Creatine Monohydrate vs. Other Forms: Which Is Really Superior?

Sometimes having several options to choose from can be a curse, and for some people, that’s what the process of choosing between creatine supplements has transformed into. Not too long ago, there was simply one form of creatine on the market: creatine monohydrate. 

Since then, the market for dietary supplements has exploded, advances in the science of sports nutrition have been made, and now there are hundreds of supplement manufacturers that have brought forth a plethora of designer creatine supplements.

Each of these creatine supplements is advertised to possess a unique trait that makes it simpler for your body to process creatine, or further enhances your body’s athletic performance. But do these different types of creatine really offer additional value that boosts your muscle performance in some way, or are they just fancy combinations of natural compounds that don’t add any real value?

We’re going to cut to the chase and give you the straightforward truth so that you can select the right creatine for your circumstances and body type.

What Is Creatine & How Does It Work?

There’s a reason that creatine supplementation is practically universal amongst all serious athletes. The International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand on creatine supplementation is that creatine monohydrate “is the most effective ergogenic nutritional supplement currently available to athletes in terms of increasing high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass during training.”

That’s as uncomplicated and credible as endorsements get in the world of sports nutrition. So what exactly is it that makes the act of taking creatine an absolute requirement for achieving peak athletic performance and sports health?

The Science of Creatine Storage

Creatine supplementation is truly about hacking your body’s energy production potential by capitalizing on your ability to store a greater quantity of three vital amino acids than you could ever hope to acquire through non-supplemental means.

Creatine is formed naturally by the three amino acids glycine, arginine, and S-adenosyl methionine. These are attainable in substantial amounts in red meat and some types of fish, but they are far more easily acquired when consumed in a complete, supplemental form, at which point creatine is stored in your skeletal muscle as creatine phosphate. 

Once you begin to engage in an activity requiring serious energy production, your muscle creatine content leaps into action to perform a number of functions that are beneficial both during and after your fitness-focused exertions.

The Science of Creatine Performance

Your body’s stored form of energy for short bursts is adenosine triphosphate, more commonly simplified to ATP. The work of ATP is most commonly observable during explosive activities that require rapid muscle contraction. 

During the sort of sports performance that requires intense muscle activity — like sprinting — creatine extends the length of time under which your body relies on its ATP-phosphocreatine system. For sprint athletes, this can ultimately result in a further two seconds of all-out activity before their bodies begin to noticeably tire, which can amount to the entire difference between winning and losing in an all-out race.

Over the course of weight lifting or heavy resistance training, creatine increases and intensifies muscle contraction, making it easier for you to lift heavy weights. Alternatively, during endurance sports and other types of sports performance that don’t require an all-out effort, creatine acts as a buffer between energy systems, and enhances durability. 

The Science of Creatine Recovery

Beyond its ability to directly improve exercise performance, creatine is most famous in bodybuilding circles for its ability to enhance muscle growth. This is accomplished through multiple methods, but it still starts with creatine’s ability to maximize your performance potential.

On the front end, creatine supplementation is associated with increased muscle activity, prompting a greater degree of muscle fiber breakdown during exercise. On the back end, creatine expedites the repair process for muscle tissue, repairing it more completely, bringing about a desirable sort of weight gain, maximizing the quality of your body composition, and promptly preparing them for additional bouts of peak performance.

Simply put, creatine supplementation amplifies sports performance on the front end, and optimizes your body’s repair and recovery process on the back end, resulting in the creation of a higher quantity of muscle mass, and a more desirable body composition in terms of your muscle-mass-to-fat-mass ratio.

Creatine Monohydrate: The Gold Standard

Without a doubt, creatine monohydrate is the form of creatine that all other types of creatine are measured against. It is the most tested supplement in history, and there is scientific evidence that it can improve everything from lean muscle mass and muscle strength to body composition and brain health.

The tried-and-true method for creatine monohydrate supplementation begins with a loading phase that requires you to take 20-25 grams of creatine each day for five to seven days, followed by daily maintenance doses of 5 grams of creatine.

