Creatine Works Even When You Can't Breathe: Freediver Trial Shows
Creatine is famous for helping you lift heavier and sprint harder, but can it help when you are not breathing at all? A new double-blind trial in trained freedivers found that a 7-day loading phase of 20 g/day boosted total work and time to exhaustion on a breath-hold cycling test. Strangely, blood lactate ended up lower in the creatine group than in placebo despite the better performance. Here is what the study did, who might benefit, and why a sample of just 20 divers means you should keep your expectations in check.
This Carnitine Form Lifted Sprint Power Up to 15% and Cut Lactate
A 2009 crossover study found that a single 4.5 g dose of glycine propionyl-L-carnitine (GPLC) lifted peak and mean sprint power by 2.6% to 15% across five all-out cycling bouts. Blood lactate was also 16.2% lower 14 minutes after exercise. But the "15%" is the top of a range, not an average, and the study involved just 24 men in one lab. This article breaks down how GPLC differs from regular L-carnitine and ALCAR, where the nitric oxide theory fits, and who might actually benefit. It also covers dose, timing and the limits of the evidence.