Can You Take Creatine Without Working Out?

Wouldn’t it be just splendid if you could pop a pill, and then on awakening the next morning find you had gained 20 pounds of muscle, and lost the same amount of body fat?

Well, unfortunately, the above does not exist, but there are many supplements that you can take that will still help you with your fitness goals and targets. Creatine, for example, is one of the most popular supplements. Creatine is also naturally occurring in the body and some of the foods that we eat. By increasing the amount of ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) we make, it helps induce muscle growth and athletic performance.

We then use ATP for energy in our muscles so, the more we make, the more difficult our muscles work. That means we gain more from our training. Besides diet though the most difficult part of getting in shape is exercise itself. It is difficult but it is also time-consuming. This begs the question, can you use creatine without exercising?

Can You Take Creatine Without Working Out?

Since we’re starting as we mean to go on, we’ll kick things off today by addressing the question of whether you can take creatine without working out or not. So, can you?

Can you use this sports supplement if you’re not in a gym or exercising and, if you take it, will you spontaneously combust?

Well, you’ll be happy to hear that you can take creatine without working out. But should you? Well, that would be a completely separate story. Creatine is the second most common sports supplement available today. It is the second most popular and top-selling protein powder on the market, coming behind only whey protein in units sold every year. So, why is creatine so popular?

Well, a lot of things, as it happens. Creatine is most especially popular in the bodybuilding world where it is used most commonly by weightlifters, strength athletes, and anyone who uses resistance training as their form of exercise. As discussed, creatine supports the body in synthesizing the energy required to fuel the muscles. The more fuel the muscles have available, the harder they can work, and the more productive your workout will be.

Creatine doesn’t increase muscle in the same way that protein does, it just enables you to train harder and more intensely. That’s nice and all, but just because creatine is meant to enhance athletic performance and allow the muscles to function harder, does that mean that you need to be a habitual gymgoer to take it, and to benefit from dust?

The simple answer is, yes.

You can, of course, take creatine and not work out. Does that mean you should?

Well, that’s a whole different question.

Well, it doesn’t mean that you can, just because you can creatine and not go train. Creatine works to make your workouts more productive, but you can’t make your workouts more productive if you don’t work. Don’t panic, we’ll go over this in greater detail a bit later.

Should I Take Creatine On Non-Training Days?

Experts state that ideally, you should be taking 3g and 5g of creatine a day. There are slightly bigger people who might require a bit more, but overall those are the figures you should be aiming towards. Many think that you should only workout days and take creatine, when in fact you should take creatine every single day to benefit, whether you train or not.

This means that regardless of whether you train 3 days a week or train 6 days a week, you should be taking creatine 7 days a week. When you train, you want a lot of creatine in your system as your muscles will consume this energy so quickly. This is why you require creatine on off days as well

The concept is that you saturate your body with loads of creatine, and when your muscle groups require the ATP that is necessary to energize the cells of your muscles, you now have optimization of the material that is needed (creatine) that can enable the body to generate greater ATP. If you trained 3 days per week, that would be 4 days a week you were getting no creatine in you whatsoever. You would therefore be at a disadvantage when it came time to go to the gym physically. So, long story short, yes, you should still take creatine, even on days you don’t train.

Is It Possible To Gain Muscle Without Training, But Using Creatine?

You are likely wondering if you can slap the supplement on and get swole and jacked without actually lifting weights. Forget the advice that fitness “influencers” on social media give you and forget what supplement companies tell you about the ease of building muscle — it is a difficult process!

If it were, we would see more people walking around with big and jacked physiques. Instead, we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. So can you load up on your preferred creatine brand, pop your suggested 3-5g a day and put on muscle?

Well, the bad news is, no. Granted, it would be pretty phenomenal to be able to simply sit back, take a supplement, and not only pack on tons of muscular size, but also be able to witness our physiques changing right in front of our very eyes, gaining more and more muscle, yet the sad reality is that this is simply not the way the human body functions.

And for your body, to perform this protein synthesis which helps us to achieve muscle hypertrophy (growth), you must stimulate the muscle fibers. We break down muscle tissue when we work out by microchips and tears in the muscle tissue. We grow muscle in that recovery phase because the body fixes and builds the muscle tissue back bigger and stronger than before.

