Looking to get big and jacked, bro?
Ready to make some serious gains in the gym, bro?
Yeah, of course, you are; that’s why you need to dry scoop the creatine, brah!
In all seriousness, there’s nothing wrong with being enthusiastic about getting in shape, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to improve your physique and your quality of life by lifting weights, with the help of beneficial supplements.
Anybody looking to use supplements to help with muscle growth will no doubt have heard about creatine, and rightly so.
Creatine is one of the most popular fitness supplements on the market today, and it has been linked with numerous benefits from an aesthetic and physical standpoint.
While supplements can only do so much, if you are training hard and eating right, supplements such as creatine could really help you take your physique up a level.
As great as creatine is, what isn’t great is young kids hopping on social media trends and using supplements the wrong way just for clout online.
Not too long ago, gym bros on TikTok started recording themselves dry scooping their whey protein, and even their pre-workout.
But what is dry scooping and can you dry scoop creatine?
Let’s find out.
How this madness looks like:
What Is Creatine?
Before we look at dry scooping, we first need to make sure you’re all familiar with what creatine is.
Creatine is the second most popular sports supplement in the world, behind whey protein.
Bodybuilders swear by it and it is a staple in most bodybuilders’ supplement stack, along with powerlifters, strongmen, pro athletes and gymgoers.
But what the heck is it?
Creatine is a naturally occurring amino acid substance found within our own muscle cells and our brains. It is also found naturally in red meat and some types of seafood.
Creatine within the body is stored as ‘phosphocreatine’, where it is kept in the muscles and is used to help facilitate the production of Adenosine Triphosphate or ATP for short.
ATP is the primary source of energy for muscle cells.
By increasing creatine consumption in the form of supplements, we can increase the amount of ATP that our bodies produce.
Why is this important?
With more ATP present, our muscle cells will have more energy, which means that the muscles can work harder.
If the muscles can work harder, this means that your workouts will be more effective, so you’ll be more productive.
Supplementing with creatine could help you to exercise harder and for longer and get more done.
95% of creatine found in the body is found within the skeletal muscles so that alone shows just how important creatine is for the muscles.
The amount of creatine that we produce naturally is nowhere near enough to provide any athletic benefits which are why creatine supplements are so popular.
Creatine supplements are easy to use, they’re affordable, and they’re very effective.
Can they be dry scooped? Well, that remains to be seen.
What Is Dry Scooping?
In order to answer the question, we first need to understand what dry scooping is.
We’re not sure where dry scooping first originated or why, but it’s a stupid trend that needs to go away.
Browse TikTok or Instagram and you may come across gym bros, or “Brosettes”, who are filming themselves taking their supplements in the form of dry scooping.
Ordinarily, to consume creatine it’s recommended that you mix 5g with a glass of water or the liquid of your choosing.
When dry scooping, people simply take the scoop that is provided with the powder, load it up, tip the scoop into their mouths and then simply attempt to swallow the dry powder down without any liquid, similar perhaps, to the cinnamon challenge you may have seen online over the years.
As far as we can tell so far, there is no logical benefit to dry scooping, other than to try to show off online and draw attention to yourself as you used to at school.
In fact, there are risks associated with dry scooping that we’ll be looking at a little later on.
Initially, dry scooping was seen as something done by meatheads in the gym because they were “too hardcore” to bother with liquid.
After all, why would they make it more comfortable for themselves by mixing their powders with water when they could just choke it down in a claggy, powdery mess and cough half of it all over the gym floor?
Younger and impressionable men saw bigger gym rats doing this and started copying, before ‘dry scooping’ became a trend online. ‘Dry scoop challenges’ were encouraged and soon people in the fitness community decided, for some inexplicable reason, that this would be their preferred method of taking their various powders, including creatine.
So, can you dry scoop creatine? Well, you can, although we don’t understand why you would, hey, maybe that’s just us?
Common Myths Surrounding Dry Scooping Creatine:
Creatine is a very beneficial supplement, and it is fantastic for anybody looking to bulk up, build muscle, burn fat, increase strength, or increase their energy levels. Despite all of this, people still insist on dry scooping it.
