Effect of 8-Week Resistance Training with Creatine Supplementation on Body Composition and Physical Fitness Indexes in Male Futsal Players

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of 8 weeks resistance training with creatine supplementation on body composition and physical fitness indexes in male futsal players.

20 trained futsal players were selected based on convenience sampling from East Azerbaijan and assigned randomly either to Ex + Cr group (Exercise + Creatin, n = 10) or Ex + Pl group (Exercise + Placebo, n = 10). All of the subjects performed resistance training program for 8 weeks. The Ex + Cr group ingested 0.3 g/kg creatine during loading phase 0.1 g/kg in maintenance phase. Body weight, fat free mass, fat percent, muscular strength, speed, anaerobic power and flexibility were measured before and after training program. Paired t-test and independent t-test were used to analyze the data.

The results suggested that body weight and fat free mass were significantly increased in both groups with greater improvements in Ex + Cr group (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, Ex + Cr group demonstrated greater decrease in fat percent compared with Ex + Pl group (P ≤ 0.05). Also, muscular strength increased to a greater extent in the Ex + Cr compared with the Ex + Pl group (P ≤ 0.05). Finally, there was no significant difference between the two groups in speed, anaerobic power and flexibility (P ≥ 0.05).

In general, it seems that resistance training along with creatine supplementation lead to greater increases in body weight, fat mass and muscular strength as well as greater decrease in fat percent than resistance training alone in trained futsal players.