Bodytech Micronized Creatine

Everything You Need to Know Before Trying This Popular Muscle-Building Supplement

Creatine is one of the most widely used and researched sports supplements available today. It has been shown to significantly increase muscle mass, strength, and exercise performance. Bodytech Micronized Creatine is a popular creatine supplement that claims to deliver all the muscle-building, strength-boosting benefits of creatine in a pure, micronized form for better absorption.

But is Bodytech Micronized Creatine right for you? In this complete buying guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know before trying this supplement yourself.

What is Creatine and How Does It Work?

Creatine is a molecule that is naturally produced in the body to supply energy to muscles and other cells. It is made up of three amino acids – arginine, glycine, and methionine. Creatine acts as a rapid energy buffer, allowing you to lift heavier weights and train harder.

Supplementing with creatine monohydrate has been found to significantly increase stores of creatine in the muscles. This can translate to improvements in strength, power, muscle mass, and exercise performance.

The exact mechanisms behind creatine’s effectiveness are still being researched, but scientists believe it works in several key ways:

• Increased Phosphocreatine (PCr) Stores – PCr helps rapidly regenerate ATP, the primary energy molecule used for muscle contractions. More PCr means faster ATP regeneration between sets.
• Cell Volumization – Drawing more water into muscle cells can trigger anabolic signalling and protein synthesis.
• Reduced Protein Breakdown – Creatine may help decrease muscle protein breakdown during exercise.
• Increased IGF-1 – Supplementing with creatine has been found to increase levels of this anabolic hormone.

Numerous studies have confirmed that creatine supplementation can safely boost lean muscle mass, strength, and performance – especially when combined with training.

Benefits of Bodytech Micronized Creatine

As a 100% pure micronized creatine monohydrate supplement, Bodytech Micronized Creatine aims to deliver all the standard benefits of creatine:

• Build More Muscle – Creatine can enable you to perform more reps and lift heavier weights, triggering greater muscle growth over time. Many studies confirm creatine’s muscle-building effects.
• Increase Strength – The improvements in exercise capacity can quickly translate to increased strength. A review found creatine could boost strength by 8% over placebo.
• Enhance Workout Performance – With creatine’s energy-boosting effects, you can push harder during your workouts and lift more overall volume.
• Improve Recovery – By reducing muscle cell damage and protein breakdown, creatine may help you recover faster between workouts.
• Gain Weight – The rapid increase in intramuscular water from creatine causes weight gain, up to around 2 to 6 pounds in the first weeks. This is lean mass, not fat.

In particular, creatine benefits muscle-building goals when consumed alongside resistance training. If your objectives include adding mass, getting stronger, or making faster gains – creatine can definitely help!

How Does Bodytech Micronized Creatine Work?

Bodytech Micronized Creatine contains a premium grade of creatine monohydrate that has undergone micronization to improve its solubility in fluids. This creatine powder dissolves better than regular creatine, resulting in fewer clumps and potentially enhanced absorption.

When consumed, the micronized creatine monohydrate is taken up by your muscles through absorption by muscle cells. Once inside the cells, the creatine helps to maintain higher PCr levels to support energy production and muscular performance.

With more creatine available inside the working muscle cells, you can lift heavier loads, complete more reps, and experience less fatigue during intense exercise. Over time, these small performance improvements drive new muscle growth.

Bodytech uses pharmaceutical-grade Creapure® creatine made in Germany. Many studies demonstrating creatine’s effectiveness have used this same form, meaning you can expect proven results from Bodytech Micronized Creatine.

What is the Recommended Dosage?

The standard clinical dosage for creatine is 5 grams per day. Most studies showing benefits use 3-5 grams of supplemental creatine monohydrate powder daily.

Bodytech recommends taking 1 serving (5 grams) of Micronized Creatine mixed in 8-12 oz of water or juice daily. For loading, they suggest taking 4 servings (20 grams) per day for 5-7 days, followed by 1 serving daily.

