Creatine Seems To Build Power... But It’s Complicated

Let's start with a provocative statement. If I’m advising an elite cyclist who is trying to become a power monster, my first suggestion: start taking creatine (my favorite is The Feed Lab Creatine).

That’s a change from a few years ago. My strategy for vetting training approaches or supplements is always the same: talk to people in the arena. I focus mostly on pro running, and very few of the athletes and coaches I talked to thought creatine was useful. So while the research looked promising, I thought that the studies must be missing something.

In recent years, I’ve started having more of those conversations with top cyclists, including some big names that will be kept confidential in my brain chamber of secrets. And in that sport, creatine use seems much more common (especially outside of peak race season, especially for female cyclists). After suggesting creatine to some cyclists based on that inside information, we saw rapid power gains, often 10-20 watts higher for already astronomical FTPs.