Vitamin C For Weight Training

Vitamins and minerals play an important part in helping you to meet your weight-training goals. While you should ensure that you meet your recommended daily intake of all vitamins and minerals, a diet rich in vitamin C may be particularly beneficial when weight training. In addition to its involvement in preventing minor illnesses, vitamin C is essential for iron absorption, fat and cholesterol reduction and the development of healthy skin, muscles, bones and other tissues.

Antioxidant Properties

Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant, helping remove the free radicals that prey on healthy cells in the body. The buildup of free radicals is linked to abnormal cell growth and death, both processes that are involved in aging and the development of cancer. With similar processes contributing to arthritis and other joint conditions, vitamin C's antioxidant properties may help you to avoid joint damage and pain associated with weight training.

Despite such benefits, supplementation with antioxidants such as vitamin C may negatively interact with the benefits of weight training. Research published in 2009 in the journal "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" concluded that vitamin C supplementation may prevent your body from producing its own antioxidants. This, a study published in 2008 in the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition" reported, may reduce your endurance levels and prevent your muscles from adapting and developing with weight training.

Fat and Cholesterol

Vitamin C plays a vital role in breaking down fats and cholesterol. This both helps to promote heart health and assists you in achieving and maintaining a low body fat percentage as a result of weight training. In a 2007 study, Carol Johnston and colleagues at the University of Arizona found that vitamin C may help to reduce your body mass index and waist circumference. They write that vitamin C might have such an effect because it increases the impact of exercise on your body's ability to metabolize fats. In addition, the researchers note that people with lower body fat concentrations are better able to benefit from these effects, with vitamin C supplementation helping to break down fats more rapidly as you decrease your body fat percentage through weight training.

Iron Absorption

Vitamin C helps to build muscle mass by increasing your body's ability to absorb iron. Iron plays a vital role in the development of proteins and enzymes, both of which are essential to building muscle through weight training. Promoting the efficient transport of oxygen throughout the body, iron is essential to maintaining the energy levels required for weight training.

As noted by the National Institutes of Health's Office of Dietary Supplements, people who regularly perform intense exercise, such as weight training, may have insufficient iron levels. Due to the tissue damage induced by such exercise, the office suggests that weightlifters need 30 percent more iron to replace ruptured blood cells. By increasing your body's absorption of iron, vitamin C supplementation may help you to attain the high iron levels recommended for weight training.

Collagen Production

Collagen is an essential component of healthy skin, cartilage, bones and connective tissue. Safe progress when weight training relies on the healthy development of all of these aspects of your musculoskeletal system. Vitamin C is necessary for your body's production of collagen and, as such, vitamin C supplementation may help you to achieve your weight-training goals.

In addition to the development of bones and tissues, collagen plays an important role in repairing damaged tissues. With the great stresses placed on your body by weight training, vitamin C may help you to avoid unexpected delays in your workout schedule by helping you to quickly recover from aches, strains, sprains and other injuries.

Summary

Vitamin C has a number of important effects in your body. Despite its health benefits, vitamin C supplementation may interfere with some of your body's natural, beneficial responses to weight training. While these negative effects are hard to ignore, the benefits of vitamin C supplementation in weight training far outweigh the costs. By promoting iron absorption, oxygen transfer, fat metabolism and the development and repair of skin, bones, cartilage and connective tissues, vitamin C plays an essential role in helping you to realize your weight training goals. You should consult your doctor before taking vitamin C or any other supplements, and get a clean bill of health before beginning any exercise routine.