Patrick
When talking about diet and nutrition in terms of muscle building big hitting macronutrients such as carb, proteins and fat are usually the ones focused on and many tend to forget about the micronutrients that one should be implementing into their daily lifestyle.
These are the little less talked about nutrients most notable of which would be vitamins and minerals.
Micro nutrients are just as important if not more important as macro nutrients when it comes to muscle strength and recovery especially after an effective workout.
Especially since micronutrients are the ones that make up these bigger macronutrients.
Hearing how important these parts of a gym goers diet actually are you may be wondering what are the best vitamins and minerals for muscle growth and recovery? Look no further as here are the 7 best vitamins and minerals for muscle growth and recovery.
What Vitamins And Minerals Will Help Your Muscles?
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. Being water soluble It gets used faster than most things you eat which is good in this case as with the water that your body flushes out lactic acid from your muscles gets flushed out of you also.
As you may know lactic acid build up is fully responsible for delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) which causes the soreness you feel in a muscle or muscles after a workout and the days following.
Vitamin C also acts as an antioxidant by boosting the production of a certain connective tissue known as collagen.
Collagen is a connective tissue that works to connect and repair many other parts of your body such as blood vessels, joints and joint tendons.
The health of these important things are key to ensure healthy muscles during training and strong ones at that.
Vitamin B
Vitamin B is an interesting one with many benefits. It is also a very important one as all these vitamins and minerals are.
What makes Vitamin B an interesting one is it can work towards the same good cause but in two completely different ways.
This good cause of course being the enhancement of your muscles recovery and performance.
The two forms of this vitamin that are known to help towards this cause the most are vitamin B6 and vitamin B12.
Vitamin B6 is necessary to support the metabolism and usage of the protein you eat in helping to rebuild and recover your damaged muscle.
The more protein you eat the more vitamin B6 you should consume in order to promote the usage of what you eat and insure your protein does not go to waste but instead gets used to rebuild muscle.
Vitamin B6 is also very important because it is needed to properly absorb B12 into your body. Vitamin B12 is important because it is used in the process of creating red blood cells.
The more healthy red blood cells you have the more energy you will feel you have daily in or out of the gym. This also means you can deliver nutrients to your muscles and other parts of your body more efficiently which is key to recovering.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is one of the less talked about and underappreciated vitamins. Although it is an important one and without it you can say goodbye to your muscle gains.
Vitamin A is responsible for multiple things throughout the body but when it comes to your muscles Vitamin A plays a key role and is actually essential for protein synthesis.
Which is the breakdown of proteins in your body in order to use it to recover muscles and rebuild them bigger and stronger
Vitamin A also supports muscle growth and recovery in other ways such as helping your cells mature faster.
This ensures young or weakened cells can return to a level of high performance as quickly as possible.
Helping your muscles and everything supporting your muscles such as bones and tendons stay strong and healthy.
Vitamin A may also play a key role in promoting the production of testosterone within the body.
Testosterone of course being the main hormone responsible for your body’s ability to build muscle as well as burn fat.
Testosterone is the key hormone for anyone wanting to build muscle and be as fit as possible. It is not clear how this vitamin helps testosterone production but Vitamin A deficiency is almost always associated with below average testosterone levels.
Magnesium
People who are looking to add to their healthy lifestyle often focus on vitamins but even the ones who workout and are really into it more often than not forget about mineral supplements when it comes to nutrition.
Magnesium is a mineral that like other nutrients in this article helps to metabolize energy or in other words turn what you have eaten into ATP.
Anything that helps create ATP will always help with your performance and large potential for muscle growth that comes along with good performance.
This mineral also plays a big role in the actions your muscles perform such as contractions. Magnesium ensures a healthy contraction when needed from your muscles avoiding cramps and further improving performance.
Iron
Continuing to talk about minerals we have another important big hitter in Iron. Irons key role is a big one in allowing red blood cells the ability to carry oxygen throughout your body.
Without this happening you would not even be able to live let alone perform well.
But with an extra bit of iron in your body your red blood cells will be able to deliver oxygen more effectively then normal resulting in an increase in performance.
Iron also helps to break down the carbohydrates you eat in order to use them as fuel. Carbs is your muscles number one source of fuel so yet another reason iron helps with overall performance specifically during exercise.
Iron is probably the most common nutrient individuals are insufficient of.
This is due to a good amount of people being anemic, a condition where one’s body has a low number of healthy red blood cells. It is also due to low or no meat diets becoming more increasingly popular by the day.
So it is important to check your iron levels if you constantly feel tired or weak.
Adding an iron supplement or other high sources of iron into your diet can benefit you even if you are not low in iron or have these symptoms and is highly recommended for those who do not eat a lot of red meat.
Zinc
Zinc is another mineral which many, especially those who don’t eat meat in their diet are deficient of.
Zinc helps promote recovery in a slightly different way. Zinc helps to create nerve cells and is also essential just for normal nervous system function.
This on the surface may not sound too key to your recovery after a workout but it really is.
Proper recovery and growth not only relies on your muscles having a smooth recovery but also your mind and nervous system having a smooth recovery as well.
This aspect of recovery is equally as important; some would even go as far to say it is even more important.
Zinc does not forget about your muscles and their need for recovery though as zinc is known to be another mineral that contributes to your testosterone production. Making this the best of both worlds when it comes to overall recovery.
Coenzyme 10 (CoQ10)
CoQ10 is a substance that the body produces which is not officially a vitamin or mineral but it does act like one within your body.
CoQ10 is stored in your cell’s mitochondria where most of your energy in the form of ATP (ataman tri phosphate) is produced.
Likewise CoQ10 plays a key role in helping your mitochondria and your body in general create the energy you need to workout and recover from your workouts.
It does this by reducing the oxidative stress put on your cells and keeping your mitochondria performing at an adequate and more times then not an excellent level
As an added benefit by reducing the oxidative stress your cells experience this substance can also prevent heart attacks or other heart problems.
As these problems can often be caused by oxidative damage whether it be oxidative damage in your arteries or any other part of your circulatory system.
