Effect of creatine monohydrate supplementation on anaerobic perdformance in elite male basketball players

Introduction

A lot of studies have been conducted about creatine monohydrate. It has been shown to enhance high intensity exercise performance in many but not all studies [1], [2]. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the impact of oral long - term creatine monohydrate supplementation on anaerobic power in elite basket - ball players.

Methods

12 male basketball players were matched according to age, height, weight, and percentage of body fat. They were divided into a creatine monohydrate group (CM, n=6, age= 23.5 ± .83 years, height= 189 ± 2.09 cm, weight= 86.5 ± .89 kg, percentage of body fat= 11.6 ± .90) and a placebo group (PL, n=6, age= 23.3 ± .81 years, height= 188 ± 2.22 cm, weight= 85.6 ± 1.63 kg, percentage of body fat= 11.5 ± .54). CM group ingested 25 gr/d of creatine for 7 days (loading phase) and 5 gr/d for the rest 21 days (maintenance phase), whereas the PG group ingested just sucrose using identical protocol. The criterion measures consisted of peak and mean anaerobic power along with fatigue index calculated by Wingate anaerobic test. Scores of the criterion measures were recorded before and after the 8 - week supplementation period. The student t-test for paired data was used to detect possible significant differences between test and retest scores (p<.05). All three-criterion measures have been compared -prior the loading phase- via the analysis of variance test (one way ANOVA). No significant differences were found between the two groups. Both treatment groups participated in identical periodized strength and conditioning program during the study.

Results

CM group revealed significantly greater gains in peak anaerobic power (19.3% vs. 4.1%) and in mean anaerobic power (16.9% vs. 4.9%) compared to the PL group. Further comparison between CM and PL group, indicated a significant lower value for fatigue index of Wingate anaerobic test (10.7% difference) for CM group.
Discussion / Conclusions
Long term (8-week period) oral supplementation of creatine monohydrate enhances significantly anaerobic capacity. However, findings in the literature showed that the beneficial effect of creatine on muscle function might disappear, when creatine is continuously ingested for over than two months [2]. Further research is needed to define better its acute and chronic effects on physiological performance.

References

[1]. Tarnopolsky M.A., and McLennan D.P. (2000). Int. J. Sport Nutr. Exerc. Metab., 10 (4), 452 - 463.
[2]. Theodorou A.S., Cooke C.B., King R. F., Hood C., Denison T., Wainwright B.G., Havenetidis K. (1999). J. Sports Sci., 17 (11), 853 - 859.