Ordinary creatine monohydrate arrives in a powdered form, and millions of training enthusiasts and athletes have grown accustomed to the process of scooping creatine powder into their favorite beverages either before, during, or after their workouts. 

The timing of the supplementation is dependent upon precisely which benefits the user is hoping to derive from creatine monohydrate supplementation, of which there are many.

Other Forms of Creatine: What Do They Do?

Creatine monohydrate supplements might be perfectly predictable in terms of how they function within human muscle cells, but some of its traits — like a gritty texture, or a lack of easy digestibility within the bodies of some people — have spawned the search for creatine supplements that are more agreeable to certain people’s palates and stomachs.

What’s more, there’s also the lingering belief that regular creatine monohydrate can’t possibly be perfect in its most basic form, and that the naturally occurring compound can be further improved upon to make it even more advantageous to exercise performance and further accelerate muscle recovery. In essence, each of these alternative types of creatine is jockeying for position to be considered the right creatine for you.

With this in mind, here are some of the most popular types of creatine supplements other than creatine monohydrate, along with the advantage that each version of specialized creatine is intended to confer upon its user.

Micronized Creatine 

Of all the alternative forms of creatine, micronized creatine is the most easily understood. This is because it is functionally identical to monohydrate, except it consists of smaller particles. 

The intent behind the smaller particles is to improve absorption of creatine into water. While this isn’t intended to confer any benefits to physical performance over and above other forms of creatine, it is designed to boost absorption into beverages, and minimize the stomach cramping or muscle cramping that plagues a small percentage of people who are uniquely sensitive to creatine.

Creatine Hydrochloride (HCL)

Also known as creatine HCL, hydrochloride creatine is the combination of creatine monohydrate and a salt — hydrochloride — that is frequently included with other medications and supplements.

When mixed with hydrochloride, creatine is intended to be more absorbent, just like the wide variety of drugs that are blended with hydrochloride for medicinal use.

Creatine Ethyl Ester 

Creatine ethyl ester was designed to increase muscle creatine levels by bonding creatine with esters, which are used to increase the bioavailability of prescription drugs. 

Therefore, the theory is that the combination of creatine with an ester will enable you to rapidly and more thoroughly absorb creatine into your muscles, enabling you to capitalize on its upgrades more rapidly and efficiently.

Buffered Creatine (Kre-Alkalyn) 

You need to be careful when referencing the buffered form of creatine, because two different types of creatine can be referred to as buffered. In this case, we’re referring to Kre-Alkalyn, which is engineered to deliver creatine to your system at a high pH level. 

In this case, buffered creatine is administered to your body in a fashion that helps it to remain alkaline rather than acidic. By doing so, this variety of creatine is marketed creatine that doesn’t break down into creatinine as rapidly as other types of creatine, thereby enabling you to take smaller doses while also foregoing a loading phase.

Creatine Magnesium Chelate

Known as a different form of buffered creatine monohydrate, creatine magnesium chelate is simply ordinary creatine that has been bonded to magnesium, thereby tying the creatine to a supplement that has enormous benefits with respect to muscle function.

In addition to the proposed synergistic effect of taking creatine simultaneously to a supplement that improves muscle function, the fact that both are stored within skeletal muscle supposes that the presence of magnesium will improve and hasten the uptake of creatine into your muscle tissue.

Creatine Nitrate

While taking creatine supplements is most commonly encouraged after a workout, creatine nitrate is the form of creatine that is most often advised to be taken as a pre-workout option, and this is not just because the nitrate has the ability to help creatine dissolve more readily in water.

Rather, it is because the creatine molecule is now bonded with a nitrate molecule, and nitrate has greater short-term potential to improve exercise performance due to the ability of nitric oxide to boost blood flow. Therefore, the nitrate boosts blood flow, and rushes creatine to the muscles more quickly, theoretically accelerating both athletic performance and increases of muscle creatine levels.  

Liquid Creatine 

The liquid form of creatine is essentially what it sounds like. It is a pre-dissolved form of creatine that usually arrives in single-dose bottles, or large bottles, and can be consumed directly, or mixed with some other beverage.

