Creatine supplementation → Muscle strength
Higher Creatine supplementation moves Muscle strength only in some conditions. Read the mechanism.
Assigned creatine raised predicted one-rep strength more than lifting alone in 45 older adults (Amiri 2023) and raised fat-free mass in a five-day load (Mihic 2000), but a two-year postmenopausal trial found no extra one-rep max (Chilibeck 2023).
Randomized trial · Contested · N=237
Supported by an experiment or a tightly identified design. Read the caveats.
Mechanism
Authors treat creatine as a phosphocreatine store that lets a muscle do one more hard repetition, or as water that shows up as lean mass. Those are different outcomes. Amiri and Sheikholeslami-Vatani (2023) assigned 45 older adults to resistance training plus 0.1 g per kg creatine, training plus starch, or no training, for ten weeks. Predicted one-rep strength across seven lifts rose about 57 percent with creatine and 36 percent with training alone. Mihic, MacDonald, McKenzie and Tarnopolsky (2000) assigned 15 men and 15 women to 20 g a day for five days or placebo. Fat-free mass rose from 57.4 to 58.3 kg on creatine and did not move on placebo. Ischemic handgrip did not change. The mass change was larger in men. Chilibeck, Candow, Gordon and colleagues (2023) assigned 237 postmenopausal women to 0.14 g per kg creatine or placebo during two years of lifting and walking. Bench and squat one-rep max rose in both arms and did not differ. Lean tissue mass rose more on creatine only among valid completers (40.8 to 43.1 kg versus 40.4 to 42.0 kg, P=0.046), not in the intent-to-treat set. Marini, Schincaglia, Candow and Pimentel (2024) assigned 40 people on hemodialysis to 5 g creatine or maltodextrin for a year. Fat-free mass and skeletal-muscle index rose on creatine (P=0.010 and 0.022). Intracellular water rose from 20.2 to 21.0 liters. This file does not publish a strength contrast.
Caveats
Researchers assigned people to creatine or a control, so this is a trial stamp. Signs do not agree. Extra papers do not settle the claim. Amiri is forty-five people, ten weeks, and a predicted one-rep max, not a tested lift. Training is in both active arms. That is the strength identification. Mihic is five days. Fat-free mass moved. Force did not. Chilibeck is the largest file and the lift is null. Lean mass is a completer slice. Marini is dialysis and water. A lean-mass number that tracks intracellular water is not a stronger contraction. This is a journal entry, not medical advice and not a reason to load creatine for a lift.
Effect
percent_change = 57. Amiri 2023: 0.1 g/kg + RT 10 wk, N=45, predicted 1RM +57% vs +36% RT. Mihic 2000: 20 g/d 5 d, N=30, FFM 57.4 to 58.3 kg, handgrip ns. Chilibeck 2023: N=237, 1RM ns.
Nodes
Named confounders
Cite this page
What Causes What. “Creatine supplementation → Muscle strength.” https://whatcauseswhat.org/edges/e-creatine-strength (atlas updated 2026-09-02).
Papers
- The role of resistance training and creatine supplementation on oxidative stress, antioxidant defense, muscle strength, and quality of life in older adults.
E Amiri, D Sheikholeslami-Vatani · 2023 · Frontiers in public health
- Acute creatine loading increases fat-free mass, but does not affect blood pressure, plasma creatinine, or CK activity in men and women.
S Mihic, JR MacDonald, S McKenzie, MA Tarnopolsky · 2000 · Medicine and science in sports and exercise
- A 2-yr Randomized Controlled Trial on Creatine Supplementation during Exercise for Postmenopausal Bone Health.
PD Chilibeck, DG Candow, JJ Gordon, WRD Duff, R Mason, K Shaw, R Taylor-Gjevre, B Nair · 2023 · Medicine and science in sports and exercise
- Effect of Creatine Supplementation on Body Composition and Malnutrition-Inflammation Score in Hemodialysis Patients: An Exploratory 1-Year, Balanced, Double-Blind Design.
ACB Marini, RM Schincaglia, DG Candow, GD Pimentel · 2024 · Nutrients