Nutritional science continues to uncover more and more about how certain nutrients drive our performance. However, the more we learn about these nutrients' nuances and in-depth functions, the more complicated these findings become.

With so many different supplements available today, it can be difficult to find the one that best fits your fitness goals. It can also be hard to keep up with the cutting edge in nutritional science.

The complexities of popular supplement ingredients like beta-alanine and creatine shouldn’t turn you away from learning more about them. In fact, the better you understand ingredients like these, the better equipped you are to implement them into your fitness lifestyle and gain all the benefits they have to offer.

Let’s explore what makes these supplemental mainstays so effective. By comparing their similarities and their differences, you’ll get a better handle on which is best for your performance.

Though we may have a common sense understanding of what good performance means, it’s important to understand how this word is used in a nutritional science context. When studies are done to determine the effectiveness of supplemental ingredients like beta-alanine or creatine, researchers are using highly specific definitions.

In a clinical sense, sports performance is driven by several different factors, but how do supplemental ingredients like beta-alanine and creatine affect these factors?

Supplements boost the body, which may help you see improvement in the neuromuscular and psychological factors of performance.

For instance, you may be able to increase your speed, endurance, and overall ability when you exercise with the support of supplements that are targeted to your neuromuscular system.

Based on your improved neuromuscular performance, these supplements may also support the psychological factors driving your performance. For example, you may have more confidence to achieve your goals knowing that your body is supplied with supplements to support your workout regimen.

So what exactly do beta-alanine or creatine supplements do? We’ll explain.

Beta-alanine is an amino acid, a molecule that is a foundational building block for a wide range of functions. As naturally occurring components of the human body, amino acids help build enzymes, tissue, proteins, and many other integral systems.

Beta-alanine is specifically a non-essential amino acid. That means that your body can produce it all on its own.

In contrast, there are nine essential amino acids that you can only get from the food you eat. Beta-alanine can be found in food as well, but as a non-essential amino acid, it can be produced by your body on its own.

While beta-alanine is a non-essential amino acid, it is often supplemented to maintain optimal levels in the body.

Beta-alanine is a precursor to carnosine, a protein building block that’s often found in the muscles. Its close association with our muscles has led researchers to explore the role of beta-alanine and carnosine in overall muscular performance.

Based on the research, there’s reason to believe that higher levels of beta-alanine can translate into more carnosine in the muscles — and therefore improved athletic performance.

When it comes to actual results, incorporating more beta-alanine into your diet may increase the amount of carnosine in your body. Higher carnosine levels in turn may support the neuromuscular factors that drive your performance.

Research has indicated that supplemental beta-alanine can result in up to a 64% increase in carnosine in the muscles after four weeks and up to 80% after 10 weeks. This is a significant increase, which some nutritional scientists believe translates into improved performance during your workout.

Your muscles may be better equipped for improved endurance and capability if they have more carnosine.

Creatine , like beta-alanine, is a non-essential amino acid. It’s typically found in our muscles as well as our brain.

As a non-essential amino acid, our body can produce creatine on its own. The organs in our endocrine system — our kidneys, pancreas, and liver — will generally make around a gram of creatine every day.

Outside of our own production of it, we can get creatine from meat-based sources — specifically seafood and red meat. However, supplements can generally supply you with higher levels of creatine. Also, it would be difficult to get enough creatine through diet alone, in a quantity that would saturate creatine stores for athletic performance.

Creatine serves as an energy source for your muscles. The creatine you consume is stored in your muscles as phosphocreatine, which supports your endurance, muscle capability, and muscle mass.

In this way, creatine may help supply your muscles with the resources they need not just to perform better but to grow as well.

Beyond its effects on our muscles, creatine is also used to address a wide range of health conditions. It has potential benefits relating to neurological disorders, neuromuscular issues, heart disease, and even dermatological issues.

Supplemental creatine increases the creatine pool available to the body. In taking supplemental creatine, you’re supporting the neuromuscular factors that drive your performance and supplying your body with a larger amount of the resources that fuel your muscles.

Many studies corroborate the theory that creatine boosts your performance. In one such study, participants took 25g of creatine a day for a whole week, followed by a 5g maintenance dose afterward.

The subjects who took this level of creatine supplementation performed better in the resistance training exercises they were undertaking. The larger pool of creatine available to the body allowed the muscles involved in these exercises to draw from a richer supply, leading to enhanced capability and increased mass.

Both beta-alanine and creatine are non-essential amino acids that are involved in muscle health and growth. However, their difference arises in the immediacy and directness of their effects.

Beta-alanine is a precursor amino acid. Beta-alanine precipitates the creation of carnosine, which in turn supplies your muscles with an energy source that may enhance their performance. It may also inhibit the build-up of lactic acid in the muscles and enhance the power and endurance of your muscle output.

Creatine, on the other hand, more directly finds its way to your muscles. Orally ingested creatine is stored in your muscles in the form of phosphocreatine and fuels your muscles. There appear to be fewer steps involved in this process than the one involving beta-alanine.

Furthermore, the directness of creatine’s involvement with your muscles may mean that it more reliably sustains your muscles. Creatine has a wide array of functions, but it is primarily engaged in the function of muscles. Specifically, it supplies them with a fuel source that may help to increase their power output and their endurance.

In this performance context, beta-alanine only indirectly sustains your muscles. It’s a precursor to carnosine, which is the primary actor in the neuromuscular factors that drive your performance.

However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that beta-alanine is worse for performance. In the long run, one supplement may support different neuromuscular factors in ways that provide certain advantages over the other.

There hasn’t yet been a dedicated study comparing creatine supplementation with beta-alanine supplementation.

However, plenty of studies examine the effects of each supplement individually. On the whole, creatine appears to produce clearer results than beta-alanine based on the conclusions drawn from these studies.

Indeed, creatine is one of the most cited supplemental ingredients due to its consistent delivery: it helps you get more out of your workout for longer periods. Its results are more consistent, and as a chief supplier of energy to your muscles, its potential benefits to your performance are more clear.

Studies that explore the effects of beta-alanine come to similar conclusions, though with less consistency than studies on creatine.

Though creatine appears to be the more effective of the two based on clinical studies, that doesn’t mean you have to choose between one or the other. You shouldn’t have to limit yourself with the nutrients that resonate with your fitness goals at all. You should use every opportunity you can to propel yourself forward and achieve your desired fitness levels, and in fact, beta-alanine and creatine can be beneficial when you use them together.

If you want to gain the benefits of both nutrients, consider trying a supplemental blend that includes both beta-alanine and creatine.

We can create Personalized Pre-Workout Blends that include both Beta-Alanine and Creatine to empower your pre-workout routine in different ways.

Why choose one over the other when each of them performs different functions that can assist your workout?

For those of us who want to get the most out of our workout, Gainful’s Personalized Pre-Workout blend supplies you with the full spectrum of everything you need for a more effective exercise session.

We believe that our fitness is a deeply personal experience. You set your goals so that you can see for yourself what you’re capable of and recognize all your potential.

The driving philosophy behind our approach to supplements is the same. Since fitness is such a personal experience, your supplements should be attuned to your specific needs so you can achieve your goals on your own terms. We tailor your blend based on the intricacies of your lifestyle and your fitness goals.

Take our quiz here and see how our supplements can get you exactly what you need!

Sources:

Sport Performance | Encyclopedia.com

International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Beta-Alanine | National Library of Medicine

Creatine | Mayo Clinic

Carnosine, Small but Mighty—Prospect of Use as Functional Ingredient for Functional Food Formulation | National Library of Medicine

Creatine Supplementation with Specific View to Exercise/Sports Performance: An Update | National Library of Medicine