Liquid creatine is intended to simplify the process of taking creatine for people who don’t want to bother with mixing it. From a convenience standpoint, it is probably the most easily adopted method of creatine supplementation there is.

Creatine Citrate

Citrate is another way of referring to citric acid. On its own, citrate is often used to elevate the alkalinity of blood, leaving behind a body that is more energetic, and more capable of digesting and processing food with efficiency.

With this in mind, creatine citrate is the union of creatine with citric acid with the intent of rendering your body more capable of efficiently capitalizing on creatine’s presence without any of the waste that accompanies inserting creatine into an acidic environment.

Comparing Effectiveness: Creatine Monohydrate Vs. Other Forms of Creatine

As far as the advertisements are concerned, all the other types of creatine supplements appear to have some serious advantages over creatine monohydrate, but do these alternate creatine forms really confer advantages that make them worth your while, or potentially worth paying a steeper price tag?

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Micronized Creatine 

Of all the comparisons of creatine monohydrate with other forms of creatine, the comparison with micronized creatine is the simplest to process. This is because micronized creatine is simply ordinary creatine with a smaller particle size. 

The benefit to you is that you’ll be consuming a form of creatine that mixes with water more easily. Aside from this, there is no difference between micronized creatine and traditional creatine, and that means that the benefits to you are identical once it enters your body.

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Hydrochloride (HCL)

The presumed advantage to creatine hydrochloride is that your body will absorb it more easily, and thereby reap greater physical advantages. Despite these assumptions, the results are inconclusive where they matter the most.

This isn’t to say that creatine hydrochloride isn’t helpful. However, in randomized clinical trials comparing participants ranging in ages from 18-25 who trained and took supplements for eight weeks, creatine HCL’s advantages were functionally identical to those of regular creatine. (1)

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Ethyl Ester

While creatine ethyl ester supplementation is supposed to be linked with greater creatine absorption and a commensurate benefit increase, this has actually been debunked by scientific research.

During a comparative study in which 30 randomly assigned males underwent seven weeks of supplementation and physical training, participants who took creatine ethyl ester actually experienced lower muscle creatine levels, and lower values of muscle growth and strength in comparison with those who supplemented with ordinary creatine. (2)

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Buffered Creatine

While buffered creatine monohydrate is supposed to confer greater benefits to your body than the standard form — owing to the buffered form being a more alkaline powder that improves absorption and uptake — the results suggest otherwise.

In a double-blind study involving resistance trained individuals, buffered creatine was not as effective as standard creatine across any of the major markers of judging creatine’s effectiveness, including body composition, strength, or anaerobic capacity. (3)

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Magnesium Chelate

Limited research has been conducted with creatine magnesium chelate, but the results have been promising. In a study of trained soccer players, those who supplemented with creatine magnesium chelate demonstrated significantly higher repeated sprint ability than the placebo group. (4)

Despite this finding, thus far there have been no study results to suggest that creatine magnesium chelate is more advantageous to physical performance than ordinary creatine.

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Nitrate

Even though it is positioned as a sort of pre-workout creatine, creatine nitrate has interestingly been included in studies that have demonstrated its ability to amplify the ability of caffeine to improve cognitive function. Aside from this, the few studies involving creatine nitrate have demonstrated it to be essentially as beneficial as regular creatine.

A study involving a placebo group, high- and low-dose creatine nitrate recipient groups, and a creatine monohydrate group, all of the creatine supplemented groups improved their bench press performance measures, with similar results amongst the high-dose creatine nitrate and creatine monohydrate groups. (5)

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Liquid Creatine

In its liquid form, creatine may be easier to imbibe, but with that digestive ease come some downgrades to the quality of the creatine itself. The problem is that creatine tends to degrade the longer it is present in warm liquid, including liquid that sits at room temperature.

Simply put, the longer creatine has been sitting in warm liquid, the more its helpful qualities are eliminated. Therefore, you should understand that if you’re consuming creatine in a pre-mixed liquid form, it is almost certainly going to translate less directly into boosted muscle strength and other the benefits you desire than powdered creatine that is rapidly mixed with liquid and consumed immediately.

