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IMPORTANCE OF TAKING MULTIVITAMINS WITH AN ACTIVE LIFESTYLE

By on April 5, 2017
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By Michelle Goldrick

When you think about supplements form someone who hits the gym regularly you may be thinking of such products such as creatine, BCAA’s, glutamine, whey protein powder and perhaps some fat burners.  That is what you see advertised in most fitness magazines as being imperative products to be adding in right?

What if I told you that the most important supplement that you need to have within that arsenal is not on that list?  Could you guess which one I am talking about?  I am talking about your basic multivitamin.  Not taking this? Well you had better change that immediately if you want to hit those fitness goals.

For the human body to complete all the tasks it carries out on a normal day, it requires a wide and complex variety of vital nutrients.  Being deficient in any one of these essential vitamins or minerals will cause a breakdown of the metabolic pathway that produces optimum efficiency and performance goes down quick.  This is clearly what you would want to avoid right?  Whenever you ask your body to perform whether it be in the form of carrying a baby, athletic conditioning, sport performance, losing weight or even just the aging game….you need to supply the body with all and everything it needs starting on a cellular level.

By making sure you take a high potency, good quality multivitamin can help ensure the presence of those essential nutrients are there for thousands of metabolic reactions.  Bodybuilders, athletes and people who lead active lifestyles need even more of those nutrients then the average non-active person.  However, if you think grabbing the first one you see on the shelf is good enough, think again.  When it comes to vitamins, for the most part you truly get what you pay for.

However, the old adage “you get what you pay for” is especially true in the supplement and multivitamin arena. Supplement quality is loosely regulated in North America unfortunately, and some manufacturers need only to include a few basic vitamins and minerals in their formulation to create a “multivitamin.”

As a result, there is a pretty big range in both price and quality of multivitamins. You can be all but certain that if the price is dirt cheap, the quality is likely to be as well. Take many of the multivitamins available from groceries, pharmacies, and big box stores for example. The vast majority (if not all) are overly processed and contain poor quality ingredients, binders, unnecessary additives, food coloring, and preservatives.

Given this, it’s difficult to argue that one’s health isn’t worth the slightly increased cost of a quality nutritional supplement. We do ourselves a disservice when we forgo quality multivitamins for cheap supplements full of unnecessary additives and poor quality ingredients.

Fortunately, with a bit of information, you can spot the differences between poor and good quality nutritional supplements.

You wouldn’t buy a table with two legs.  You also wouldn’t build a house without a good foundation.  You should then realize that you can’t make the plan of getting in good shape without having a quality multi as the foundation of your supplement program.  This is the number one basic product I recommend on each and everyone of my programs as a staple.

Without the multi first in place, I am convinced that the other supplements you take will not be nearly as effective.  In the course of a serious training program, you will find support for faster recovery by implementing this in twice per day.

Sometimes you will find vitamins and minerals packaged separately, but most you will find to be packaged together, however there are significant differences between the two.

First, vitamins are organic.  They are far more complex then minerals.  All vitamins are required by our bodies for survival.  Vitamins control the chemical reactions within the body to convert food into energy and living tissue.   They are either water soluble which must be taken daily since they are not stored within the body (Vitamin C and all of the B vitamins) or fat soluble, which are stored in the body (A,D,E, and K)

Minerals are inorganic. They are much simpler in chemical form then your vitamins.  They are much more stable in food preparation then vitamins also.  Minerals are categorized as major/macro – calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride, magnesium and sulfur.  And trace/micro – iron, iodine, zinc, chromium, selenium, fluoride, copper and manganese minerals.

For the macro minerals we need dosages greater than 100 mg a day.  The micro nutrients we only need in “trace” amounts daily to be suffice.  Minerals are used to produce necessary hormones.  Essential in a training program, especially for my female clients.

Hopefully by now you are beginning to understand and appreciate the value of what a good quality multivitamin means to your fitness goals.  The protein powder, BCAA”s, glutamine and what ever else you add into your fitness regime are great, but however without a multi, you won’t be meeting your true fitness physical potential.  Start each and everyday with the keystone building blocks of a good solid physical foundation and make this a part of your everyday!

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DSC00551Michelle Goldrick is a London Ontario based certified personal trainer with over 20 year’s experience in the fitness industry, with adding in some additional certification in Pre and Post Natal Specialised Personal Training.  Over the years she has helped many women achieve and sustain their fitness and weight loss goals before, during and after pregnancy and into menopause.  Michelle trains out of her own home based personal training studio.  She also has a large online training client base.  Michelle is a wife, entrepreneur and a mother to a very active 5 year old daughter.

Most recently being a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed in September 2013 with mastectomy in December 2013, she now also understand the unique obstacles to overcome physiologically and emotionally that younger women with early age diagnosis go through.  Michelle can be reached at her social media accounts:  IG @gfitnessmichelle TWITTER @michelleGfit  www.michellegfitness.com

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