3 Nutrients You Need More Of To Maximize Lean Muscle and Minimize Fat - Part 2
Okay, let us pick up where we left off. If you recall, what we are doing in this series of articles is opening your eyes to the 3 vital nutrients that are most often neglected, taken for granted, and/or ignored. And if you don’t ignore them, you probably are certain to be one of many not paying the due attention to these nutrients. Attention that not only these nutrients deserve, but you deserve in order to reap the full benefits of your workout and quest towards a lean and muscular body. These 3 little nutritional gems in the fitness and bodybuilding world are:
1. water,
2. vitamins and minerals,
and
3. essential fatty acids.
Last month, we discussed in Part 1, the very importance of water in your quest for muscle building and fat loss. Here in Part 2 we are going to uncover the importance of Vitamins and Minerals.
Multi-Vitamins and Multi-Minerals
The importance of vitamins and minerals can't be overstated. Every function in the body is directly or indirectly controlled and assisted by the essential vitamins and minerals. This is a primary reason why each serving of a quality meal replacement product contains 50-100% of all essential vitamins and minerals.
Until recently, the vast majority of nutrition experts said, “eat a balanced diet and you’ll get all the nutrients you need”. Busy people in the real world know that’s not adequate. Now, science is starting to provide evidence of the benefits.
Scientists at Boston University revealed that people who took a potent multivitamin, such as VGF 25+, had higher blood levels of several vitamins and minerals compared to a group of people that did not. These scientists suggest that a higher level of these nutrients circulating within the system provides greater health benefits, such as more effective protection against the toxins, pollutants and free radicals that are generated within our bodies. Ineffective elimination of these compounds leads directly to poor athletic performance, a decline in health and an accelerated aging process.
Every athlete needs a good multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement. This ensures you a complete spectrum of all the vitamins and minerals your body needs to carry out the millions of intricate functions your body goes through every second of the day.
Most athletes are so busy looking for that magic supplement that they tend to forget the basic needs of the human body for every single function it goes through. You need a continual supply of vitamins and minerals to assist all the activities that govern every growth process in the human body. By looking for that "magic supplement", many of you have ignored the basic micro-nutrients that are absolutely essential to muscle metabolism. This is where the basic multivitamin comes in.
Here's a little experiment you can try. Add a high potency multivitamin/multimineral supplement to current supplement program. I have to recommend VGF 25+ for MEN or WOMEN. They are designed specifically for high demands. Take it 2 to 3 times daily. After one month I guarantee the results you get will convince you to never go a day without "taking your vitamins". I highly recommend taking 1 tablet two times a day.
Get a well developed multivitamin/multi-mineral for the demanding needs of the athlete. One look at the ingredient panel will tell you just how potent one is. Forget about the "one-a-day" vitamins. I don't know of any multivitamin supplement that is adequate by just taking it once daily. The whole "one-a-day" concept was developed for convenience and not as a result of the supplements functional properties.
Depending on your diet and activity levels, even twice a day might not be enough. Many vitamins and minerals are cleared from your system in just a few hours. And what most people don't realize is that the basic vitamins and minerals control every single function of the human body. Protein synthesis, hormone production, muscle energy, carbohydrate metabolism, brain function, you name it, are all dependent on the basic vitamins and minerals.
James Cipriani, ISSA-CPT
Cutting Edge Personal Training
(203)775-5128
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Article Of The Month
11/20/2006
James Cipriani
Cutting Edge Personal Training
