You've heard that creatine works. But does it matter when you take it? A new randomized crossover pilot trial in Nutrients put that question to the test, and the pre-workout dose came out on top. Before you rearrange your supplement routine, read the fine print: this is a tiny, single-dose study.
The Big Finding: Pre-Workout Creatine Lifted More
Researchers led by Ben Maaoui compared creatine taken before, during, or after a resistance session against a placebo and a no-supplement control. The study is titled "Acute Creatine Ingestion Before Resistance Training Enhances Strength Performance More than Ingestion During or After Training: A Randomized Crossover Pilot Trial."
The headline numbers from the abstract:
- Bench press: significant effect of condition (F = 4.91, ηp² = 0.33, p = 0.035)
- Back squat: significant effect of condition (F = 33.22, ηp² = 0.77, p < 0.001)
- In both lifts, performance was greater with pre-exercise creatine (CrB) than with placebo or control (p < 0.05)
Performance was measured as the total external load lifted (kg) across six sets at 80% of 1-RM for each exercise. The authors conclude that pre-exercise creatine was associated with greater acute strength performance than the other timing conditions. The abstract reports the post hoc comparisons against placebo and control explicitly, so those are the firmest numbers to quote.
The Exact Dose and Timing From the Paper
The protocol was simple:
- Dose: 0.1 g per kg of body mass of creatine monohydrate (or placebo)
- Timing that won: before the strength session
- Loading phase: none. The authors describe pre-exercise ingestion "without loading phase."
That 0.1 g/kg works out to roughly 8 g for an 80 kg (176 lb) person. That figure is our arithmetic, not a number from the paper. The abstract doesn't say how many minutes before training the pre-exercise dose was taken, so check the full text before copying the protocol to the minute.
What the Study Design Looked Like
Eleven physically active men (average age 26.09 ± 4.39 years) completed five conditions in a randomized, placebo-controlled crossover format:
- Creatine before exercise (CrB)
- Creatine during exercise (CrD)
- Creatine after exercise (CrF)
- Placebo (PL)
- No-supplement control
Each person served as their own comparison, which helps in a small sample. Every condition included a standardized session of bench press and back squat.
What Didn't Change
It's easy to oversell a result like this, so here is what the abstract says did not differ across conditions:
- Countermovement jump performance
- Cognitive performance (digit cancelation test)
- Mood (POMS)
- Perceived exertion (RPE)
- Perceived recovery (PRS)
- Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)
- The remaining biochemical markers
So the benefit was specific to the loaded strength work. There was no sign of a jump, brain, mood, or soreness effect.
The Blood Marker Wrinkles
Two markers did shift:
- Creatine kinase (a muscle damage marker) was higher in the post-exercise creatine condition than in control (p = 0.013) and placebo (p = 0.041).
- Creatinine was lower in the pre-exercise condition than in during-exercise (p = 0.033), post-exercise (p = 0.003), and control (p = 0.021).
The abstract doesn't say what these shifts mean, and we shouldn't invent a story for them. They were measured after a single session, so treat them as curiosities for follow-up research, not as evidence of harm or benefit.
Practical Takeaways
Who this might be relevant for: Physically active, resistance-trained-style lifters who already use creatine monohydrate or are considering it. If you're deciding when to take your daily scoop, this is a small data point in favor of taking it before training. Pre-workout is also an easy habit to build.
Who should be cautious or skip it:
- Anyone with kidney disease or renal concerns. The study tracked creatinine and other renal markers, but an 11-person acute trial can't establish safety for people with medical conditions. Talk to a clinician first.
- Women, older adults, and adolescents. The participants were all young, active men, so the findings can't be assumed to apply to other groups.
- People hoping for a jump, mood, or soreness benefit. None showed up here.
The Catch: Small, Acute, and Exploratory
The authors say plainly that the findings are exploratory and need to be confirmed "with a higher sample size and robust placebo/control structures." Key limitations:
- Only 11 participants. The word "pilot" is in the title for a reason.
- Single-dose, acute design. The study asked what happens in one session after one dose. It did not test weeks of daily supplementation, which is how creatine is normally used.
- Short-term performance only. There were no long-term strength, muscle, or body composition outcomes.
- Placebo and control structure. The authors themselves call for stronger versions in future work.
There's also a conceptual caveat. Creatine's well-established benefits come from raising muscle stores over time through consistent intake. An acute pre-workout boost is a separate and more surprising claim, which is exactly why it needs replication before anyone treats it as settled.
Bottom Line
In this pilot, 0.1 g/kg of creatine monohydrate taken before a heavy session was associated with more total load lifted in the bench press and back squat than placebo or no supplement. Taking it during or after training didn't show the same advantage. If you already take creatine, moving your dose to before training is low-risk and consistent with this early finding. But it's a hypothesis-generating result from 11 men and one dose, not a new rule of lifting.
Source: Maaoui B, et al. "Acute Creatine Ingestion Before Resistance Training Enhances Strength Performance More than Ingestion During or After Training: A Randomized Crossover Pilot Trial." Nutrients. DOI: 10.3390/nu18111789. PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42280432/
