Search Strategy
The systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) (25). Electronic and manual search was performed up to July 2020 in Embase, Medline, Cochrane Library, Scopus and a supplementary search in Google Scholar. The following medical subject headings (MeSH) and non-MeSH terms keywords were applied, including: “creatine”, “creatine monohydrate”, “creatine supplementation”, “creatine loading”, “exercise”, “physical exercise”, “eccentric exercise”, “aerobic exercise”, “athlete”, “muscle damage” “creatine kinase”, “lactate dehydrogenase”, “controlled trial”, “randomized”, “randomised”, “random”, “randomly”, “randomized clinical trial”, “RCT”, “blinded”, “double blind”, “double blinded”, “trial”, “controlled clinical trial”, “crossover procedure”, “cross-over trial”, “double blind procedure ”and “equivalence trial”. References lists of all studies and previous review articles were screened for more eligible studies identification.