The basics
What is creatine?
Creatine is a compound your liver makes from amino acids, and that you also get from meat and fish. Muscles store it as a quick energy reserve for short, hard efforts: a sprint, a heavy set, a repeated burst. Michel-Eugène Chevreul identified it in meat extract in 1832. The powder in this tub is the same molecule, as creatine monohydrate.
What does creatine actually do?
Creatine is the quick reserve your muscles use when the effort is short and it has to happen again. It increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise — the next sprint, the next set, the next burst. That is at 3 grams a day; this scoop is 5. If you are over 55 and you already lift, daily creatine can enhance the effect of that training on muscle strength. It is not a fat-loss powder, and it is not a brain upgrade.
What are the benefits of creatine?
The next sprint. The next set. The next burst of hard work. Creatine increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise, at 3 grams a day. If you are over 55 and you lift, daily creatine can enhance the effect of that training on muscle strength. Creatine monohydrate is among the most studied sports supplements in the world. That is a lot. It is not a licence to promise muscle size, fat loss, or sharper thinking. Those are different sentences.
Creatine or protein — which do I need?
They do different jobs. Protein supplies amino acids for muscle protein synthesis. Creatine tops up phosphocreatine for short, repeated efforts. One does not replace the other. Many people take both. This tub is not a protein powder, and a whey shake is not a creatine serving unless you add one.
Does creatine help with running or endurance?
Creatine is for work that comes in bursts — repeated sprints, efforts, lifts — not a long, even run. Some endurance sports still contain those bursts. We do not sell this as an endurance drink, and we will not pretend a marathon is what it is for.
Is creatine a pre-workout?
No. Pre-workouts are usually caffeine, flavour, and a sprinkle of creatine. Creatine is not a stimulant. Stores build over weeks. Take 5 g every day, including rest days. If you want a buzz, drink coffee. Do not buy a candy that underdoses the molecule so it can taste like one.
How to take it
How much creatine should I take?
3–5 grams a day is the range in the research. The performance claim is based on 3 grams; this tub is scooped at 5 so one serving covers it. More is not automatically better. Very large single doses are more likely to upset the stomach than to add a useful effect.
Do I need a loading phase?
No. Loading (about 20 g a day, split, for 5–7 days) saturates muscle creatine faster — usually within a week. Taking 3–5 g daily reaches a similar saturation in about three to four weeks. Loading is a speed choice. It is also the protocol most likely to cause stomach upset. The plan on this tub is 5 g, every day.
When should I take creatine?
Timing is not magic. Consistency is. Take the 5 g serving on training days and rest days — muscle stores build over weeks, not around a single session. Mix with water, or stir into a meal. Coffee is fine. We do not sell a pre-workout window.
Should I take creatine before or after a workout?
Either. Trials that split pre- versus post-session have not produced a rule worth rearranging your day for. The dose that matters is the one you take every day. If a schedule helps you remember, take it with a meal you already eat.
Should I take creatine on rest days?
Yes. The point is to keep muscle creatine stores high. Skipping rest days undoes the slow work of daily dosing. One scoop, every day, including the days you do not train.
How long until I notice anything?
If you load, stores can fill in about a week. At 5 grams a day without loading, give it three to four weeks. What you are waiting for is not a buzz. It is the next sprint, the next set, the next burst having something behind it. Creatine is not a stimulant. Day one will not feel like a pre-workout. That is not a defect.
How do I mix unflavoured creatine?
Stir 5 g into a glass of water, juice, a shake, yoghurt, or oats. Micronised 200-mesh powder disperses with less grit than coarse creatine. It will not taste like raspberry. That is the point. If you want flavour, add fruit — not a sweetener blend we would have to defend.
Can I mix creatine with a protein shake?
Yes. Creatine monohydrate is happy in a shake, in yoghurt, in oats, in water. Heat is not required. Do not boil it for fun. Mix the 5 g serving into whatever you already drink so the habit sticks.
Can I take creatine with coffee?
Yes. Caffeine does not cancel creatine. Early rumours that it did have not held as a reason to separate them. Coffee is a stimulant. Creatine is not. Take the scoop with the mug if that is how you remember.
Do I need to cycle off creatine?
