Effects of Four Weeks of Beta-Alanine Supplementation Combined with One Week of Creatine Loading on Physical and Cognitive Performance in Military Personnel
Open accessAbstract
The purpose was to investigate the effects of a 7-day creatine (Cr) loading protocol at the end of four weeks of β-alanine supplementation (BA) on physical performance, blood lactate, cognitive performance, and resting hormonal concentrations compared to BA alone. Twenty male military personnel (age: 21.5 ± 1.5 yrs; height: 1.78 ± 0.05 m; body mass: 78.5 ± 7.0 kg; BMI: 23.7 ± 1.64 kg/m2) were recruited and randomized into two groups: BA + Cr or BA + placebo (PL). Participants in each group (n = 10 per group) were supplemented with 6.4 g/day of BA for 28 days. After the third week, the BA + Cr group participants were also supplemented with Cr (0.3 g/kg/day), while the BA + PL group ingested an isocaloric placebo for 7 days. Before and after supplementation, each participant performed a battery of physical and cognitive tests and provided a venous blood sample to determine resting testosterone, cortisol, and IGF-1. Furthermore, immediately after the last physical test, blood lactate was assessed. There was a significant improvement in physical performance and mathematical processing in the BA + Cr group over time (p < 0.05), while there was no change in the BA + PL group. Vertical jump performance and testosterone were significantly higher in the BA + Cr group compared to BA + PL. These results indicate that Cr loading during the final week of BA supplementation (28 days) enhanced muscular power and appears to be superior for muscular strength and cognitive performance compared to BA supplementation alone.
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Other studies with omnivore participants or unspecified and presumably omnivore participants failed to find a creatine effect.
“while other studies with omnivore participants [21, 59, 60] or unspecified and presumably omnivore participants [61] failed to find a creatine effect2,3”
From The effects of creatine supplementation on cognitive performance—a randomised controlled study (2023) · cites this paper as [59]
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“…BDS in these studies were smaller than in the present study, while the effects in studies with the same kind of population as ours were 2 Samadi et al. [59] mistakenly concluded they had found a creatine effect because their creatine group improved significantly while their placebo group did not.”
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- Authors
- Samadi, M., Askarian, A., Shirvani, H., Shamsoddini, A., Shakibaee, A., Forbes, S. C., & Kaviani, M.
- Affiliations
- Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences (IR)
- Brandon University (CA)
- Acadia University (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Kaviani, Mojtaba
- ORCID
- Venue
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2022-06-29
- Volume
- 19
- Issue
- 13
- Pages
- 7992
- ISSN
- 1660-4601 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9265371
- OpenAlex
- W4283766212
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 3
- FWCI
- 2.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Biochemical effects in animals
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cell Biology › Muscle metabolism and nutrition
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Orthopedics and Sports Medicine › Sports Performance and Training
- Keywords
- beta-alanine supplementation, creatine loading, military personnel, physical performance, cognitive performance, blood lactate, testosterone, cortisol, insulin-like growth factor I, vertical jump, muscle power, muscle strength, mathematical processing
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cognition, Creatine, Double-Blind Method, Humans, Lactates, Male, Military Personnel, Testosterone, beta-Alanine, Muscle, Skeletal, Dietary Supplements, Muscle Strength, Young Adult
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