Effect of oral creatine supplementation on power output and fatigue during bicycle ergometry

Our purpose was to determine the effect of oral creatine supplementation on exercise performance during high-intensity short-duration bicycle sprinting. Power output was recorded for 12 healthy untrained males (age 24.08 +/- 0.53 yr, weight 81.22 +/- 1.32 kg) before and after 5 days of creatine (n = 6) or placebo (n = 6) supplementation. A double-blind research design was employed. Subjects performed maximal sprints against a constant load (111.8 N) for 15 s. Each one-half pedal revolution was magnetically counted, and subsequent measurements of peak power, time to peak power, total work, and the fatigue index were digitized and stored on disk. Mean values for peak power, time to peak power, total work, and fatigue index were 958.01 +/- 40.66 W, 4.09 +/- 0.82 s, 11.28 +/- 0.46 kJ, and 32.1 +/- 1.58% decline from peak power, respectively. No significant differences were observed within or between groups before or after supplementation for any of the mechanical parameters measured (P > 0.05). These findings suggest that oral creatine supplementation does not positively affect power output or fatigue during continuous high-intensity bicycle exercise in untrained men.