A typical creatine cycling protocol is to load for 5-7 days, maintain at 5 grams per day for 2-3 months, and then take 4-8 weeks off. However, some users take creatine year-round without cycling.

Five grams per day, everyday, is sufficient for most people to experience the performance and muscle-building benefits of creatine supplementation.

Are There Any Side Effects?

Hundreds of studies have confirmed creatine’s safety when taken at recommended dosages. However, some users do report side effects. The most common include:

• Weight Gain – Creatine pulls water into muscle cells, causing a rapid increase on the scale. This is normal and not actual fat gain.
• Muscle Cramps – Dehydration is a common cause of reported cramps, so ensure you drink plenty of water each day.
• Upset Stomach – Too much creatine at once can cause diarrhea or cramping. Follow dosage guidelines and consider a micronized form.
• Water Retention – Minor bloating is possible due to increased intramuscular water. This is temporary and not harmful.

Note that many reported side effects are anecdotal and not directly linked to creatine supplementation. Proper hydration is important when taking creatine to reduce side effects.

For most people, Bodytech Micronized Creatine is very well tolerated when used as directed. But anyone experiencing serious side effects should discontinue use.

How to Take Bodytech Micronized Creatine

Taking Bodytech Micronized Creatine is simple:

• Mix one 5 gram serving (one scoop) into 8-12 ounces of water, juice, protein shake or your preferred beverage. Shake or stir vigorously until fully dissolved.
• For loading, take 4 servings (20 grams) per day by mixing one scoop into a few different drinks spaced throughout the day.
• Take your daily creatine at any time of day. Pre- or post-workout is common, but not mandatory.
• Creatine is absorbed best when insulin levels are elevated, so combining it with a protein and carb source is ideal.
• Once mixed, creatine begins breaking down after only a few hours. So drink your creatine supplement right away for maximum effects.
• Consider staggering servings throughout the day rather than taking all at once to improve absorption.

Using a micronized creatine promotes easy mixing with fewer clumps. Be sure to increase your daily water intake while supplementing with creatine.

Is Bodytech Micronized Creatine Suitable for Beginners?

Yes, Bodytech Micronized Creatine can be safely used by beginners. Creatine is one of the most researched sports supplements, with proven safety and efficacy for almost anyone over 18 years old looking to gain muscle, strength, and performance.

Here’s why beginners can (and should) take creatine:

• Requires no “cycling” – You can supplement with creatine daily or just on workout days indefinitely.
• Quick results – Most report noticeable gains in as little as 2-4 weeks. Excellent for boosting motivation.
• Amplifies noob gains – Creatine supercharges your initial adaptations to resistance training as a novice.
• Easy to use – Simply mix and drink. No need to time intake around workouts.
• Affordable – Creatine monohydrate is one of the cheapest strength supplements available.

As long as proper dosage guidelines are followed, both men and women new to fitness can use creatine for better strength and body composition progress.

Is Bodytech Creatine Effective for Building Muscle?

Yes, adding Bodytech Micronized Creatine to your regimen can definitely help pack on lean muscle mass faster. The performance benefits of creatine directly support greater muscle growth over time.

Here’s an overview of the science on creatine for building muscle:

• A meta-analysis found creatine could increase lean body mass gains from training by up to 2.2 pounds over placebo.
• Multiple studies confirm that subjects supplementing with creatine gain significantly more muscle size compared to non-supplemented groups.
• Greater strength from creatine enables more total volume, a major driver of hypertrophy.
• Even at low doses of just 0.03 grams per kg of bodyweight, creatine still increased muscle thickness from resistance training.
• The addition of creatine to a training program amplifies the normal muscular adaptations to exercise.

For these reasons, Bodytech Micronized Creatine can aid anyone looking to build bigger, stronger muscles using resistance exercise like weightlifting. Expect faster lean mass gains!

How Does Bodytech Creatine Compare to Other Brands?