Without breaking down the muscle there can be no rebuilding, no repairs. So if you don’t train, does this mean that creatine doesn’t work?

Not. Creatine still works and always lets the body produce more ATP than in normal amounts. There is excess energy available for the muscles, however, the cells in the muscles do not require this extra energy as they are not being utilized. The creatine has done what it has to do, it’s just a case of the muscles not being used due to the lack of training.

What Are Some Non-Sports-Related Benefits?

So, we’ve determined that you can take creatine supplements, even on rest days, it’s just that you don’t need to. But what else can creatine do, that has nothing to do with athletic performance and endurance?

So here are a few potential non-sports-related benefits you might experience provided you use creatine.

Stronger Immune System

Another benefit of taking creatine daily, even if you don’t exercise much, is that it may strengthen your immune system. Research has shown that creatine supplements possess immune-boosting properties and can strongly reinforce and improve the immune system of people who coincidentally consume them.

Why is that important?

So you can be the healthiest version of yourself. The immune system acts as a built-in defense mechanism of your body against illness and disease. If you have a weak immune system, not only are you more susceptible to getting sick more frequently but on top of that when you do fall sick, you may experience morbidities from this illness.

On the other hand, if your immune system is strong, you will be less prone to getting sick, and if you do, you will fight it off faster and get better quicker. It’s also one of the primary reasons that creatine supplements are so popular.

Improved Cognitive Function

Another potential benefit linked to creatine supplementation, one that has things to do with exercising or working out, is enhanced cognitive function. Research has suggested that creatine is good for brain health and better brain function, particularly in older populations.

Researchers discovered evidence that creatine could help improve immediate recall, heuristic and deductive problem-solving skills, and even prevent degenerative brain diseases, including Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Cardiovascular Benefits

Lastly, creatine supplements seem to offer some cardiovascular benefits. Although not promoted as a supplement that protects the heart, experts think that creatine may help provide some heart protection upon the occurrence of an ischemic event.

It may thus also benefit individuals at risk of a stroke or of an event Myocardial. It should be noted though that research is still in progress and the aforementioned cardiovascular benefits have not yet been established. The early research, though, is quite promising indeed.

Possible Drawbacks Of Taking Creatine Without Working Out

As soon as we’ve covered some of the potential benefits that come with taking creatine — even when exercising or without — that doesn’t mean this supplement comes risk-free.

While not only a completely natural supplement but perhaps one of the healthiest supplements there is today, there are still some minor issues and potential drawbacks that you will need to be mindful of, particularly if you take it without exercising.

Bloating

Bloating is one of the most common side effects of creatine supplementation. Creatine pulls water into your cells; when your cells swell and retain it, they fight back by pulling more water into them. This also means that you might get bloated because of all of the water retention.

Not only this, when you take creatine you need to mix it with water, so if you are taking two doses a day that’s an extra two glasses of water going down the hatch.

Increased Body Weight

One more potential downside of creatine supplementation without working out is that it can cause weight gain. This is again largely down to bloating and water retention but it is a factor that you will have to account for. Though this weight isn’t body fat, if you are looking to gain weight such as in preparation for some sort of competition, you can bet yourself that creatine will affect your body when it comes to this aspect, making you retain water and causing a weight gain.

Digestive Issues

Last but not least, one potential side effect of creatine supplementation is gastrointestinal discomfort. This, you may find, makes you bloated and gaseous, resulting in trapped wind, constipation, or even diarrhea (yes, creatine can make you poop!)

If this is you, perhaps it would make sense to split your dosages in half and have them twice a day. Instead of 5g in one go, you could do 2.5g twice instead.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Taking Creatine Without Working Out:

Final Thoughts

Alright, that wraps this up on whether can you take creatine without working out.

So indeed you can use creatine without any workouts but need no reason to do that. Creatine is a supplement that is supposed to allow you to train harder in the gym, if you’re not training, then there is no point.

If you think for one second that simply taking creatine and building muscle is going to have you packing on pounds without moving a muscle, then you’ll be sadly mistaken.