Should You Take Creatine If You Don’t Lift Weights?

You probably know that creatine is the single best supplement you can take for improving your performance in the gym.

It helps you lift more weight, do more reps, gain more muscle, and push harder during cardio (especially high-intensity intervals).¹²³⁴

But does creatine offer any benefits if you don’t lift weights?

What if building muscle, getting stronger, and performing better aren’t your main priorities?

Or, if you do lift weights or train regularly, can you expect any additional benefits beyond better performance?

Yes, according to emerging research on a number of health metrics.

Aside from performance, the most well-supported benefits of creatine have to do with cognition, mood, and brain health, and scientists believe it may also improve blood sugar control, immune function, gut health, blood flow, and even sperm count.

For example, scientists at Research Centre Jülich in Germany gave 15 healthy adults either 0.35 grams of creatine per kilogram of body weight or a placebo at about 8:30 p.m.⁵ (That’s about 29 grams for a 180-pound man, or 22 grams for a 140-pound woman.)

They kept everyone awake overnight—about 21 hours without sleep in total—and gave them a variety of cognitive tests during the night.

The people who took creatine performed better on word-memory tests and worked through language, logic and number problems faster than the people who only took a placebo.

Another study from researchers at the University of Auckland in New Zealand found that taking 20 grams of creatine daily for 7 days helped adults maintain their ability to focus while breathing low-oxygen air (which typically hampers attention and cognitive function).⁶⁷

Several studies have also found that creatine may help reduce symptoms of depression, at least when combined with other interventions.

For example, researchers at Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Oxford studied 100 adults with depression who were receiving therapy.⁸ The researchers gave half of them 5 grams of creatine per day and the other half of them a placebo.

After eight weeks, the creatine group scored about 5 points lower on a depression questionnaire than the placebo group.

Other research has found that women who took antidepressants along with creatine reported fewer depressive symptoms than women who only took antidepressants.⁹

That said, most of these studies involved people with depression or healthy people tested while sleep-deprived or breathing low-oxygen air. The results on healthy, well-rested people are less encouraging.

For example, in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Northern Iowa, taking 10 or 20 grams daily for six weeks didn’t improve memory, processing speed, or other thinking skills.¹⁰

A review of 11 trials involving 1,093 people by researchers at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul found a small average improvement in depression symptoms, but not enough to be clinically meaningful.¹¹ The overall quality and consistency of the evidence was poor, and the researchers also noted that bias could account for some or all of the apparent benefit.

That said, it’s also possible that people might have noticed greater benefits with larger doses. The brain doesn’t absorb creatine as easily as muscle, which is why most studies on creatine and cognition use 10+ grams instead of the ~3–5 grams typically used for athletic performance.¹²

Finally, emerging research also shows that creatine may improve the function of a variety of other bodily processes:

• Blood-sugar control. In a study conducted at the University of São Paulo, researchers had 25 adults with type 2 diabetes follow an exercise program, and gave half of them 5 grams of creatine daily and the other half a placebo for 12 weeks.¹³ Their HbA1c (a measure of average blood sugar) fell from 7.4% to 6.4% with creatine whereas the placebo group’s increased from 7.5% to 7.6%.
• Fatigue. People with persistent COVID-19 symptoms ("long COVID") who took 6 grams of creatine per day had less fatigue after four weeks than a group taking a placebo.¹⁴ All groups followed the same exercise program. Weirdly, another group taking 18 grams per day didn’t see a significant improvement.
• Blood flow. Researchers at Florida State University found that sedentary adults who took creatine for four weeks experienced better blood vessel function and improved blood flow compared to people who took a placebo.¹⁵
• Gut health. Several studies have found that creatine may help protect gut cells from damage, and at least one study has found that rats who took creatine experienced less gut damage in response to inflammation.¹⁶¹⁷
• Inflammation. Researchers at the University of São Paulo found that runners who took 20 grams of creatine daily for five days had a lower increase in two inflammatory chemicals after a 30-kilometer run, compared with runners who took a placebo.¹⁸
• Immune function. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found that giving mice creatine helped improve several markers of immune cell function.¹⁹
• Sperm count. Some very preliminary research from the University of Novi Sad in Serbia found that creatine supplementation helped increase sperm count in some men, but not in others.²⁰ (There were also a few other confounding variables in this study that make it hard to put much stock in the results, but interesting nonetheless.)

So, is it worth taking creatine if you don’t work out? Yes.

Multiple studies have found that it can improve cognitive function, focus, and mood, and new studies are coming out every day showing that it may also positively impact other bodily functions like blood-sugar control, gut health, inflammation, immune function, and more.

How much creatine should you take, and in what form?

If your primary goal is gaining muscle and strength, 3–5 grams per day is all you need. If you’re interested in non-performance benefits, though, 10 grams per day is a good default.

Scientists still haven’t decided on what the optimal dose is for maximizing the overall benefits of creatine, but this dose is well-tolerated by most people and inexpensive, so there’s little reason not to consume this much.

The most well-supported form of creatine, and the kind found in all of Legion’s creatine products, is creatine monohydrate. There’s simply no evidence-based argument for using anything else.

And in terms of the exact form of creatine you take, you have a number of options:

• Creatine powder, which is creatine that’s been pulverized into a fine powder for easier mixing into liquids and food. You can get this as an unflavored powder, a refreshing flavored mix that you can drink on its own, or as capsules.
• Creatine gummies, which is creatine monohydrate in a delicious gummy format. Creatine candy, basically. These are delicious and can be more convenient than powder for situations like travel or consuming during the day.
• Creatine combo products, like Recharge, which is a post-workout recovery drink that combines creatine with ingredients to help reduce muscle breakdown and soreness. There’s also Creatine+HMB, which combines creatine with HMB, a compound that helps reduce muscle breakdown, in an unflavored powder. Stay tuned for several more products like this soon. 😉

Personally, my preferred regimen is to take about 5 grams of creatine as a powder that I mix into something I’m eating anyway, like smoothies, yogurt bowls, Ninja Creamis, or my pre-workout, Pulse. Then, I like to get another 5 grams of creatine from gummies, usually as a treat at the end of the day. If I’m traveling, I’ll usually pack creatine capsules and gummies so I don’t have to fiddle with powder.