Nutritional supplements are taken to either combat a certain vitamin deficiency you may have in your diet or to boost it if you need more of it for a certain workout you are doing. It is always recommended that if you are looking to lose weight, gain muscle or get fitter to look around as to what the best diet is for your desired goal. The diet is the most important part, that is your lifestyle and if you have the ‘perfect’ diet then there is generally no need for supplements. For people looking to gain muscle for example, they will need to eat huge amounts of protein and it will be hard to get the vitamins they need from the food they have to eat, this is where supplements are needed. In this article I will list some of the different supplements in sports nutrition that it may be useful to take and explain what you should take them for.
B Vitamins and Choline
B Vitamins tend to be involved with the body’s metabolism so ensuring you have enough will directly affect your exercise potential. If you have good levels of Vitamin B your aerobic and anaerobic performance will increase. Niacin is useful in that as it blocks the release of free fatty acids but there has been research done that shows it can affect your aerobic endurance performance so if you are training for long distance running it may be worth avoiding it.
Antioxidants
Vitamins C and E as well as beta-carotine are excellent for exercise no matter what regime you are on. Two of the most important characteristics of them are that they enhance your physical performance so long as you are well-nourished and most importantly they help to stop tissue damage meaning that you shouldn’t get as many exercise related injuries. Ubiquinone (CoQ10) helps the oxygen intake of the heart and is used in the treatment for heart disease meaning that it would be very useful for aerobic endurance ability and exercise. However, in certain instances such as in cycling it has lead to an increased chance of tissue damage.
Multivitamins/Minerals
Multivitamins are only necessary for people who are not on a well balanced and nutritional diet. If you are simply trying to lose weight or gain overall fitness and you are eating well then there is no need to take multivitamins. If you are however training for extreme endurance or for weight gain because you are building muscle and are missing out certain types of food then it is advised to take them to keep your body healthy.
Author Bio
Sarah Hewitt is a new blogger who blogs about anything and everything. You can contact her via her Twitter page or Google+
