In order to get the best results from your workouts, it is a fact that you must make available to your body all the necessary vitamins and minerals in addition to enough of the major components of the diet i.e. protein, carbohydrate and fats and oils (lipids). The proteins, carbohydrates and lipids are the ‘macro-nutrients’ of the diet since they are consumed in much larger amounts compared to the ‘micro-nutrients’ which are the vitamins, minerals and other biological substances consumed in much smaller amounts in the diet than are the ‘macro-nutrients’, but are found in varying amounts accompanying the macro-nutrients in food.

We know that most of the micro-nutrients are already present in the foods that make up the macro-nutrients, but it has been proven that hard-training bodybuilders need a lot more than food can provide in terms of the micro-nutrients. Taking this into account and the stress factor that the body undergoes during training, a large amount of the micro-nutrients are needed in growth and body tissue repair. Therefore extra levels are required by the body which can not be acquired by food alone, which is where vitamin and mineral supplements come in and should be taken on a daily basis.

The important question is what to take and when during the day. A good time in the day to take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is during the first meal of the day and this meal SHOULD be breakfast. If you are inclined to miss out breakfast then you really are working against yourself in terms of any lean muscle mass gains that you would otherwise make if you did have a good breakfast on a daily basis. After you have been asleep for a good number of hours, on waking up your blood sugar level is low, and the body is at the point where it has to start accessing materials to raise blood sugar levels and this ALSO means that your muscles can be accessed to raise blood sugar i.e. the muscles are being broken down (catabolised) in such a way that is the exact opposite to what we have in mind which is building muscles (anabolism) i.e. BODYBUILDING!

Therefore, it is quite clear that a good breakfast is a very important meal, and along with milk to drink, an egg-white omelette with a couple of yolks only (using about eight or ten egg-whites is a good basis for a great breakfast; for example, you can add complex carbohydrates by having some boiled rice with your omelette, and dont forget that complex carbs are another very important part of breakfast and boost blood sugar levels steadily as they are digested). Don’t make the excuse that a good breakfast takes too long to prepare, because it doesn’t!

If you don’t have a very big appetite in the morning then just grab a banana, and don’t worry, as your appetite can be your guide, and will increase as you gain weight as you need to nourish new muscle tissue. You will also benefit from extra vitamin B-complex and C supplementation, as they are soluble vitamins and are used up quickly in general tissue metabolism especially when your muscles are growing !!!

So bring on board extra B-complex and C vitamins in the morning and before going to bed, and even before your workout that day. Complement the taking of these vitamins with increased fluid intake especially bottled water along with carbohydrate sports drinks. Optimum hydration is required to flush out waste products from the body tissues.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 4:27 am and is filed under Supplements. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.