#182: Q&A: Creatine, Rest Between Sets, Training Frequency, Machines vs. Free Weights

Supplement companies approach me every week to see if I will start promoting their supplements.

And I have to say, the reason that I have said no up until now is that I don't really think that there are many supplements out there that are particularly useful for women in midlife.

I think protein, yes, is very useful, and I share about how to choose good proteins in my protein episode.

And creatine is another one that I absolutely do believe in and I do use, but there's no point in me recommending a certain brand's creatine because the plain old creatine monohydrate is plenty for you.

So personally, I go into the shop, I look for pure creatine monohydrate, I compare the prices of the di- various brands, and I choose the cheapest one, and that's what I recommend that you do as well.

But let's talk about what is creatine doing, and why is it that it could be a useful supplement? So first of all, creatine's not gonna do a whole lot for you if you're not actually strength training with a proper program.

But what it does is it helps your body to generate ATP, which is their energy unit, faster.

So when you are doing your sets or doing your workout, if it's a power workout or other kind of workout, it allows your body to regenerate ATP faster.

And so in practice, what that means, and what they have shown in research, is that you are able to maybe do an- another few reps, one to three more reps, or be able to do that exercise a little bit longer.

So if it is that you're doing a sprint interval or something like that, it might be that you're able to do a little bit longer sprint interval.

So it's like you have more power, more oomph [laughs] in your muscles.

And of course, over time, that can be useful because you're able to do a little bit more reps, you're able to lift a little bit heavier, and that's more stimulatory for building muscle and strength, okay? I'm not saying it is necessary [laughs] for building muscle and strength.

You can absolutely get strong and build muscle even without creatine, but it can give you that extra little boost, and it has been studied extensively, so I feel comfortable saying that it is safe to use.

And for women in menopause, perimenopause in particular, there was a systematic review done in 2026 and a meta-analysis w- done in 2021, which looked at, in particular, post-menopausal women using creatine, five grams per day.

And what they did find, that when that is combined with resistance training, there was a small but meaningful gain in lean mass and strength without any evidence of harm.

They saw that upper body strength in particular seemed to benefit from this, and that when the studies lasted 24 weeks or longer, that both upper body and lower body strength Showed more improvement with the creatine than with the placebo.

So it's not something that is going to, like, change you overnight.

24 weeks is a long time, so that could be something that you add to your protein shake after your workouts, for example.

That's what I do.

I just toss in the five grams 'cause it's a little bit bitter tasting, so just adding it to plain yogurt or something, you're maybe not gonna like the flavor so much.

So I put it into my protein shake, which is chocolate flavor, so the chocolate flavoring really covers it up.

Now, one thing you may notice it, when you start taking the creatine is it does cause you to retain a little bit more water.

So that means your scale weight may go up a little bit, but that's water being retained within the muscle.

It is not that you've gotten fatter [laughs], gained subcutaneous fat or anything like that.

It really is water.