Can Stacking Creatine And β-alanine Give You Extra Gains? Here’s What Science Says

Curious if stacking creatine and β-alanine will supercharge your training? This systematic reappraisal reveals who really benefits, and erstwhile you mightiness beryllium wasting your money.

Review: Effects of Creatine and β-Alanine Co-Supplementation connected Exercise Performance and Body Composition: A Systematic Review. Image Credit: Andrii Zastrozhnov / Shutterstock

In a caller systematic reappraisal published successful nan diary Nutrients, researchers investigated whether co-supplementation pinch creatine and β-alanine, 2 of nan astir celebrated and effective sports supplements, provides synergistic benefits. It synthesizes grounds from 7 randomized controlled tests and recovered that co-supplementation efficaciously enhances high-intensity workout performance, peculiarly successful repeated, short-duration efforts.

Surprisingly, however, nan reappraisal concluded that nan operation of creatine and β-alanine offered nary further use complete creatine unsocial for improving maximal strength, assemblage composition, aliases aerobic capacity. These findings supply important insights for athletes and coaches, allowing for nan improvement of science-based supplement plans.

Background

Creatine and β-alanine are well-established ergogenic immunodeficiency successful nan world of sports nutrition, backed by decades of technological research. The erstwhile (specifically creatine monohydrate) boosts nan body's stores of phosphocreatine, enhancing nan accelerated regeneration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), thereby fueling explosive movements for illustration sprinting and dense lifting. This leads to measurable improvements successful jock spot and power.

In contrast, β-alanine immunodeficiency diversion capacity done a chopped physiological pathway. β-alanine is simply a precursor to carnosine, a molecule that acts arsenic an intracellular buffer. During high-intensity exercise, muscles nutrient hydrogen ions, starring to acidosis (a driblet successful pH) and fatigue. Carnosine neutralizes this acid, delaying fatigue successful intensive efforts lasting betwixt 1 and 4 minutes.

Notably, creatine and β-alanine usability done complementary mechanisms – while nan erstwhile promotes power supply, nan second delays fatigue, starring sports nutritionists to hypothesize that combining nan 2 could nutrient a synergistic effect. However, existing investigation shows inconsistent results.

About nan review

The coming systematic reappraisal intends to reside this knowledge gap, analyse an progressively celebrated presumption (the “synergistic effect”), and pass athletes’ supplementation programmes by synthesizing each disposable grounds from high-quality objective tests connected nan mixed usage of creatine and β-alanine. The reappraisal adhered to nan International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) guidelines (CRD420251066302).

Study information (relevant publications) were identified via a civilization keyword hunt of 3 online technological repositories: PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Web of Science. Due to constricted investigation connected this circumstantial combination, each peer-reviewed studies from database initiation until March 2025 were included successful nan repository search.

Study inclusion criteria comprised: randomized controlled tests (RCTs) pinch big participants (any sex), operation usage of some creatine and β-alanine for astatine slightest 4 weeks, and nonstop comparison of nan mixed supplement group to groups taking either creatine alone, β-alanine alone, aliases a placebo.

The outcomes of liking included workout capacity (e.g., maximal spot via one-repetition maximum [1RM], anaerobic powerfulness from a Wingate test) and assemblage creation (lean assemblage wide and fat mass). The methodological value of each study was assessed utilizing nan Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. Since nan included studies were substantially different successful position of study designs, subordinate populations, and circumstantial outcomes measured (heterogeneity), a quantitative meta-analysis could not beryllium performed, restricting nan findings to a qualitative synthesis.

Study findings

Of nan 5,537 publications initially collated from nan title search, abstract, and full-text screening, only 7 RCTs (comprising 231 antheral and 32 female participants, 263 total) met each systematic reappraisal criteria. Review findings were organized into: 1. High-intensity workout and anaerobic powerfulness evaluations, 2. Maximal spot outcomes, 3. Body creation changes, and 4. Aerobic endurance.

High-intensity exercises demonstrated a clear, affirmative effect of co-supplementation, pinch cases consistently improving capacity successful activities requiring repeated, high-intensity efforts. Okudan et al.’s study involving repeated Wingate anaerobic tests recovered that while creatine unsocial improved highest power, erstwhile mixed pinch β-alanine, nan operation importantly accrued mean powerfulness output crossed aggregate sprints and reduced nan fatigue index, suggesting that creatine provides nan first powerfulness burst while β-alanine helps prolong that powerfulness complete successive efforts.

Body creation evaluations showed mixed results: One study successful resistance-trained males recovered co-supplementation yielded greater thin wide gains and fat nonaccomplishment versus creatine unsocial aft 10 weeks of training. However, different 4-week study successful females recovered nary assemblage creation benefits. Overall, nan reappraisal concluded these effects were equivocal.

In contrast, maximal spot and aerobic endurance-based metrics did not uncover a important advantage of adding β-alanine to an different creatine-only supplementation program. Studies measuring maximal oxygen uptake (VO2 max), lactate threshold, aliases time-to-exhaustion recovered nary meaningful improvements from nan operation compared to either supplement unsocial aliases placebo.

Conclusions

The reappraisal reveals that while co-supplementing pinch creatine and β-alanine does not universally boost sports/athletic performance, it tin beryllium an effective strategy for gathering circumstantial training aliases title goals.

Individuals engaged successful high-intensity, repeated-bout activities wherever musculus fatigue from acidosis is simply a limiting facet (e.g., HIIT, combat sports, aliases repeated sprinting) guidelines to summation meaningful benefits from co-supplementation regimes according to nan evidence. For athletes focused purely connected maximal spot aliases power, creatine monohydrate remains nan cornerstone supplement, pinch β-alanine offering small further value. The assemblage creation benefits look context-dependent and require further validation.