Pros and Cons of LA Muscle Creatine
Alongside whey protein, creatine is the world’s most popular dietary sports supplement.
In terms of research, creatine fares even better than its protein cousin. It’s currently the most studied fitness supplement out there. [1, 2, 3]
Benefits of creatine are many. You’ll have more energy, higher strength levels in the gym, and you’ll gain muscle more easily. [3]
Creatine can even help boost your mental clarity – by restoring the energy-producing ATP in your brain cell’s mitochondria.
But, of course, with so much popularity also comes a wide range of options on the market. You have creatine monohydrate, creatine ethyl ester, micronized creatine, and there’s even patented creatine blends that are claimed to be more potent than plain creatine.
How do you tell the legit claims from BS? We’ll do that today so you wouldn’t need to, taking a closer look at LA Muscle Creatine in our in-depth review. Let’s get into it!
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About LA Muscle Creatine
Here are the first few important things you need to know in our LA Muscle Creatine review.
For one, LA Muscle Creatine in two versions: Nuclear Creatine and Explosive Creatine. While Nuclear Creatine is claimed to be the strongest creatine you can buy today, Explosive Creatine has been LA Muscle’s best-selling creatine powder since 1998.
Obviously, these folks have been in the fitness industry for a long time and know the name of the game. They use some slick designs on their canisters and have pretty convincing marketing ads – we’ll give them that!
However, LA Muscle creatine – both versions of it – has some issues that we think need to be addressed.
For one, while they have tasty fruit flavors, LA Muscle Explosive Creatine uses a synthetic sweetener. Another issue is the price tag of LA Muscle products – Nuclear Creatine costs a sky-high $97 per tub and Explosive Creatine costs $70 per tub. Compare this to the best-selling creatine powder on Amazon from the well-known company MuscleTech which costs $22.5 per tub, it’s quite a drastic difference.
So, what did LA Muscle put into their creatine formulas that make them so costly? Is their creatine really that much more effective than the plain old creatine monohydrate (which is the most studied type of creatine by the way). Or is it just the fancy branding that we’re paying for here?
Let’s find out more below!
How to Use La Muscle Creatine
LA Muscle Creatine directions for use depend on which of the two supplements you’re taking.
Directions for LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine
- Mix 1 scoop with a glass of water or your preferred drink;
- If you want to do a loading phase (to quickly build up creatine in your body), the recommendation is to take Nuclear Creatine 4 times a day (4 scoops) for 4 days. After this, you return to
- If you have just finished the Loading Phase or if you’ve taken creatine less than a month ago, the manufacturers recommends taking creatine 2 times a day every day – this is the ‘maintenance phase’.
How long will each tub last you? This entirely depends on whether you take loading or maintenance doses.
Directions for LA Muscle Explosive Creatine
LA Muscle Explosive Creatine directions are;
- Mix 1 scoop (45g) with lots of water
- The loading dose is 1 scoop 4 times a day for 4-5 days
- The maintenance dose is 1 scoop twice per day.
If you’re an endurance athlete, LA Muscle recommends mixing half a scoop with some water and drinking 15 minutes before your event or workout. Then mix another half a scoop after your session.
LA Muscle is also quick to point that “Explosive Creatine is not and has never been about how much a tub will last. This product produces extraordinary results within a very short time.” This is a bragging marketing tactic to drive your attention away from the value for money you get per tub to “extraordinary” benefits you’ll get from this supplement. Is this necessary to mention? We’ll let you be the judge!
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The Ingredients
LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine and Explosive Creatine have completely different ingredient profiles. While the backbone of both formulas is obviously creatine, each formula has different supporting ingredients that are used for different purposes. See for yourself:
Nuclear Creatine Ingredients
Here are the ingredients in LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine:
- Dextrose (33g)
- Super-Micronised Creatine Monohydrate (5.69g)
- D-Aspartic Acid (1.5g)
- L-Arginine Alpha Ketogluterate (AAKG) 1.26g
- Taurine 1g
- L-Ornithinine Alpha Ketogluterate (OAKG) 520mg
In case you’re wondering about nutritional information, each serving of Nuclear Muscle yields 137kcal.
This is a good choice of ingredients for a muscle building supplement. Is is worth almost $100, though? We wouldn’t go that far!
First thing you’ll see on the list is Dextrose, which is a type of simple carb that quickly raises your blood sugar levels – even faster than sugar itself.
Super-Micronised Creatine Monohydrate is the backbone of the formula, and is apparently the most powerful type of creatine you can find on the market. Is this claim accurate? All you need to do is look at the current evidence. And, the evidence says that plain old creatine monohydrate is not only more thoroughly researched, but it seems to have more reliable effects too!
