This Changed What I Thought About Building Muscle After 45
A new study came out this week that I think is worth your time, especially if you're over 40 or 50 and starting to think about how to hang on to your muscle.
Nobody found a way to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger by laying on the couch. But researchers did find that middle-aged adults gained lean tissue and got stronger without following any exercise program at all. The only thing they changed was taking creatine.
Yes, the same white powder that's been sitting next to the huge tubs protein at the gym for decades now. I'm starting to think most of us have had creatine all wrong.
Not Just for Bodybuilders
For a long time, creatine was something for 22-year-old guys trying to up their bench press. I was one of them. I remember when people talked about it like it was one step away from steroids. (It wasn’t 😂) Then, it was going to wreck your kidneys, dehydrate you, give you cramps, and bloat you up with water.
Well, that hasn’t held up at all. Creatine is now one of the most heavily studied supplements out there, and the research has moved well past the weight room into aging, brain function, muscle preservation, and keeping lean mass while you lose weight. This new study fits right into that.
What the Researchers Did
They followed adults between the ages of 45 and 65 for 12 weeks, and 64 people finished the study. Some were in an exercise and weight-loss program and some did no exercise. Within each group, people got either a placebo or 10 grams of creatine monohydrate a day, taken as two 5-gram doses.
The creatine group that didn't exercise gained about 2.4 pounds of lean tissue over those 12 weeks. It wasn't just a number on a body scan, either. Their bench press went up, their leg press went up, and their muscular endurance improved, all without a workout. I didn't expect that.
So Can You Toss the Dumbbells?
No. Exercise still came out on top.
The people who combined creatine with resistance training, cardio, and a good diet did better. They gained close to three pounds of lean tissue, lost body fat, and got stronger and more durable along the way. That's about what I'd have guessed.
Creatine isn't a replacement for lifting. But, what this study suggests is that it may be doing A LOT more on its own than we gave it credit for, and that matters a lot more at 50 or 60 than it does at 25.
Why Muscle Matters More as You Age
At 25, losing a little muscle isn't even on your radar. At 50, I look at it completely different.
Now, muscle decides whether you can get up off the floor, carry your own groceries, and handle the stairs. Most importantly, at least to me, it decides how long you can stay independent. Muscle is also one of the main places your body sends glucose, so holding on to muscle helps you handle carbs better and keeps your metabolism healthier.
After middle age, the default is to lose muscle unless you're actively working to keep it. That means strength training of some type, eating enough protein, sleeping well, staying active, and maybe making sure your muscles have enough creatine to work with.
Why Would Creatine Do This?
Your muscles run on ATP. Just think of that as the small energy packets your cells spend every time they do work. Creatine helps your body rebuild ATP quickly through the phosphocreatine system. That's why it helps you get an extra rep or hold your power during short, hard efforts, and over time more work can mean more muscle.
That's the usual explanation, but it doesn't account for the non-exercisers in this study. There are a few possibilities, including more water inside the muscle cells and other changes within the muscle itself.
Now, lean tissue on a DXA scan isn't the same as new muscle protein. Creatine pulls water into muscle cells, so some of that 2.4 pounds could be water. But if that was only water, how did they also got stronger? I don’t think they could.
Pay Attention to the Dose
The first thing I noticed was the amount. It wasn't the 2 or 3 grams you sometimes see, and it wasn't the standard 5, like I recommend. They used 10 grams a day, 5 grams in the morning and 5 grams later on in the day.
That doesn't mean everybody needs 10 grams. Five grams a day still has decades of research behind it. But if someone brings this study up to you, keep that detail in mind. You can't change the dose and still claim you're talking about the same experiment.
My Bottom Line
If you're 25 and chasing another 20 pounds on your bench press, creatine makes sense. If you're 50 and want to still be strong at 70, I'd argue it makes even more sense.
Lift weights, eat real food, get plenty of good protein, walk, and keep your blood sugar in check. And don't overlook one of the cheapest, most-studied supplements on the shelf.
I've talked about creatine plenty before, and that’s why we have Inner Strength, because it’s something I take myself, every day. It's not flashy. Honestly, it's about as boring as supplements get, and it's been around forever. But a lot of times the boring stuff is what actually works.
If future studies back this up and show creatine can help us keep or even build lean tissue as we age, even when our workouts aren't perfect, that's a much bigger deal than a few extra pounds on the bench. It could help people stay strong longer, and at 50, that's the benefit I care about most.
I put 2 videos I made about creatine that you may be interested in down below if you missed them. The first video is The Creatine Truth Women Aren't Being Told and the second one is Why I LOVE Creatine (it's not for my muscles). If you missed my video about the Mediterranean Diet deception, I added a link to it too. Also, our Primal Nutrition Inner Strength is a premium Creatine monohydrate with no fillers or junk ingredients. You can find it HERE and use code SOUTHERNKETO at checkout for an additional 10% off
Stay healthy,
Victor
Primal Nutrition / Southern Keto
P.S.
If you need to upgrade your healthy diet to the next level, all you need isrightHEREUse code SOUTHERNKETO at checkout for an additional 10% off
Let’s make this your healthiest chapter yet.
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