People Gained Lean Mass on Creatine Even Without Hitting the Gym. But There’s a Catch

The small trial suggests some of creatine’s muscle benefits may not require structured training.

Creatine, already one of the most studied and widely used supplements in the world, may have just gotten a little buff. A new study suggests some of its benefits for lean tissue and strength may show up even without working out.

In a 12-week trial, sedentary adults ages 45 to 65 who took 10 grams of creatine monohydrate a day (almost twice the recommended 5-gram dose) gained lean tissue and improved measures of strength and muscular endurance even when they did not join a structured exercise program. The no-exercise creatine group gained about 1.1 kilograms (2.4 pounds) of DXA-measured lean tissue by the end of the study.

That’s not to say creatine can replace exercise. But the new evidence shows creatine can grow some muscle even in those not currently training.

No Pain Gains?

To test whether creatine could deliver benefits even without exercise, researchers at Texas A&M University recruited 73 healthy, sedentary adults between 45 and 65 years old. Only 64 of them completed the 12-week trial.

Before supplementation began, participants chose whether they wanted to remain sedentary or join a structured exercise-and-weight-loss program. Within each of those groups, researchers then randomly assigned them, under double-blind conditions, to receive either creatine monohydrate or a maltodextrin placebo.

Those taking creatine consumed 10 grams per day, split into two five-gram doses taken morning and evening. Participants in the exercise group trained three times a week, combining resistance exercises with about 20 minutes of aerobic activity, while also following a modest calorie-restricted diet. The non-exercise groups continued their usual lifestyles.

Researchers measured body composition with DXA scans and tested strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, and several aspects of cognitive performance at the start, after six weeks, and again after 12 weeks.

“Of course, you get better effects with training,” Richard Kreider, a study author and director of Texas A&M’s Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab, told Health. But, he added, “anybody can take creatine and get some benefit.”

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But Are They Really Gains?

Creatine is made naturally in the body and is also found in foods such as meat and fish. Skeletal muscles store most of it, where it helps replenish adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the molecule cells use for immediate energy. Supplements can substantially increase those creatine stores, giving muscle cells a larger energy buffer.

That mechanism is well established during exercise, but how can people gain lean tissue and strength without training?

Part of the answer may be water. Creatine draws water into muscle cells, and a DXA scan cannot tell whether an increase in lean tissue represents newly built muscle protein or additional water. So the roughly 1.1-kilogram increase (which is simply huge if it were all muscle mass) may not be equivalent to 1.1 kilograms of newly grown muscle. Most of it is indeed probably water.

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A 2025 meta-analysis of 61 trials similarly found that creatine increased fat-free mass when combined with resistance training; its authors noted that some of the additional mass seen in less-trained people could reflect factors such as water retention.

Still, water alone does not readily explain the performance results. In the new trial, researchers also recorded improvements in leg-press and bench-press strength among people taking creatine without training. Participants who combined creatine with exercise generally saw larger gains.

Food for Thought

The researchers also found improvements on selected tests of memory and cognitive processing. But the pattern was uneven. Creatine did not improve several other tests of attention, working memory, and cognitive control.

Previously, a 2024 meta-analysis of 16 randomized trials found modest benefits for memory, attention time, and processing speed, but no significant improvement in overall cognition or executive function. And a European Food Safety Authority review reached a more skeptical conclusion, finding that the evidence did not establish a cause-and-effect relationship between creatine supplementation and improved cognitive function.

There are other reasons not to overread the new findings. Only 13 people completed the no-exercise creatine arm. Researchers let participants choose whether to exercise rather than randomly assigning them to that part of the experiment, and they followed them for only 12 weeks. It also used 10 grams of creatine daily, above the common maintenance dose of roughly 3 to 5 grams.

There is also a financial disclosure worth noting. Kreider has conducted industry-sponsored creatine research, received financial support for presentations, and serves on scientific advisory boards, including for AlzChem, a company that makes creatine monohydrate. That’s worth taking into account.

For now, the most defensible takeaway is narrower than “creatine replaces the gym.” It does not. But this small trial suggests that, particularly in middle age, some of creatine’s effects on lean mass and physical performance may appear even before someone starts training.

The study was published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.