Golfers hit further with creatine supplement

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

02.04.2015

It works: the supplement that American Purity Products launched especially for golfers. Strong Drive is its name, the main ingredient is creatine, and according to a study by Tim Ziegenfuss, golfers hit their balls 14 metres further after using Strong Drive for a month.

Golfers hit further with creatine supplement

Strong Drive

Strong Drive contains a powder. You need to dissolve 15 g of this in water and drink it, twice a day. That'll give you a daily 10 g creatine, 50 mg caffeine and 3 mg boron.

Previous studies have shown that a couple of milligrams of boron have no effect, but a higher dose boosts testosterone production. You can speculate that this might also make muscles grow a little faster and muscle strength increase.

Golfers hit further with creatine supplement

The boron in Strong Drive is in the form of calcium fructoborate, a compound that is said to be more easily absorbed than the boron compounds usually found in supplements. [J Diet Suppl. 2009;6(3):211-26.] The diagram above shows the structural formula of fructoborate.

There are studies in which calcium fructoborate has helped worn knee joints to function better [Clin Interv Aging. 2014 Jun 5;9:895-9.] and reduced inflammation in arthritic joints. [Biol Trace Elem Res. 2011 Dec;144(1-3):253-63.]

Golfers hit further with creatine supplement

Study

In 2015 the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition published a study in which Ziegenfuss and his colleagues had given 14 male golfers Strong Drive [SD] for 30 days, and 13 other golfers a placebo [PLA]. The average age of the subjects was 30, and their handicap was 5-15.

Results
Before starting the supplement and at the end of the 30 days that the golfers took it, the researchers measured how far the men could hit their balls.

The strongest effect is shown in the figure below: the best drive distance. Among the placebo users [black bars] the distance remained the same; the Strong Drive takers' drive increased by 5 percent. The supplement extended the best drive distance by 13.6 yards, or 13.7 metres.

Golfers hit further with creatine supplement

Conclusion
Of course, you may well ask, wouldn't a supplement containing creatine only work just as well as Purity Products' pricey Strong Drive. The study doesn't provide an answer to this question. And, by the way, it was sponsored by Purity Products.

Source:
J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2015 Jan 21;12(1):4.

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