So, as far as creatine itself goes, LA Muscle’s claims are invalid. If you’re just looking for creatine and nothing else, then save yourself (a lot) of money and simply buy a plain cheap creatine monohydrate – it works just as well if not better than the fancy stuff!
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That being said, LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine has additional ingredients that can take your muscle-building efforts further than creatine alone!
DAA
D-Aspartic Acid, for example, is an excellent anabolic hormone booster. It is potent at raising your testosterone levels but only for a few weeks, after which, according to most studies, levels go back to normal. However, even for these few weeks this can be beneficial when you’re trying to bulk up quickly.
L-Arginine
L-Arginine is a decent blood flow enhancer. It gets converted to Nitric Oxide n your kidneys, which in turn makes your blood vessels wider. The result? Bigger muscle pumps! However, L-Arginine is not the best ingredient for this purpose, L-Citrulline has been shown to be more readily available, and by extension – more effective.
Taurine
Taurine is a good ingredient for enhancing muscle function during exercise. Meaning, you may get a few extra reps when you’re really fatigued. Taurine also promotes GABA, a calming neurochemical that can help prevent jitters from caffeine and other stimulants.
Overall, this is a good ingredient profile. Coupled with the basic creatine, a few extra ingredients in LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine should give your workouts a boost – similar to a pre-workout supplement. But for half the price of what LA Muscle Creatine costs, you can easily find better options on the market.
Explosive Creatine Ingredients
The ingredients in LA Muscle Explosive Creatine are:
- Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE)
- Taurine
- Sodium
- Potassium
- Magnesium
- Protein
Explosive Creatine has slightly fewer calories at 122kcal per serving. The downside is that it’s artificially flavored with sucrose. Sucralose can disrupt your gut bacteria; some studies show it also may have a negative impact on brain health.
In terms of active ingredients, it’s all about Creatine here. LA Muscle Explosive Creatine utilizes a special type of the ingredient called Creatine Ethyl Ester (CEE).
Again though, studies firmly stand on the side of plain old Creatine Monohydrate. While there have been some studies showing CEE may boost muscle performance better than creatine monohydrate, these results haven’t been replicated in other reputable trials. In fact, one study showed CEE yields weaker results than C. Monohydrate. [4]
As a result, we don’t think LA Muscle Explosive Creatine is any better than your regular creatine powder, and certainly not worth the headache-inducing price it charges for this!
Customer Reviews
LA Muscle Creatine is only officially sold through its official website, which means finding unpartial reviews on other sites is a difficult task.
Obviously, the LA Muscle website only features moderated 5 and 4-star ratings. This makes it hard to get a clear picture of what customers really think about LA Muscle Creatine’s flavor, effectiveness, and other factors that would help determine if this product is right fit for you.
Side Effects
LA Muscle Creatine contains well-researched ingredients, all of which are safely dosed. Therefore, there shouldn’t be any side effects from taking LA Muscle Creatine.
That being said, if you suffer from any type of condition – especially if it’s kidney related – talk to your doctor before taking this product.
Pros and Cons of LA Muscle Creatine
Both Nuclear Creatine and Explosive Creatine are solid products, more so Nuclear Creatine which gives you some really beneficial muscle-building compounds alongside creatine. But the price they’re charging is crazy high. For the same price you can get far better value for money if you do a little research.
Pros
- LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine features DAA, Taurine, L-Arginine, and a few other ingredients that synergize with the muscle-building benefits of creatine
- LA Muscle Explosive Creatine is less expensive than LA Muscle Creatine, but it only focuses on creatine and not too many other ingredients
- 903g per tub
- Up to 4 servings per day during the loading phase
- Clinically studied ingredient doses, no reported side effects
Cons
- The creatine LA Muscle uses isn’t anything better than regular creatine monohydrate powder
- Lack of more natural muscle-building and performance-enhancing ingredients
- Explosive Creatine uses artificial sweetener sucralose
- Both versions of LA Muscle creatine are extremely overpriced
- Only 20 servings per container
LA Muscle Creatine Review – Final Thoughts
To conclude, is LA Muscle Creatine worth $97 per tub of Nuclear Creatine, or $70 per tub in the case of Explosive Creatine?
Considering that LA Muscle’s creatine isn’t in any way superior to regular creatine, we don’t think it’s a great value for money. It also uses some cheap ingredients and artificial flavors which shouldn’t be happening at this price bracket.
Sure, LA Muscle Nuclear Creatine does have some great ingredients. But considering the cost, you’d be far better off just buying these ingredients individually – it’s a lot cheaper.
Alternatively, you can look for pre-workout supplements that use natural and studied ingredients – including creatine. These will help you have more strength and build muscle faster for the fraction of the cost of what LA Muscle charges.
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