Creatine and breath-hold exercise: a small trial suggests a performance gain

Maximal effort on a single breath

The researchers studied 20 trained freedivers, including 18 men and two women, with a mean age of 41.6 years. After an initial test, participants were randomly assigned to receive either creatine monohydrate or a placebo for seven days.

The intervention studied was a loading dose of 20 grams per day. This dose describes the experiment, not a recommendation for use. The test involved covering the greatest possible distance on a cycle ergometer during maximal exercise performed on a single breath.

The biological hypothesis fits this exercise: holding your breath increases reliance on anaerobic energy production, in which phosphocreatine can help supply ATP. This mechanism provides a rationale for testing creatine, but is not enough to demonstrate its effectiveness.

A favorable signal, with no effect size available

Changes in total work and time to exhaustion were significantly more favorable with creatine than with placebo. The abstract also reports lower lactate accumulation in the creatine group, despite improved performance.

However, no significant difference between groups was observed in perceived exertion related to breath-holding or perceived muscle fatigue. This does not demonstrate that the sensations were identical, but the abstract does not support concluding that these measures differed.

The key limitation is the absence of absolute results in the excerpt: it gives neither the gain in work nor the additional time achieved. It is therefore impossible to know whether the improvement represents a substantial practical advantage or a modest change.

Not yet evidence for diving

This result concerns maximal breath-hold cycling exercise in trained freedivers. It does not demonstrate a benefit in depth reached, distance covered underwater or safety. Nor does it allow predictions about the effect in beginners.

The small sample, very low representation of women and seven-day intervention limit the scope of the result. The abstract does not provide detailed data on adverse effects. Funding and conflicts of interest have not been verified, and the full text has not been consulted.

What we can take away

Creatine appears to improve some performance measures during breath-hold cycling exercise in trained freedivers. This trial offers an encouraging signal, not a recommendation for improving underwater performance or safety.