How to Use Vitamins to Improve Athletic Performance
Athletes of all types are sure to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of supplements, protein powders and hydration drinks that are all claiming to be the next best thing. If you are trying to improve your performance in any way it’s easy to feel like you can’t tell the difference between one product to the next. But what is at the root of all these products and what is it that actually helps your body perform at a higher level? B vitamins can play a huge role in optimizing performance and getting more vitamins is not as complex as it seems.
We’ve given an overview already of all of the B complex vitamins and what roles they each play. Overall, B vitamins are critical for athletic performance because they help turn your food into energy and they aid in cellular repair and production. When you engage in high-intensity exercise, your muscles lengthen and theoretically experience damage. Your body then helps repair the muscles with rest and adequate nutrition that includes many different B vitamins.
Where we start to see issues with athletes is when there is some form of diet restriction involved, particularly when a specific food group is completely eliminated.
Because athletes are typically in need of more fuel and energy for the body than non-athletes, deficiencies end up being more common. Additionally, if an athlete who already requires more B vitamins starts restricting a certain food group, the possibility for deficiencies become even greater.
Finding the balance can be tricky though with making sure you get the vitamins you need without overloading your body with too many vitamins. Typically, anything in excess of what the body requires is excreted, usually through urination. So, don’t be fooled into taking huge amounts of vitamins to increase your performance because there is not a continued improvement once your body has what it needs.
If you are an athlete looking to improve your performance, the good news is that you can get back to starting with the basics. It is essential that you are following a diet that gives you all of the vitamins and minerals your body needs to increase energy, repair your muscles and support your body at the cellular level.