As a 100% micronized creatine monohydrate product made by a reputable supplement company, Bodytech Micronized Creatine compares very favorably to other brands:

• Uses Creapure® creatine – The premier creatine brand trusted in research for quality and purity.
• No fillers or additives – Contains only pure micronized creatine monohydrate and nothing else. No “pixie dust”.
• Micronized for better solubility – Dissolves easily and reduces any GI discomfort.
• Lab-tested for banned substances – You can be confident it’s safe and effective.
• Produced in a GMP facility – Made following FDA Good Manufacturing Practices for quality assurance.
• Cost effective – Available at around 10-20 cents per serving. Great value.
• Transparent company – Bodytech are upfront about their products and manufacturing.

Overall, Bodytech Micronized Creatine stands up very well against competitors and is a great bang-for-your-buck option costing less than fancier forms like creatine HCL or Kre-Alkalyn.

Is Bodytech Creatine Safe for Daily Use?

Yes, existing research indicates that taking Bodytech Micronized Creatine daily is perfectly safe when used appropriately by healthy individuals. Some key points:

• Hundreds of clinical trials have confirmed creatine’s safety in doses of up to 25 grams per day.
• No studies have found adverse health effects of long-term daily creatine supplementation.
• Health organizations like the International Society of Sports Nutrition consider creatine safe and ethical to use.
• Creatine has not been shown to harm the liver, kidney, or heart function in healthy individuals.
• Possible side effects like water retention and cramping are minor and manageable.

Of course, appropriate dosing is important. Consuming excessive amounts of creatine for long periods could potentially cause issues. But at normal doses of 3-5 grams per day, it’s considered very safe.

Unless you have a pre-existing medical condition or are taking medications that interact with creatine, daily use should not be an issue. Talk to your doctor first if unsure.

Does Bodytech Creatine Require a Loading Phase?

A traditional creatine loading phase involves taking around 20 grams per day (4-5 servings) for 5-7 days to rapidly saturate your muscles. This can help you experience benefits faster.

However, loading is not completely necessary – you’ll still see effects without it, but it may take a few weeks longer. Here’s a look at the pros and cons:

Potential Benefits of Loading:

• Reach optimal muscular creatine stores faster, in as little as 5-7 days rather than 4+ weeks.
• Experience enhanced strength and endurance benefits sooner.
• Greater muscle fullness and weight gain in the first week due to increased intramuscular water.

Downsides of Loading:

• Requires taking larger amounts of creatine per day, which may increase side effects like upset stomach.
• Can cause sharp initial weight gain, but this is just water, not actual muscle.
• Not using a loading phase only delays results by a few weeks, not completely.

If you want to maximize creatine uptake quickly, a loading protocol makes sense. But loading is not necessary – the standard dose of 5 grams a day will still work perfectly fine.

How Does Creatine Improve Workout Performance?

Creatine works via several mechanisms to provide an ergogenic effect that can directly improve exercise performance:

• Increased ATP regeneration – More creatine phosphate availability speeds up ATP resynthesis between sets. Enables ability to do more work.
• Anaerobic capacity boost – Shown to increase total anaerobic power and workload capacity before fatigue.
• Muscle cell hydration – Pulls more water into muscles, creating an anabolic cell swelling effect.
• Central nervous system stimulation – May stimulate CNS via increased oxidation in neurons, allowing greater strength exertion.
• Reduced fatigue – Lowers metabolite accumulation and aids general recovery between sets and sprints.

Multiple studies confirm creatine’s performance-enhancing effects across workout modalities like sprinting, powerlifting, resistance training, and more.

Even a single dose of creatine can boost maximal power output. Overloading your muscles will become easier.

How to Mix Bodytech Micronized Creatine

Thanks to its enhanced solubility from micronization, mixing Bodytech Micronized Creatine into your beverage of choice is easy:

• Use 8-12oz of water, juice, or protein shake per serving. Less liquid makes mixing tougher.
• Shake, stir, or blend vigorously for at least 30 seconds – micronized or not, creatine can still clump up if not adequately mixed.
• Adding a dash of lemon juice can help lower the pH, improving creatine’s solubility.
• Mixing in warm or hot liquids helps dissolve it faster, but this isn’t mandatory.
• Letting your creatine sit for 5-10 minutes after initial mixing then stirring again helps maximize dissolution.
• Blending into smoothies or a protein shake works great. The blender pulverizes any remaining clumps.
• Consider buying a shaker bottle or blender bottle specifically for mixing supplements like creatine.

