Your muscles have a variety of enemies that work to hold you back from making the gains you want and keep you stuck in the status quo. You are probably aware of some of them – eating wrong, not getting enough sleep, catabolism, etc., but may not be aware of others.
One of those enemies that falls into the relatively unknown camp is myostatin, a substance most people are not familiar with. Ask the average person in the gym what myostatin is and they probably can’t tell you.
Myostatin binds to muscle cells and acts to impair muscle growth. How? It shuts down protein synthesis. Protein synthesis is needed for your muscles to not only get the green light to grow but also to fuel that growth. Myostatin takes it upon itself to short-circuit that process. In fact it acts strongly in this manner, actually working to destroy the muscle. Myostatin = muscle destruction. So myostatin is one nasty enemy.
If you are into building muscle, you recognize that myostatin’s actions must be stopped if you want to maximize your own muscle growth.
Creatine the champ
Fortunately there is a substance that hits back at myostatin. And better yet, it comes in supplement form. Research indicates that creatine does in fact inhibit myostatin.
A study published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology found that study subjects who ingested creatine for two months straight exhibited significantly lower secretions of myostatin than subjects on a placebo. While myostatin may be a muscle killer, creatine is a myostatin killer. Other studies have shown similar results – that creatine is just what you want to take on myostatin.
There are many reasons to make creatine one of your main supplements, and this myostatin issue just adds to the impressive impact that creatine has on the muscles and the body. The myostatin advantage is one in a growing list of benefits that creatine supplementation brings to the table.