To help us try to understand why dry scooping is a thing, here’s a look at some common myths surrounding dry scooping creatine that are simply not true.
Dry Scooping Means Creatine Is Absorbed Faster!
Wrong.
Some people incorrectly believe that mixing creatine with water slows down the rate of digestion and that by putting the scoop directly into their mouth and swallowing the powder, it will be absorbed quicker.
This is not the case.
Mixing creatine with water and then drinking it actually speeds up the rate of absorption so it can get into your bloodstream quicker and reach your muscle cells quicker.
If you dry scoop the creatine it first needs to be dissolved and broken down before it reaches the bloodstream, so it actually takes longer.
You can get a full explained guide about how long does it take for creatine to work.
Dry Scooping Makes You An Alpha!
Definitely not true.
Some people are seemingly so obsessed with looking like an ‘alpha’ that they will go to great lengths to try to convince people that they are, when in fact the exact opposite is true.
Alphas don’t care about being alpha, they just are.
Alpha males focus on themselves, they don’t care about what other people think, and they certainly don’t think that taking creatine powder dry makes them look tough or intimidating.
Remember, ‘wolves don’t concern themselves about the opinions of sheep’, or something similarly cool sounding along those lines.
Dry Scooping Creatine Feels And Tastes Nicer
If you think that swallowing a dry powder at once with no liquid feels nicer than mixing it with liquid, we’re not sure we can help you.
Some people believe, or claim to believe, that dry scooping creatine supplements are more pleasurable than mixing them with water, or another flavoured liquid. While this is subjective, we can’t see it ourselves.
Some creatine powders are flavoured and are designed to be mixed with water to help dilute the flavour. Dry scooping means that the flavour isn’t diluted down and so would be very strong and overpowering.
There’s also The matter of swallowing dry powder!
Swallowing dry powder is not more enjoyable or easier than drinking a liquid, no matter what anybody else says.
Dry Scooping Creatine Makes You Look Cool!
Dry scooping creatine powder does not make you look cool, tough, attractive, or anything similar for that matter, it makes you look like an attention seeker.
Some people who dry scoop creatine do so, just to try and show off to other people in the gym, or to people watching on social media.
When people see others dry scooping, they don’t think they’re cool, they simply think they’re crazy and aren’t thinking straight.
Dry Scooping Creatine Is Easy
Finally, the last myth associated with dry scooping creatine is that doing so is easy. It’s not.
To dry scoop creatine, you need to make sure you get all the powder in your mouth, you need to control your breathing to make sure you don’t inhale it by accident, and you need to then try to build enough saliva to moisten the powder so that it can be swallowed.
Who needs this kind of hassle when you can simply add a scoop of creatine to your beverage of choice, give a mix or stir, and then just drink it down comfortably like you would with any other liquid?
Things To Know About Dry Scooping Creatine
While you can dry scoop it, that doesn’t mean you necessarily should. You can jump off a cliff, but we wouldn’t recommend you do so.
If you are insisting on dry scooping creatine supplements, however, here are some things to consider beforehand, which may help you to see sense and change your mind.
Dry Scooping Does Not Make Creatine More Effective
We touched upon this earlier, but just to be clear, dry scooping creatine will NOT make it any more effective.
The optimal serving of creatine is 5g per day, and the body does not give a damn how that 5g enters your body. Creatine dry scooping will not cause it to enter your bloodstream any faster, in fact, it will likely have the opposite effect.
Creatine is not a supplement designed to be used quickly anyways, so you shouldn’t even be in a rush to get it into your system as quickly as you can because it’s pointless.
One of the main reasons why people assume that dry scooping creatine helps get it into the body quicker is because there is some sediment left over when you dissolve creatine in water.
The truth is if it doesn’t dissolve quickly in water, why would it dissolve any quicker in your stomach?
Carbs Taken With Creatine May Be Better For Creatine Retention
If you are looking to get more creatine into your muscles, rather than dry scooping, try consuming it with a carbohydrate source instead.
There is evidence to suggest that consuming a carb source with creatine helps assist with creatine retention, so your muscle cells absorb and retain more creatine, rather than letting it go to waste.
