creatine for recovery, are you just wasting your time and money?

Quick Answer 

You can put your mind at ease that creatine does indeed improve muscle recovery, as there have been many studies conducted confirming creatine’s role as an actor of significance in accelerating muscle recovery beyond what is achievable in creatine’s absence. This has been proven with athletes of all types, and by studying creatine’s outcomes on people of all ages.

The advantages created by creatine’s use have proven to be most consistent in the areas of lean muscle growth and strength increases, which follow consistent use of creatine when it is consumed in its recommended doses, and for the advised length of time. Creatine works especially well when mixed with other ingredients in a post-workout recovery formula.

Why Creatine Could Improve Recovery

The main reason creatine is credited with improving recovery has to do with its role in the replenishment of adenosine triphosphate and phosphocreatine, at supercharged levels, along with creatine’s ability to boost muscle glycogen. (2)

While your body is capable of producing a certain quantity of creatine on its own, either by acquiring creatine in fairly high levels from food sources like beef and salmon, it is virtually impossible for your body to saturate its muscle tissue with the quantity of creatine required to produce remarkable improvements without turning to supplementation.

In essence, creatine floods your muscles with an abundant reservoir of energy that aids them directly during workouts, in terms of the strength of the muscle contractions that are created, and the amount of force they can produce. 

The tricky element is the role that creatine plays in muscle-protein synthesis, which is the specific activity of muscle repair. The most practical theory behind creatine’s role in between workout sessions is that creatine’s presence in muscle tissue induces an increase in muscle glycogen production, which  provides additional fuel for the muscle-repairing process, boosting its efficiency and speed.

What Studies Show About Recovery

Several of the studies involving creatine have focused on specific physiological markers of fatigue and muscle damage to see how creatine might be acting to alleviate those symptoms. 

The results of many of these studies have been somewhat inconclusive and paradoxical despite the overwhelming evidence that creatine is doing something to optimize recovery and shorten the time required to achieve it. 

Muscle Damage + Inflammation

In a meta-analysis of creatine’s effects on markers of muscle damage and inflammation, the results seemed to be contradictory. This research was conducted in acute training groups, who trained just once prior to the collection of evidence, and chronic training groups, whose markers were evaluated after several training sessions.

At 48 to 90 hours after exercise, muscle damage as calculated through measurements of creatine kinase, lactate dehydrogenase, and myoglobin levels was higher in the chronic training creatine group than in the acute training group. (3) However, the same meta-analysis revealed that muscle damage markers in the chronic training group were higher than the acute training group when measured 24 hours after exercise. 

Similarly, inflammation was higher in the acute training group — the group that had measurements taken after just one muscle damaging bout — as opposed to the chronic group, whose measurements were taken after ongoing sessions.

The researchers of the study opined that creatine “may be effective in reducing the level of exercise-induced muscle damage following a single bout of strenuous exercises, although training-induced stress could be exacerbated following long-term supplementation.” (3)

DOMS + Soreness Reduction

One of the most reliable superficial indications that a resistance workout has been effective is the presence of delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS. It is a feeling of persistent soreness in the trained area that may last for up to a few days after exercise.

Despite creatine’s role in muscle recovery, some studies seem to identify nothing along the lines of creatine DOMS reduction in between workouts, with measurements of muscle soreness remaining higher after extended training and consumption with creatine than after a single workout session followed by creatine consumption. (3)

One particular study showed that perceived muscle soreness immediately following a workout was lower for the group that was given creatine as opposed to a placebo, but the perceived soreness of the creatine group rose to nearly match that of the placebo group three days after training concluded. (4)

Strength/Power Recovery Between Sessions

The clearest evidence of creatine’s role in muscle recovery is found in what it is able to do for strength and power in between training sessions. In fact, the felt benefits of creatine in these areas are essentially immediate in their allocation. 

In a study of untrained subjects, the group receiving creatine managed to exert greater power in between tests conducted 10 days apart even when no formal resistance training was performed between testing sessions. (5) 

Similarly, female soccer players engaged in formal training showed greater improvements than a placebo group in measurements of sprinting, agility, and leg strength taken just seven days after beginning a creatine regimen. (6)

Beyond this, a meta-analysis of studies evaluating creatine’s benefits to strength and power beyond two weeks provide insurmountable support for creatine’s ongoing role in boosting force generation between sessions. (7)

The evidence also indicates that the gap between the strength gains of placebo and creatine groups only increases the longer supplementation continues, which has been suggested to be a result of continued lean muscle growth following rapid muscle tissue repair. (7)

How to Use Creatine for Recovery

The traditional recommendation for creatine use has been that the person looking to begin creatine supplementation should consume approximately 20 grams of creatine daily for five to seven days, and then reduce their creatine intake to supplemental doses of 3-5 grams daily. 

