Steroids, once taken by many of the professional athletes without regard to their long term effects, have become a giant black mark on the sporting world.
When a player does well, or goes way beyond what is normal, the public immediately thinks he is on steroids, since hard work alone won't work.
It is unfortunate that all performance enhancing supplements have gotten this bad rap since not all have the same deleterious effect on the body.
One such performing enhancer that has been known about for a long time, but has only been advocated for usage in the last twenty years is creatine.
Although many people have lumped it in with the steroid crowd, it is actually a substance produced naturally in the human body and is crucial for proper skeletal muscle function.
Bodybuilders use it in proper dosages to build muscle mass.
By having the muscle fibers fire for the extra one or two reps in a set of heavy weightlifting, the muscle gains an incredible amount of volume as compared to a normal heavy workout.
Muscle fibers tear and rebuild in an incredible short time period, so having the ability to "fire" when tired, can produced the amount of muscle volume needed for an important contest such as Mr.
Olympia.
Creatine works alongside ATP (Adenosine Tri Phosphate) to help produce energy in the skeletal muscle.
When the ATP releases a Phosphate Group, it becomes ADP (Adenosine Di Phosphate) and gives off energy the is used by the muscle.
Since creatine is stored as creatine phosphate in the muscle tissue, it's phosphate group is donated to ADP to become ATP once again.
This cycle continues until all of the creatine phosphate is used up.
So you see how important creatine is to the body.
It enables the muscles to function and helps to produce the energy for proper operation.
It is not a steroid and should not be considered in that same category.
It also should only be taken when prescribed by a doctor as part of an overall training program.
To your good health.