This is more effective than taking creatine powder dry, and there is even anecdotal evidence to back this up.
Dry Scooping Creatine Could Be Wasteful
With everyday living prices soaring, inflation creeping up, and supplements becoming more expensive than ever before, every cent matters.
After picking up a tub of your favourite creatine monohydrate powder, the last thing you’re going to want is to waste the powder.
If you dry scoop creatine, however, that is exactly what could happen.
If you watch some of the videos of people dry scooping online, you’ll find that they sometimes cough and choke on the powder, causing it to fly everywhere other than down their throats.
This is incredibly wasteful and can easily be avoided.
Dry scooping creatine also causes the powder to clump together and become claggy in the mouth and teeth. If the creatine is stuck to the roof of your mouth or between your teeth, it’s obviously not in your system being used as fuel for your muscles.
By mixing creatine with water, you simply drink it down and can consume every last milligram of the supplement, making it much more beneficial and effective.
Dry Scooping Creatine Powder Could Cause A Choking Hazard
We’ve all seen the cinnamon challenge and how so many people struggle to swallow the powder. Rather than swallowing it, what usually happens is that the powder is inhaled and causes them to choke, cough, and splutter uncontrollably.
Dry scooping creatine is no different. Any powder consumed dry will likely irritate your throat and cause you to cough and splutter.
Creatine dry scooping puts you at risk of choking as the powder could constrict your airways, making it hard for you to breathe.
Okay, while the likelihood of you choking to death while dry scooping creatine is highly unlikely, it is still dangerous.
Besides, you won’t look tough, or alpha, if you’re in the corner of the gym, coughing your guts up, covered in creatine powder and saliva because you tried to dry scoop rather than take it like a normal adult.
Dry Scooping Creatine May Be Bad For Your Teeth
Some creatine supplements out there contain citric acid and other flavourings and ingredients that can damage the teeth.
Citric acid is often used to give creatine supplements a sour, sharp, and tangy flavour.
Flavours such as lemonade, raspberry sour, and lemon-lime usually contain citric acid.
Citric acid is very bad for the enamel on our teeth as it can stick to them and eat away at the enamel.
Dry scooping creatine means that accumulations of powder are likely to build up on and around the teeth, which over time, could really eat away at the enamel.
If you’re dry scooping every day, your teeth will soon start to pay the price.
Not only will this lead to tooth sensitivity issues, but it can also lead to tooth decay, and nobody wants that, right?
People Don’t Care That You Dry Scoop Creatine
Finally, no matter how many likes some dude on TikTok might have gotten when he uploaded a video of himself dry scooping creatine before he went to train chest and biceps for the fifth time that week, the truth is that people don’t care whether you dry scoop or not.
People have far better things to do with their lives than worry about how a stranger on the internet consumes his or her creatine powder.
Dry scooping creatine won’t make you the envy of other gym-goers, all it will likely do is attract a few trolls online.
How To Dry Scoop Creatine?
Seriously?
After all, we’ve said so far you’re still insisting on dry scooping creatine?
Okay, don’t say we didn’t warn you.
If you do insist on dry scooping creatine, we’d rather you did it correctly to avoid wastage and save you some embarrassment.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to dry scoop creatine.
- Carefully take a scoop of creatine and empty it into your mouth, making sure not to swallow.
- Now, take a little water and carefully take a small sip, making sure not to spill the powder.
- Resist the urge to take a deep breath or cough with dry creatine powder in your mouth.
- Now, mix the creatine with the water in your mouth carefully until it’s clumped together to form a thick paste.
- Swallow your creatine paste mixture.
- Ask yourself why you went to that much trouble when you could add a scoop of creatine to a shaker cup of water, screw the lid on, give a good shake, and drink it straight down.
Can You Dry Scoop Creatine?
As we’ve established, you can dry scoop creatine, yes. Do we think you should? Absolutely not.
There are no benefits to dry scooping creatine or any other powder, and in fact, there are more risks. We, therefore, recommend that you use creatine as instructed on the tub and that you do NOT dry scoop unless it is literally the last resort.
