Getting into the creatine market we didn’t want to just pump out your same generic blends with the same generic ingredients. Most blends rarely seem to deliver much more than regular old creatine but we wanted to deliver a blend to our Fanatyx that would restore their faith in this particular category. Creatine blends have a lot of potential & if you give us a shot we’re going to show you just how far they can take your performance. Creatine Monohydrate: Regardless of your particular sport you’ve likely already heard of creatine at some point. It’s the one supplement everyone seems to know but unfortunately few seem to have a solid of understanding of what it is & what it does. Its benefits to exercise performance has been so deeply researched & so greatly supported by the athletic community that to not use it would be crazy.A quick summary for those less experienced with creatine: Creatine monohydrate functions by increasing intracellular creatine stores (1). Creatine phosphate is a key member in the production of ATP, which is one of the main forms of energy utilized in the body. During intense exercise as ATP becomes used & converted to ADP creatine phosphate can donate its phosphate group returning it to ATP to be reutilized (5). The effect is most strongly pronounced during short bouts of power such as sprinting, weight lifting, or various other high impact sports. The impact of creatine on cell volume is more important than most tend to underst&. A larger cell has more surface area & optimizes cellular life, & greatly improves cellular functions like glycogen uptake (2). Increased glycogen uptake to skeletal muscle is preferential for any athlete as it will undoubtedly lead to enhanced performance. In addition, the increased cell volume & creatine stores promote greater performance & training adaptations, effectively enhancing every workout (3). Creatine Monohydrate Overview: Increases in cell volume (1) Increases in fat free mass (4) Improves exercise performance (3) Increase in skeletal muscle glycogen uptake capacity (2) Improve recovery time (5) Magnesium Creatine Chelate: Why two different sources of creatine, wouldn’t they all have the same effect? The answer is a confusing yes & no. Creatine Monohydrate is a nice cheap source of creatine that delivers the results as promised of creatine. However many people can find GI distress with higher doses of creatine monohydrate & to get creatines effects you need to make sure you’re dosing enough to saturate creatine phosphate stores. The effect takes time & results will be subtle to non-existent in non responders or people dosing too little. This is where Magnesium Creatine Chelate, more commonly referenced as MCC, comes in to play. Anecdotal reports suggest MCC doesn’t produce the same GI distress more commonly noticed with creatine monohydrate. MCC also appears to be a superior creatine form in regards to overall effects.A study was done comparing magnesium creatine chelate supplementation to magnesium oxide & creatine supplementation. Both protocols produced similar significant increases in power compared to placebo with significant increases in peak torque & great increases in work capacity from the MCC group. The magnesium creatine chelate group had some surprisingly significant effects compared to magnesium oxide & creatine supplementation group (6). The researchers also measured the effects both groups had on water composition of the body including intracellular, extracellular & total body water retention. It was found that only the magnesium creatine chelate group had a significant increase in intracellular water retention & significant decrease in extracellular water retention & researchers attributed this to a better uptake of creatine (6). This is the volumizing effect of the cell we are looking for with creatine that will also produce significant improves in how your physique looks as muscle bellies expand with water. Beyond the effects of the creatine, MCC also supplies a significant amount of magnesium. Magnesium is important for a host of biological functions including energy production & exercise has the potential to reduce magnesium status in athletes (7). ATP production from myokinase & creatine kinase reactions require magnesium (6). However few studies have produced the favorable direct results on exercise performance that are sought with solely magnesium supplementation. Regardless it is an important mineral & from an overall health perspective it’s nice to know MCC is helping to maintain optimal magnesium status. Magnesium Creatine Chelate Overview: Improvements in exercise performance greater than that of general creatine monohydrate supplementation Greater increases in intracellular body water Helps maintain optimal magnesium status Let’s not forget it should also add to all the effects of general creatine monohydrate supplementation with enhancements in a few areas. Why use both? We wanted a cost effective creatine that gave an extra kick you’re looking for with Genomyx. Orotic Acid This lesser known compound has a variety of benefits to enhancing exercise performance but most commonly referenced are its various impacts on ATP pools. ATP (adenosine- triphosphate ) is an important substrate in energy utilization in humans & other animals & is rapidly depleted by intense exercise (8). Orotic acid enhances ATP pools through varying mechanisms, but more commonly noted are its ability to increase levels of the nucleosides uridine & cytidine. Uridine is capable of increasing myocardial ATP through anaerobic glycolysis (9). Through abilities to increase hepatic release pyrimidine nucleosides, orotic acid can be cardio-protective by preventing the depletion of adenine nucleotides in infarcted hearts (10). Increases in uridine should also correlate to increases in muscular uptake of glucose, glycolysis, & myocardial performance under normal & hypoxic conditions (13). More simply put, orotic acid has the potential to increase ATP pools under stressful conditions such as exercise & can enhance performance. Another plausible mechanism for orotic acid’s benefits to exercise is its ability to increase the formation of beta-alanine (11). Beta-alanine is well known for its benefits to increase muscular carnosine stores & boost athletic performance during endurance exercise (12). Orotic Acid Review: Increases ATP pools Cardioprotective Enhances muscular glycogen stores through increased uptake Increases beta-alanine formation Astragalus Membranaceus From here on out we’ll just refer to this herb as Astra. It’s one of the 50 fundamental herbs of traditional Chinese medicine & has many promising effects on the body for athletes its absurd. It is studied widely for its immune system strengthening qualities which is an area where athletes can suppress their own abilities to fight of illness (14). Astra has been studied in many rodent models to show it can help promote immune function (15) but it’s also proved its worth in bigger trials. In an open clinical trial 115 patients with leukopenia received either a high dose or low dose Astra preparation. Leukopenia is a disease in which an individual has a low white blood cell count leaving them more vulnerable to infection. In both dosing groups Astra significantly elevated white blood cell count substantially boosting their immune function (16). Healthy in more ways than one Astra is also excellent for cellular & mitochondrial health. Mitochondrial health specifically is a key factor for health & longevity & athletes who train strenuously may overwhelm their own bodies mechanisms for protecting them (17). Lipid peroxidation being a key damaging factor to the mitochondrial membrane fluidity (18) can be greatly inhibited by Astra (20). The heart is especially vulnerable to this damaging process making Astra an excellent add to any individual looking to not only build a better physique but a healthier one as well (19). It makes us healthier, cool but how much is that really going to do for me? Fret not Fanatyx because Astra’s been field tested as well for actual performance enhancing qualities & looking at the science it’s going to do a lot for you. Animal models have shown Astra to significantly reduce symptoms of lethargy & weakness in chronically fatiguing trials where the animals were over worked & underfed (21). This is a situation not that unfamiliar with athletes who can be overzealous with their training & often go too far to recover. For this reason competitive body builders & physique athletes will greatly appreciate what Astra does for them as they train for many weeks on hypocaloric diets to get into peak condition for competitions. Will I notice that in the gym, what if I’m eating plenty & go to bed on time, will it really do much? Actually yes, Astra has been shown in animal models using rodents & forced swimming trials that it can significantly extend swimming time & enhance endurance capacity (22). It also slows blood lactate accumulation & reduces serum BUN levels post exercise. Elevated BUN (blood urea nitrogen) levels can cause symptoms of lethargy so using Astra can reduce that post workout fatigue you might be accustomed to. It’s shown to be cardio protective in vivo in rodent models through its antioxidative & nitric oxide inducing properties (23). Astragalus Membranaceus Review: Protective of athletes immune function Protective of cellular & mitochondrial health Cardioprotective Fights chronic fatigue symptoms Enhances endurance capacity Positively modulates BUN levels after exercise CREignite Overview: Now you can see how this isn’t your generic run of the mill creatine blend, it’s going to impact multiple areas of your training abilities. With creignite you’ll see PR’s not only on your one rep max but also great increases in athletic performance & endurance capacity over all. It’s a creatine blend taken to the next level so we can give any athlete that edge their looking for. Creignite Total Mechanism of Action: Increases ATP pools enhancing performance capacity Cardioprotective Enhances muscular glycogen stores through increased uptake Increases beta-alanine formation Protective of athletes immune function Protective of cellular & mitochondrial health Fights chronic fatigue symptoms Enhances endurance capacity Positively modulates BUN levels after exercise Increases in cell volume Increases in fat free mass Improves exercise performance Increase in skeletal muscle glycogen uptake capacity Improve recovery time Improvements in exercise performance greater than that of general creatine monohydrate supplementation Greater increases in intracellular body water Helps maintain optimal magnesium status