Dissolving micronized creatine fully takes some extra effort but prevents any chunky texture when drinking.

Is Bodytech Creatine Gluten-Free?

Yes, Bodytech clearly states that their Micronized Creatine contains no gluten ingredients. It is produced in a facility that handles other gluten-containing products, so trace gluten is possible.

But because creatine monohydrate itself is naturally gluten-free, most brands will be safe for those with celiac disease or a gluten sensitivity (provided no other ingredients are added).

Some users report gastrointestinal issues with creatine, but this is not caused by gluten. It’s more likely due to:

• Poor solubility if taken with too little liquid, causing it to sit heavy in the stomach. A micronized form like Bodytech’s helps avoid this.
• High dosages during loading can overwhelm some users’ digestive systems.
• Dehydration accentuating side effects like cramping.

Of course, if you have a severe gluten allergy, it’s smart to check with the company first or look for products certified gluten-free. But overall, creatine itself does not contain gluten.

Can Creatine Help With Endurance?

While creatine is most known for boosting strength and hypertrophy, research suggests it can also improve performance in endurance and aerobic exercise.

Some key findings on creatine for endurance:

• Shown to significant improve high-intensity cycling power and performance in multiple studies.
• May enhance VO2 max and ventilatory threshold, but findings are mixed.
• Increases intracellular phosphate stores used in ATP regeneration, reducing fatigue.
• Improved swim times in competitions from creatine loading.
• Significantly increased time to exhaustion during intense treadmill running.
• Does not seem to improve performance in lower intensity endurance exercise.

So while the effects are not as notable as for strength training, Bodytech Micronized Creatine can provide modest endurance and aerobic benefits during intense bouts of running, cycling, swimming, and similar activities.

Through supporting greater power output and delaying fatigue, creatine appears useful for enhancing high-intensity endurance performance. But it may not benefit lower intensity cardio.

Is Bodytech Creatine Suitable for Vegetarians?

Yes, creatine supplementation with Bodytech Micronized Creatine is especially useful for those following a vegetarian or vegan diet.

Here’s why vegetarians can benefit from creatine supplementation even more than meat-eaters:

• Vegetarians have lower natural creatine levels from avoidance of meat. Creatine primarily comes from animal products.
• This can impair strength and muscle gains from resistance training.
• Multiple studies show vegetarian subjects experience greater boosts with creatine supplementation compared to omnivores.
• Up to a 50% increase in total muscle creatine content was seen in vegetarians after loading.
• May help reduce gap in lean mass and performance between vegetarian and omnivorous trainees.

So while anyone can benefit from creatine, the improvements may be even more pronounced for vegetarians and vegans.

What Do Customer Reviews Say?

Bodytech Micronized Creatine garners generally very positive reviews online:

• Most report it mixes easily with no clumping compared to regular creatine.
• Users mention quickly noticing increased endurance, strength, and ability to train harder.
• Several reviewers report gaining 4-10 pounds (mostly muscle and water weight) within 1-2 weeks.
• Multiple buyers say it helped break through plateaus and boosted lean mass gains.
• Some note reduced soreness and improved recovery between workouts.
• A few users experienced mild cramping or bloating initially.
• Multiple reviewers say it’s their go-to trusted creatine brand now.

Overall, the vast majority of users seem very pleased with this product and notice tangible benefits, especially when combined with a solid training program.

Can You Take It With Other Supplements?