No. There is no established need to cycle creatine on and off in healthy adults at 3–5 g a day. When you stop, muscle stores fall back toward baseline over a few weeks. This tub is a daily food supplement, not a course of antibiotics.
How much water should I drink with creatine?
Creatine draws water into muscle cells. That is an argument for drinking enough — especially in heat or long sessions — not an argument for forcing litres beyond thirst. A glass with the scoop is sensible. A cartoon “gallon challenge” is not a protocol we sell.
Side effects and myths
Does creatine cause bloating?
Creatine pulls water into muscle cells. That can add about 1–2 kg on the scale in the first weeks. It is intracellular water, not a swollen gut. Stomach bloating, gas, or cramps are more common when people load at 20 g a day or take a large dose on an empty stomach. At 5 g with food, most people do not get a cartoon gut. If you do, split the serving.
Will I gain weight?
Often a small rise in the first fortnight, from water inside muscle — not from fat. It usually stabilises. If you are cutting to a weight class, plan for it. It is not “bloat” in the fashion-sense, and it is not a reason to skip the supplement if performance is the goal.
What are the side effects of creatine?
The usual ones people actually meet: a small rise on the scale from water in muscle, and stomach upset if the dose is large or taken dry on an empty stomach. Cramps are not shown to increase versus placebo at standard doses. In healthy adults at 3–5 g, reviews measuring kidney function have not shown damage. Creatine can raise the blood marker creatinine, which can confuse a routine test — tell your clinician. Food supplements are not risk-free for everyone; see who should not self-prescribe.
Is creatine bad for your kidneys?
In healthy adults at typical doses, reviews measuring actual kidney function (including GFR) have not shown damage. Creatine does raise serum creatinine — the blood marker doctors use as a proxy — which can make a routine test look worse than the kidneys are. Tell your clinician you take it. If you already have kidney disease, do not self-prescribe. Food supplements are not medicines.
Will creatine affect a blood test?
It can raise serum creatinine, because creatinine is what creatine becomes. That marker is used as a proxy for kidney filtration. A rise is expected chemistry, not proof the kidneys are failing. Tell the person drawing blood that you take creatine monohydrate. Do not stop a prescribed investigation on a product-page hunch.
Does creatine cause hair loss?
The scare traces to one 2009 study in rugby players that reported a rise in DHT after a loading phase. It did not measure hair loss. The finding has not been established as a hair-loss effect in later work, including a 2025 review that found no consistent DHT or hair-loss signal. We do not claim creatine prevents hair loss. We also will not sell you a fear.
Is creatine a steroid?
No. Creatine is not an anabolic steroid, not a hormone, and not banned by ordinary sport as a doping agent. It is a food-supplement molecule found in meat. It will not give you a steroid cycle. It will not fail a normal test because you scooped 5 g.
Is creatine banned in sport?
No. Creatine is not on the WADA prohibited list. It is a food supplement used across amateur and professional sport. That is not a performance-enhancing-drug wink. It is the same molecule Chevreul isolated from meat in 1832.
Does creatine cause cramps or dehydration?
Controlled trials have not shown more cramping than placebo at standard doses. Creatine increases water inside muscle, which is an argument for drinking enough, especially in heat — not an argument that it dehydrates you. If you cramp, look at fluids, salt, and training load before you blame the scoop.
Does creatine improve memory or focus?
Some trials report effects on memory in narrow conditions. In 2024 the European Food Safety Authority reviewed the human evidence for a cognition claim and concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship has not been established. We do not sell a brain powder. If that evidence moves, this answer will move with it.
Does creatine raise blood pressure?
At 3–5 g a day in healthy people, creatine is not established as a blood-pressure drug — up or down. We do not claim it manages hypertension. If you have diagnosed high blood pressure or take related medicine, ask the clinician who already knows your chart.
Is creatine safe to take long term?
In healthy adults, typical doses used for months to years have not been shown to damage kidneys or liver in the reviews that measured those organs. That is not a forever-guarantee for every body. It is the conservative reading of the record. Anyone with kidney disease, or who is pregnant or breastfeeding, should not treat a tub as medical advice.
Who it’s for
Can women take creatine?
Yes. Women are not a special exemption from muscle phosphocreatine. Reviews in female athletes and active women report the same class of performance effects. It will not masculinise you or make you “bulky” by itself. Creatine supports the training you already do. Plant-based women, who eat little dietary creatine, often start with lower stores.
