Anvil Nutrition - Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine is stored in muscle tissue as phosphocreatine. During high-intensity effort, your muscles burn through ATP (the energy currency for contraction) faster than your body can regenerate it. Phosphocreatine donates its phosphate group to regenerate ATP, which means more available energy during sets, more total work capacity per session, and faster recovery between efforts.

This is not a stimulant effect. Creatine works through saturation, not acute dosing. You take it daily, intramuscular stores build over time, and the performance benefit is there when you need it during training.

5g/day is the most widely studied maintenance dose in the creatine literature. The International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on creatine confirms that supplementation at this dose is safe and effective for improving exercise performance, with research spanning short-term and long-term use across healthy populations from young athletes to older adults.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of creatine supplementation and strength performance found significant improvements in lower limb strength across multiple study populations. A separate meta-analysis focused on resistance training confirmed improvements in both lean tissue mass and muscular strength.

Creatine monohydrate is the form used in the overwhelming majority of published research. The ISSN position stand specifically notes that creatine monohydrate is the most studied and most effective form of creatine available. Other forms like creatine HCL, buffered creatine, and creatine ethyl ester are marketed with claims of better absorption or reduced bloating, but none have been shown to be superior to monohydrate in peer-reviewed research.

If a form doesn't have the evidence, it doesn't go in the product. That's the standard.

Micronizing reduces the particle size of creatine monohydrate, which improves how easily it dissolves in liquid. It's the same molecule, the same dose, the same mechanism. It just mixes better so you're not drinking grit at the bottom of your glass.