Are you tired of being a scrawny, wimpy kid with low self-esteem and nothing to turn to? There are an increasing number of adolescents that yearn for the steroid-boosted and buff bodies of today's athletes and weightlifters (Cloud, 2000). Creatine, popular among college and professional athletes, found its way to the high school athletes. Many adults are questioning whether or not these kids understand what the effects of creatine are. Adolescents are being targeted into taking this supplement for the fact of getting bigger and stronger.
             Creatine is out there to improve maximum strength and endurance. It helps create phosphocreatine (PCr) in muscles. Extra PCr produces more energy for brief, high-intensity exercises such as sprinting, jumping, and weightlifting. It allows the athlete to tolerate more strenuous workouts, handle heavier weights, and increase muscle mass (Murphy, 2000). It improves exercise performance by 80 % if instructions are properly followed. Creatine also increases the amount of water that each muscle cell can hold and, therefore, increases muscle size and strength. According to studies, short-term (eight weeks) creatine supplementation improves maximum strength/power by five to twelve percent, work performed during sets of maximal effort muscle contractions by five to thirteen percent, single-effort sprint performance by one to four percent, and work performed during repetitive sprint performance by five to thirteen percent. Long-term supplementation of creatine (10 to 15 grams/day for six months – two years) increases gains in strength, sprint performance, and lean muscle mass during training in comparison to non-users (WeightliftingInfo.com, 2001).
             Creatine is an amino acid peptide naturally found in the body, muscles, heart, brain, liver, and kidneys, it can also be found in many foods, primarily in meat and fish. As a supplement, creatine is added t
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