Creatine Monohydrate vs. Creatine Citrate

Limited research has been conducted with creatine citrate, but it absolutely appears to be better for athletes than taking not supplements whatsoever. Compared with a group of cyclists receiving a placebo, the cyclists receiving creatine citrate enjoyed significant improvements in critical power and ventilatory threshold. (6)

With this being said, there have yet to be any studies conducted demonstrating that creatine citrate confers any advantages to its users over and above what they would receive from supplementing with traditional creatine.

The Best Creatine for Your Goals

By the time you get down to brass tacks, you realize that most creatine supplements use creatine monohydrate as a base, and then add an ingredient to it that is intended to enhance it in some way. 

In short, while nearly all creatine forms have some additional element to them that may or may not function as advertised, the creatine monohydrate at the heart of these dietary supplements tends to operate just fine. 

So, if these different creatine forms prove anything at all, it’s that the creatine monohydrate at the core is performing its job, and you can rest assured that even if you branch out and try a specialized version of creatine for its added benefit, you can always come back to the proven form of creatine that all of the others are compared with.

Don’t Mess With Success

Creatine supplementation is a proven way to benefit your mind and body, and to accelerate the timetable for making upgrades to both. While the other forms of creatine supplementation have proven to be better for you than taking no creatine whatsoever, the reality is that they are unlikely to benefit you to a greater degree than ordinary creatine. Put simply, you can’t really go wrong when supplementing with any form of creatine, but when it comes to maximizing the value of each dose, creatine monohydrate has yet to be dethroned.

Sources:

1. Eghbali E, Arazi H, Suzuki K. Supplementing With Which Form of Creatine (Hydrochloride or Monohydrate) Alongside Resistance Training Can Have More Impacts on Anabolic/Catabolic Hormones, Strength and Body Composition? Physiol Res. 2024 Nov 15;73(5):739-753. doi: 10.33549/physiolres.935323. PMID: 39545789; PMCID: PMC11629957.

2. Spillane M, Schoch R, Cooke M, Harvey T, Greenwood M, Kreider R, Willoughby DS. The effects of creatine ethyl ester supplementation combined with heavy resistance training on body composition, muscle performance, and serum and muscle creatine levels. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2009 Feb 19;6:6. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-6-6. PMID: 19228401; PMCID: PMC2649889.

3. Jagim AR, Oliver JM, Sanchez A, Galvan E, Fluckey J, Riechman S, Greenwood M, Kelly K, Meininger C, Rasmussen C, Kreider RB. A buffered form of creatine does not promote greater changes in muscle creatine content, body composition, or training adaptations than creatine monohydrate. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2012 Sep 13;9(1):43. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-9-43. PMID: 22971354; PMCID: PMC3479057.

4. Zajac A, Golas A, Chycki J, Halz M, Michalczyk MM. The Effects of Long-Term Magnesium Creatine Chelate Supplementation on Repeated Sprint Ability (RAST) in Elite Soccer Players. Nutrients. 2020 Sep 28;12(10):2961. doi: 10.3390/nu12102961. PMID: 32998206; PMCID: PMC7600931.

5. Galvan E, Walker DK, Simbo SY, Dalton R, Levers K, O'Connor A, Goodenough C, Barringer ND, Greenwood M, Rasmussen C, Smith SB, Riechman SE, Fluckey JD, Murano PS, Earnest CP, Kreider RB. Acute and chronic safety and efficacy of dose dependent creatine nitrate supplementation and exercise performance. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2016 Mar 31;13:12. doi: 10.1186/s12970-016-0124-0. PMID: 27034623; PMCID: PMC4815124.

6. Wax B, Kerksick CM, Jagim AR, Mayo JJ, Lyons BC, Kreider RB. Creatine for Exercise and Sports Performance, with Recovery Considerations for Healthy Populations. Nutrients. 2021 Jun 2;13(6):1915. doi: 10.3390/nu13061915. PMID: 34199588; PMCID: PMC8228369.