Creatine for Ultrarunning with Scott Forbes, PhD | KoopCast Episode 176
Episode overview:
Dr. Scott Forbes is an associate professor in the department of Physical Education Studies at Brandon University and an adjunct professor in the faculty of Kinesiology and Health Studies at the University of Regina in Canada. Dr. Forbes is a certified sport nutritionist through the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), and a clinical exercise physiologist and high-performance specialist through the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP). Dr. Forbes has published over 110 peer-reviewed manuscripts and 5 book chapters. His research examines various nutritional (e.g., creatine and protein) and exercise interventions to enhance muscle, bone, and brain function in a variety of populations, including athletes and aging adults.
Episode highlights:
(15:33) What is creatine: your body creates creatine, creatine in meat and diet, phospho-creatine rapidly makes ATP, metabolic benefits during high intensity exercise, amino acids
(39:07) Timing creatine throughout the year: creatine could aid adaptation during high volume and low intensity training, improving strength training and bone strength to potentially avoid stress injuries
(48:18) When and how to use creatine: sleep, diet, and consistency of training come first, use creatine monohydrate, loading phase and timeframe of creatine benefits
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: is creatine supplementation worth it in an endurance application, introducing Dr. Scott Forbes, pledge to unbiased content
(3:21) Scott’s interest in creatine: academic background, paddling and running background
(5:17) Three applications of creatine: creatine is well-researched across different applications, primarily strength and power, endurance, health, l-arginine has no benefits, creatine has many
(8:22) Creatine for strength: muscular benefits for young and old active populations
(9:40) Creatine for health: muscular benefits for aging populations, bone strength, cognitive function, clinical applications
(10:40) Creatine for endurance: the least studied field of creatine, there are some benefits but creatine does not enhance steady state exercise, the benefits are indirect
(13:00) Creatine works: skepticism toward supplements is good, marketing and flashy new supplements make creatine look boring, but the benefits are real and robustly researched
(15:33) What is creatine: your body creates creatine, creatine in meat and diet, phospho-creatine rapidly makes ATP, metabolic benefits during high intensity exercise, amino acids
(18:30) Benefits of supplemental creatine: the goal is to saturate muscles with creatine, human production of creatine and diet takes you to 80% saturation max, supplementation can get you up to 100%
(20:18) Forms of creatine: companies market creatine in different ways to differentiate themselves, creatine monohydrate is best and cheapest, creatine HCL is well marketed but not better
(23:15) Creatine for road running: the creatine energy system only matters for high intensity exercise, endurance events are not steady-state, creatine could help for surges, creatine helps builds glycogen stores
(26:02) Creatine for surging during races: marathon and cycling race strategy, cycling sprints during a 120km time trial, creatine helps with sprints, water body mass gained through creatine does not negatively impact performance
(29:07) Weight gain via creatine: does creatine decrease VO2max, challenges with the literature, speculations based on the mechanisms of creatine
(32:47) Increased fluid in the muscles: 1% body weight increase from water, conflicting studies on performance during running, the net effect is unknown, chronic use is more likely to be beneficial
(34:50) Creatine in training: performance decline due to weight gain from creatine is likely negligible, the training benefit is likely more significant, examples
(37:16) Animal case study: chronic low-frequency stimulation in rats, rats exercising 12 hours a day with creatine preserved fast-twitch muscle characteristics
(39:07) Timing creatine throughout the year: creatine could aid adaptation during high volume, low intensity training, improving strength training and bone strength to potentially avoid stress injuries
(41:36) Creatine for injury prevention and recovery: muscle strain and heat injury, preventing strength losses if you are in a cast, immobilization and studying exercise extremes
(44:31) Creatine for heat illness: creatine hydrates the muscles, aiding thermoregulation and reducing cardiovascular strain, additive benefits of creatine and glycerol
(47:10) Magnitude of creatine benefit: alternative interventions may help more, creatine enables you to train higher volume, be aware of studies that control for volume
(48:18) When and how to use creatine: sleep, diet, and consistency of training come first, use creatine monohydrate, loading phase and timeframe of creatine benefits
(51:01) Creatine dosage: 20g standard, lower dosages have similar benefits but more delayed, too much creatine is detrimental, more than 20g is a waste of money and potentially harmful
(53:25) Caveats on creatine dosage: consuming carbohydrates and protein stimulates insulin which helps with creatine uptake, take creatine before exercise, vegans and vegetarians need the same dosage but will see greater benefits, 0.1g creatine / kg of body weight / day
(55:58) Loading, maintaining, and cycling creatine: 5-7 day 20g loading phase, 5g maintenance dose, cycling on and off creatine, examples of use cases
(59:22) Can creatine be deleterious: no, some people are more responsive to creatine based on diet and fiber type
(1:01:07) Future research: studying surging and variable terrain, ultra endurance creatine studies, ultrarunners are good guinea pigs
(1:03:08) Scott’s venture into ultrarunning: 50k, Sinister 7
(1:03:43) Wrap-up: where to find Scott, contact Scott to get his papers behind paywalls, ISSN position stand on creatine (linked in show notes)
(1:05:58) Outro: unbiased content, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: creatine supplementation and exercise
Buy Training Essentials for Ultrarunning on Amazon or Audible
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