A few years back, creatine nitrate was nothing more than a curious addition to Cellucor’s C4 pre workout.
Now, we’re seeing a lot more creatine nitrate floating around, heck, even standalone creatine nitrate products now exist.
This has likely got you wondering: what is creatine nitrate and is it even any good?
What is creatine nitrate?
Creatine nitrate is most simply described as creatine bonded to a nitrate group as examine.com explains.
The advantage of creatine nitrate over creatine monohydrate is that nitrate appears to dissolve up to 10 times more effectively than monohydrate.
Upon supplementation, that means more creatine will make it into your blood stream versus other forms. Well, ideally.
What’s special about creatine nitrate?
After you take creatine nitrate, the creatine molecules and nitrate molecules separate.
This leaves free-form creatine to enter muscle cells and do its thing, while nitrate does it’s thing.
What do nitrates do?
Supplemental nitrate is most commonly used for increasing nitric oxide levels.
The result of nitrate supplementation is a reduction in oxygen requirement during exercise (1) (2).
What that means is, nitrate supplements increase endurance by expanding your veins and reducing blood pressure allowing for oxygen to be utilized more effectively (3).
Here is what supplementing with creatine nitrate does:
The above information suggests that by taking creatine nitrate, you will get each components unique effect.
That is:
- Increase strength
- Increase endurance
As research suggests, you likely will.
Increased bench press
Athletes supplementing with creatine nitrate for 28 days increased their bench press, average power, and peak power in comparison to placebo (4).
Increase leg press
Study participants taking 3 and 6 grams of creatine nitrate significantly increased their leg and bench press strength post recovery compared to placebo (5) though cycling endurance was not improved.
Results comparable to creatine monohydrate
In comparison to 3 grams creatine monohydrate supplementation, athletes receiving 3 grams creatine nitrate displayed the same strength improvements (6). However, this is a small dosage for creatine monohydrate.
The FDA’s stance on creatine nitrate supplements:
In 2017, the FDA changed its stance to allow creatine nitrate to be used in sports supplements. You can view the explanation here.
Overall, the studies cited above all indicate creatine nitrate supplementation to be safe, though more research is needed (7).
The BWSB stance on creatine nitrate compared to other creatine forms
Creatine nitrate’s dual purpose as both a strength enhancer and nitric oxide creator makes this a fantastic pre-workout ingredient.
Perhaps in the future, creatine nitrate will begin to phase out creatine HCL usage.
There is simply no competition.
Creatine monohydrate is not only backed by more clinical studies than any other form, but it’s also the form that has given us the best results.
Compared to creatine hydrochloride, creatine glycerol phosphate, and free-acid creatine…. Monohydrate has always brought the x-factor we need.
However if your new pre-workout contains it, it’s all good. Simply give it a smirk and a nod, and see how this form of creatine treats you while you lift. Perhaps in the future, a valid and truly comparable dosage will be determined to match monohydrate results.
Final Verdict
Creatine nitrate has yet to be truly proven or disproven.
Unlike many ingredients, creatine nitrate doesn’t have any negative studies against it. This is a huge plus.
However we still don’t know how much to take, and exactly how it compares to taking good old monohydrate.
Background on our opinion:
Besides the creatine nitrate found in Cellucor’s pre workout C4, we haven’t individually taken this ingredient on its own at valid dosages. After all, it’s still pretty new.
Though we plan to begin exploring creatine nitrate further by reviewing (ordered on 11/5/2018):
- APS Creatine Nitrate
- Cellucor CN3 Creatine Nitrate
After we get a better feel for this ingredient, we’ll come back and give you the update with our in-depth experience.
Though as of now, we can’t validate you spending your hard earned money to ‘see how it goes’. Why do that, when creatine monohydrate is a sure thing?
Let us test it out, first.
If you’ve taken stand-alone creatine nitrate, please leave your feedback below on how it compares to other popular forms.
