Effects of high dose oral creatine supplementation on anaerobic capacity of elite wrestlers.

AIM

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of high dose oral creatine supplementation on anaerobic capacity of elite wrestlers.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

comparative randomized design.

SETTING

Wingate anaerobic tests of the participants were taken at the Human Performance Laboratory of the Department of Physical Education and Sports in The Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey.

PARTICIPANT

20 active international level wrestlers participated (22 to 27 years old).

INTERVENTIONS

the daily dosage of creatine or placebo was divided into 4 equal amounts (5 gx4 = 20 g). Every 5 g of supplement was dissolved in 250 ml water and it was given to participants 1 hour before breakfast, lunch, dinner, and workout session.

MEASURES

subjects underwent a 30-s Wingate Anaerobic tests until exhaustion in pre- and post-tests. After the pretest measurements were completed, participants were classified as creatine (Cr., n=10) and placebo (Pl., n=10) groups with regard to their average anaerobic power scores obtained during the test.

RESULTS

Results of paired "t"-test revealed that there was no significant change in placebo group between pre- and post-test in average and peak anaerobic power. However, average and peak power mean scores obtained from post-test (8.123+/-0.448 W/kg and 10.523 +/-1.004 W/kg) were significantly (p<0.01) higher than pretest (7.233+/-0.483 W/kg and 8.992+/- 0.665 W/kg) for creatine group. Results of the independent "t"-test also indicated that the mean gained scores of creatine group in average and peak power were significantly higher than placebo group (p<0.01).

CONCLUSION

This study demonstrates that short-term high dose oral creatine supplementation has an ergogenic effect on anaerobic capacity of elite wrestlers.