However, studies have shown that simply consuming creatine consistently in daily doses of 3-5 grams is sufficient to produce the advantages of supplemental creatine in most people. The effects of creatine can take weeks to months to fully experience, so you are advised to maintain your creatine intake even if you don’t see any immediate results.

In terms of results, studies have demonstrated how creatine intake consistently increases muscle size, strength, and athletic performance, with results usually observable in two weeks, and becoming more noticeable as time progresses. (7)

Who Benefits Most + Limitations

When it comes to the advantages conferred by creatine supplementation, they are not evenly distributed across all pools of athletes. For the most part, the benefits of creatine are confined to the realm of muscle strength and endurance. In practice, this means that people whose training calls for the development of strength and explosive power receive the greatest benefits from creatine supplementation.

This is not to suggest that there are no benefits to be received by people whose workouts are highly aerobic in nature. The capability endurance athletes receive from creatine use is usually connected to their capacity to sprint within bouts of extended exercise, like the necessity to sprint uphill quickly, or to kick hard at the finish to a long-distance race.

If you have a tendency to lift weights day after day at a high volume, it is more likely than not that creatine will accelerate your recovery process, enabling your muscles to give an improved performance during successive training sessions, and hastening the results you’re craving.

These advantages even extend to aging groups of trainees, who often find that they are able to get more out of their muscles than they otherwise would thanks to the inclusion of creatine in their supplement arsenal. 

However, there is a key research gap with respect to research into creatine’s effects on aging adults who are coping with issues like fragility, and how effective creatine can be at restoring their capacity to move.

Bottom Line

It’s true that we don’t yet have every answer with respect to creatine and how it accomplishes the results that it produces. What we do know is that it works effectively, consistently, and safely, with millions of happy consumers experiencing higher quality training outcomes as a result of it.

If you are interested in experiencing the benefits of creatine products during and after your workouts, you may want to consider trying creatine HMB for recovery and support, which is creatine blended with the muscle-preserving power of HMB, enabling you to hold onto even more of your gains.

Sources

1. Buford TW, Kreider RB, Stout JR, Greenwood M, Campbell B, Spano M, Ziegenfuss T, Lopez H, Landis J, Antonio J. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: creatine supplementation and exercise. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2007 Aug 30;4:6. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-4-6. PMID: 17908288; PMCID: PMC2048496.

2. van Loon LJ, Murphy R, Oosterlaar AM, Cameron-Smith D, Hargreaves M, Wagenmakers AJ, Snow R. Creatine supplementation increases glycogen storage but not GLUT-4 expression in human skeletal muscle. Clin Sci (Lond). 2004 Jan;106(1):99-106. doi: 10.1042/CS20030116. PMID: 14507259.

3. Doma K, Ramachandran AK, Boullosa D, Connor J. The Paradoxical Effect of Creatine Monohydrate on Muscle Damage Markers: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2022 Jul;52(7):1623-1645. doi: 10.1007/s40279-022-01640-z. Epub 2022 Feb 26. PMID: 35218552; PMCID: PMC9213373.

4. Yamaguchi S, Inami T, Ishida H, Morito A, Yamada S, Nagata N, Murayama M. The Effect of Prior Creatine Intake for 28 Days on Accelerated Recovery from Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Nutrients. 2024; 16(6):896. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu16060896

5. del Favero S, Roschel H, Artioli G, Ugrinowitsch C, Tricoli V, Costa A, Barroso R, Negrelli AL, Otaduy MC, da Costa Leite C, Lancha-Junior AH, Gualano B. Creatine but not betaine supplementation increases muscle phosphorylcreatine content and strength performance. Amino Acids. 2012 Jun;42(6):2299-305. doi: 10.1007/s00726-011-0972-5. Epub 2011 Jul 9. PMID: 21744011.

6. M.M. Atakan, M.B. Karavelioğlu, H. Harmancı, M. Cook, S. Bulut, Short term creatine loading without weight gain improves sprint, agility and leg strength performance in female futsal players, Science & Sports, Volume 34, Issue 5, 2019, Pages 321-327, ISSN 0765-1597

7. Wax B, Kerksick CM, Jagim AR, Mayo JJ, Lyons BC, Kreider RB. Creatine for Exercise and Sports Performance, with Recovery Considerations for Healthy Populations. Nutrients. 2021 Jun 2;13(6):1915. doi: 10.3390/nu13061915. PMID: 34199588; PMCID: PMC8228369.