Yes, Bodytech Micronized Creatine can be safely stacked along with most other popular sports supplements, including:

• Whey Protein – Creatine and protein are great partners, working synergistically to build muscle.
• Pre-Workouts – Creatine enhances workout capacity, while pre-workouts give you energy. Excellent stack.
• BCAAs – Branched chain amino acids reduce fatigue, complementing creatine’s ergogenic effects.
• Caffeine – Although it can potentially impair creatine uptake at super high doses, reasonable caffeine intake is fine.
• Beta-Alanine – This endurance booster works via different mechanisms than creatine, so they stack well.
• Fish Oil – The anti-inflammatory effects of fish oil support creatine’s benefits.

Of course, creatine also works great as a standalone supplement. But it generally poses no issues when combined with other common sports supplements.

When is the Best Time to Take It?

The research is somewhat mixed on whether timing has a large impact on creatine’s effectiveness. However, some guiding points for when to consume Bodytech Micronized Creatine:

• Pre-workout – Taking creatine about 30-60 minutes before training may provide an acute performance boost by saturating your cells.
• Post-workout – Spiking insulin after workouts enhances creatine uptake. Consider pairing it with protein and carbs.
• Morning – If taking once a day, the morning offers benefits – creatine levels dip overnight during sleep.
• With a meal – Eating increases insulin, which promotes absorption into muscle cells.
• Anytime – Simply using creatine consistently every day provides most of the benefits, even if timing isn’t perfect.

While immediately pre- or post-workout makes sense, the most important factors are hitting your daily dose and taking creatine consistently over time.

How Does Creatine Affect Muscle Recovery?

Through various mechanisms, creatine supplementation can enhance the muscle recovery process:

• Reduces oxidative stress and damage from intense training.
• Decreases muscle cell inflammation from exercise-induced microtears.
• May improve satellite cell proliferation needed for repairing damaged muscle fibers.
• Increases glycogen resynthesis post-workout. This restores depleted energy stores.
• Lowers levels of creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase, markers of muscle damage.
• Speeds up the removal of metabolites linked with fatigue and impaired recovery.
• Reinforces cellular hydration, promoting an anti-catabolic environment.

While results vary across studies, the majority of research demonstrates creatine does provide meaningful benefits for aiding workout recovery.

Faster recovery between workouts allows you to train harder and more frequently. This enhances progressive overload – a key driver of muscle growth.

What Does the Research Say?

Hundreds of peer-reviewed scientific studies have proven creatine’s effectiveness and safety ever since it first became popular in the 1990s.

Some of the most compelling research on creatine:

• A 1993 study by Harris et al. first demonstrated creatine supplementation could significantly increase intramuscular creatine and phosphocreatine stores. This sparked major research interest.
• Multiple studies in the 1990s found subjects taking creatine could gain more than double the amount of lean mass and strength over placebo groups with training. Early evidence of efficacy.
• A 2003 meta-analysis aggregated over 500 studies, determining creatine supplementation had a significant effect on increasing muscle mass and strength gains during training. Case closed on creatine’s benefits.
• A 5-year study by Kreider et al. confirmed the long-term safety of creatine use with no negative health effects, even at high doses. Safety concerns could be laid to rest.
• Dozens of new studies continue to re-confirm creatine’s ergogenic effects and safety profile. It is one of the most successful supplements ever studied.

The evidence supporting creatine supplementation is overwhelmingly positive. When combined with proper resistance training, it clearly works.

The Verdict: Should You Try Bodytech Micronized Creatine?

In summary, if you want to enhance muscle gains, strength, endurance, and workout performance, trying Bodytech Micronized Creatine is a smart choice with science firmly supporting its benefits.

This micronized creatine powder contains high-quality Creapure creatine at an affordable price point and with no extraneous ingredients. It dissolves easily into shakes and beverages for convenient consumption.

When taken properly and paired with regular intense training, Bodytech Micronized Creatine can help just about anyone achieve their fitness goals faster. The hundreds of positive customer reviews further demonstrate its real-world results.

So if you’ve been considering creatine supplementation for amplifying your gains, Bodytech provides an effective, micronized form from a leading supplement company.

Give their Micronized Creatine a try and be prepared for tangible improvements in your workouts, recovery, and progress. Just a daily 5 gram serving is enough to start experiencing creatine’s renowned benefits.