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Supplementing With Which Form of Creatine (Hydrochloride or Monohydrate) Alongside Resistance Training Can Have More Impacts on Anabolic/Catabolic Hormones, Strength and Body Composition?

E Eghbali, H Arazi, K Suzuki

Physiol Res 2024 73(5):739-753

Bibliography

PubMed: PMID 39545789
PubMed Central: PMC11629957
DOI: 10.33549/physiolres.935323
Funding: Supported by Scientific Research (A) (20H00574) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan.
Competing interests: Authors reported no conflict of interest.

Design	Randomized controlled trial
Model	Human
Sample	40 young adults; 10 per group
Intervention	Resistance training plus creatine HCl, creatine monohydrate with loading, creatine monohydrate without loading, or placebo
Duration	8 weeks
Endpoints	Strength; Skeletal muscle mass; Muscle cross-sectional area; Body fat; Anabolic and catabolic hormones

Direct head-to-head randomized trial comparing creatine hydrochloride with creatine monohydrate during resistance training.

Both creatine forms improved several training outcomes versus placebo, but creatine HCl showed no benefit over creatine monohydrate.

Small single study of young adults, multiple outcomes and short duration; insufficient to establish equivalence across all doses or products.

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Last verified 02 October 2026