admin When you train regularly, your vitamin needs can increase because these are key pieces in the reactions that take place in your body to produce energy and synthesize new tissues, as in the case of muscle hypertrophy.
However, evidence indicates that these additional vitamin requirements can be well covered by an adequate intake of nutrient-dense foods.
So if vitamins are so important for energy and tissue production, are taking vitamin supplements going to increase my performance during training?
The answer is no, vitamin supplementation does not increase performance, except in cases where there is a previous vitamin deficiency.
Vitamin deficiencies can appear when diets are not complete or when energy intake is too low; this deficit could affect the ability to train or increase the risk of injury and illness. In these cases, once the deficiency has been diagnosed by a health professional like Vie Aesthetics Harley Street, the use of a vitamin supplement could allow normal performance to be restored. To prevent future vitamin deficiencies, it is essential to determine the factor that has caused it.
Antioxidant vitamins
Supplements of antioxidant vitamins C and E, whose role in the body is very important by protecting us from oxidative damage, are very popular.
The practice of exercise produces an increase in oxidative stress in our body, but at the same time, people who practice sports also develop more powerful antioxidant defense systems.
The consumption of foods rich in antioxidants such as fruits and vegetables, within a varied diet, can help maintain an adequate antioxidant status.
Chronic consumption of high-dose antioxidant supplements not only does not improve performance, but it can even impair the beneficial adaptations that occur in our body when we train. This is because the molecules that produce oxidative stress, free radicals, also help signal numerous beneficial adaptations to training.
Recent evidence supports that occasional supplementation of antioxidant vitamins could be beneficial in those workouts that, due to their high intensity, duration and/or conditions, produce very high levels of free radicals that can become harmful.
Vitamin D
Vitamin D deficiency affects a large part of the population. The main source of this vitamin is sun exposure and in addition to playing a fundamental role in bone health, it is increasingly being attributed more relevance in muscle function.
Different factors such as, for example, living in countries with fewer hours of sunshine, training and competing mainly “indoors” or in the winter months, can increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency and, therefore, harm both health and sports performance.
Vitamin D supplementation to correct diagnosed deficiencies must always be monitored, since excessive levels can become toxic.
Other considerations
In vegetarian diets, by excluding foods of plant origin, vitamin B12 supplementation, always under professional supervision, becomes essential. At other stages of life, such as during pregnancy or illness, there are special needs for vitamins.
In conclusion, vitamin supplements are not necessary to train, unless we have a diagnosed vitamin deficiency. A varied, sufficient and balanced diet can usually cover the increased vitamin needs caused by training.