Will creatine make me bulky?
No. Creatine is not a steroid cycle. You may see a small rise on the scale from water inside muscle. Tissue you keep comes from training and food. If “bulky” is the fear, the honest answer is: this powder will not do that job, and neither will skipping it if you already lift.
Can vegetarians and vegans take it?
Yes, and they are among the people with the most to gain from a scoop. Dietary creatine comes mostly from meat and fish. This powder contains no animal ingredients. Unflavoured, unsweetened, undyed.
Is creatine useful after 55?
Yes. If you are over 55 and you already lift, daily creatine can enhance the effect of that training on muscle strength — at 3 grams a day, with the training. It is not a reason to skip the work. It is not a medicine for muscle loss. It is a food supplement next to the work.
Is creatine useful for GAA, rugby, or other field sports?
Those games are built from repeated high-intensity efforts — the kind of work creatine is for. It is not a match-day stimulant and it will not replace the training. Taken daily, 5 grams is the studied dose next to that work.
Can I take creatine if I don’t train?
Creatine is for people who do short, hard work — and, if you are over 55, for people who already lift. If you do not do that work, you are not the person it is for. We will not invent a reason so the tub still sounds essential.
Can teenagers take creatine?
This product is sold to adults. The performance claim is written for adults doing high-intensity exercise. If you are under 18, speak to a clinician or qualified coach — not a product page — before using a supplement.
Who should not take creatine?
Anyone with diagnosed kidney disease should not self-prescribe. Pregnant or breastfeeding people should speak to a clinician first. This is a food supplement, not a medicine, and it is not intended to treat disease. Keep it away from children.
This tub
What is in Professor Michel?
Creatine monohydrate. 500 g. 100 servings of 5 g. Unflavoured. Micronised to 200 mesh. Nothing else — no sweeteners, flavourings, colours, or fillers. One ingredient. The dose the papers used.
Why is it unflavoured?
Because flavour systems are how brands hide dose and add things that are not creatine. Unflavoured powder mixes into water, coffee, or food. If you want raspberry, add fruit. We will not sweeten a molecule that does not need it.
Why not creatine HCl or gummies?
Because those forms are less studied, often more expensive per gram of creatine, and — in gummies — easy to underdose. Monohydrate is the form in the large majority of trials. We sell the form with the record, at 5 g per serving, without a candy coating.
What does micronised creatine mean?
The powder is milled to 200 mesh: smaller particles, so it disperses in water with less grit than coarse creatine. It is the same molecule. Micronised is mixability. It is not a stronger creatine, not a faster creatine in the way adverts mean, and not a reason to pay for a different salt.
What’s the best creatine for beginners?
Creatine monohydrate, 3–5 g a day, skip the loading phase, mix with food, give it three to four weeks. That is this tub. You do not need a gummy, a hydrochloride, or a pre-workout to start. You need a scoop you will actually take.
Is this Creapure®?
We do not print a Creapure® logo we have not licensed. The raw material is pharmaceutical-grade creatine monohydrate, micronised to 200 mesh, supplied through a BRCGS Agents & Brokers Grade AA certified partner. Ask for the current spec sheet or certificate of analysis for the batch on the shelf.
How long does a tub last?
100 servings. At 5 g a day, about 14 weeks. A 12-week subscribe-and-save shipment is meant to land before you run out. One tub is €44.99 including VAT. Irish delivery is €4.99.
Does creatine expire? How should I store it?
Dry creatine monohydrate is a stable powder if you keep the tub sealed, cool, and dry. Use the best-before date on the pack. A steamy bathroom is a poor cupboard. Do not add a wet scoop back into the tub.
Where can I buy creatine in Ireland?
Here, for this tub. We ship across the Republic of Ireland now. The tub is €44.99 including VAT; Irish delivery is €4.99. The UK is next. We are not in every supermarket aisle.
Do you ship outside Ireland?
Ireland now. Irish delivery is €4.99 on every order, including subscribe-and-save. The UK is coming soon. Checkout still only accepts Irish addresses until that lane is open.
Then buy the molecule, not the myth.
500 g of creatine monohydrate. Unflavoured. 5 g servings. For the next sprint, the next set, the next burst. €44.99 including VAT. Irish delivery €4.99. Ships in Ireland.
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