Creatine is one of the most studied and popular ergogenic aids for athletes and recreational weightlifters seeking to improve sport and exercise performance, augment exercise training adaptations, and mitigate recovery time. Studies consistently reveal that creatine supplementation exerts positive ergogenic effects on single and multiple bouts of short-duration, high-intensity exercise activities, in addition to potentiating exercise training adaptations. In this respect, supplementation consistently demonstrates the ability to enlarge the pool of intracellular creatine, leading to an amplification of the cell’s ability to resynthesize adenosine triphosphate. This intracellular expansion is associated with several performance outcomes, including increases in maximal strength (low-speed strength), maximal work output, power production (high-speed strength), sprint performance, and fat-free mass. Additionally, creatine supplementation may speed up recovery time between bouts of intense exercise by mitigating muscle damage and promoting the faster recovery of lost force-production potential. Conversely, contradictory findings exist in the literature regarding the potential ergogenic benefits of creatine during intermittent and continuous endurance-type exercise, as well as in those athletic tasks where an increase in body mass may hinder enhanced performance. The purpose of this review was to summarize the existing literature surrounding the efficacy of creatine supplementation on exercise and sports performance, along with recovery factors in healthy populations.

The purpose of this review was to summarize the acute cardiovascular responses of healthy young and older adults to resistance exercise and to review studies that have compared healthy younger and older populations. Intensity, duration, and active muscle mass are known to play important roles in the degree of pressor response elicited during resistance exercise in both young and older participants. Systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure as well as heart rate rise in response to resistance exercise. Stroke volume generally remains unchanged but may significantly decrease with greater exercise intensity and active muscle mass. Cardiovascular variables such as cardiac output, rate-pressure product, and oxygen consumption increase comparably in the 2 groups. Also, total peripheral resistance may increase or decrease based on involved muscle mass and resistance type. Findings from this review suggest that acute cardiovascular responses to resistance exercise are similar in healthy young and older adults. This supports the inclusion of resistance exercise as part of an overall fitness program designed for healthy older adults.

No abstract