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Vitamins and Minerals
Taking perfect blend of vitamins and minerals is key to maintaining good health and performance in the gym. Regular heavy strength training entails higher amounts of vitamins and minerals in the body, than daily amounts recommended for the general population.
Because of the hectic lifestyles, irregular eating habits, or calorierestricted diets, many athletes often fail to take required daily amount of vitamin and minerals. The vitamins and minerals intake below recommended daily amounts causes lack of energy, failure to gain expected size and strength. In addition to this, the low intake bears the possibility of minor infections and illnesses or more serious conditions such as stress fractures and anaemia.
Should multivitamin supplement be taken?
A multivitamin is like an insurance cover to your body in case you are unable to get enough nutrients from your food. The supplements should be regarded as top-ups and not the main suppliers of vitamins and minerals. They should not be used as an option to a badly planned diet.
However, they may be beneficial on following conditions:
- When your eating is erratic and you fail to take five portions of fruit and vegetables a day.
- When you put yourself on a diet with a restricted calorie, providing less than 1500 kcal/ day.
- When you fail to include one or more major food groups in your diet.
According to a study carried out in competitive bodybuilders, those consuming of 1500 kcal/day have considerably loss of the intakes of several minerals and eventually become susceptible to calcium, zinc, copper and chromium deficiencies. The study found that the intakes of folic acid, vitamin E, calcium, potassium and zinc in the competitive bodybuilders were less than 70 per cent of the recommended daily. These low intakes can be attributed to their low-calorie (food) intakes during the precompetition diet and also to their avoidance of dairy products. One of the major problems with many bodybuilders is that their diet is monotonous that focuses only on a few foods. Such diet can not provide them all the vitamins and minerals that they need for maintaining good health. Therefore, your diet should comprise a wide variety of foods to extract more vitamins and minerals.
Can supplements enhance performance?
It is good idea to gain advantage in performance and enhance the strength with the help of supplements. But so far there is no scientific evidence available on such effect of supplements.
According to a study carried out in the athletes, the athletes who were given vitamin and mineral supplements for a period of eight months could achieve any substantial gains in strength, power or endurance compared to those given placebo or dummy pill.
On the other hand, the study could not establish any health-boosting effects of supplements or their post- workout recovery. Considering the importance of vitamins and minerals in energy production, muscle building, formation of red blood cells and cell division, it is obvious that all of these processes can be optimized with adequate intake. You can achieve this through supplement as well. A sub-optimal intake would lead to reduction of the efficiency of these processes and slow down your recovery besides affecting your performance. The objective of taking supplement is to maintain 'normal' levels of "vitamins and minerals so as to support health and performance.
Is it possible to overdose on Supplements?
Excess supplements can not enable you achieve any further benefit. Sometimes the high doses can even prove to be harmful. If a pregnant woman takes regular daily doses of vitamin A more than 1500 micrograms, she may give birth to a baby with some inborn defects. Weakness and vomiting may result from a single dose of 150,000 micrograms.
In order to avoid excess doses, it is necessary to take the form of beta-carotene or carotenoid supplements which can be converted into vitamin A in the body as per the requirement. Some conditions like constipation or diarrhea, nausea and irregular heartbeats may follow if regular daily doses of vitamin D are greater than 50 micrograms. It may also cause calcium accumulation in the muscles. Most supplements include at least 10 micrograms of vitamin D. Nerve damage may be caused with the high doses of vitamin B6 (more than 2000 mg/day) if over a period of time. Taking all these facts into consideration it is necessary to check the amounts of these vitamins on the lebel and follow the doses recommended by the manufacturers.