Essential Workout Supplements: Everything You Need to Know

Besides the nutrients we get from our food, there are a plethora of supplements to choose from. These include multivitamins, fish oil capsules, protein powder, creatine, and so on. One trainer tells you to take creatine everyday, while another swears by fish oil capsules. In this article we are going to explore the essential workout supplements for general health and our metabolic processes. Additionally, what to look out for when you purchase them.

Should I Take Multivitamins If I Workout?

In most cases, the majority of us benefit from taking multivitamins because our average daily nutrition is very limited. However, watch out for the cheap multivitamins you are buying in the store. Chances are they are not able to be absorbed by our bodies. Besides that, multivitamins are a very important part of our essential workout supplements. 

Minerals in Multivitamins

When we eat any type of foods, such as vegetables, meats, and fruits, they are full of minerals. These minerals are attached to the proteins and tissues in the respective foods.

In the same way, most of the minerals we have in our bodies are attached to proteins. The enzymes are involved in many metabolic processes and jobs that take place. Enzymes are proteins that help with our metabolic processes and chemical reactions in our bodies.

The cheap multivitamin you are buying however, might just contain floating minerals, which our bodies cannot digest and use. Therefore it is important that you buy multivitamins that contain multi-minerals and are chelated.

Chelated minerals are processed so they are bound to amino acids. This way, it is easy for our body to absorb them, so they can go into our enzymes and be used for the various processes.

For instance, eating magnesium oxide is basically the equivalent of licking a piece of jewelry. We simply cannot eat metal and magically expect to have minerals in our bodies. For these minerals to partake in any of our bodily processes, they must first be broken down and go into our tissues. After that, we can actually absorb them.

Thus, we cannot eat crap and expect to have minerals and vitamins supporting our brain and other tissues. It is incredible how much garbage they are selling to us.

The minerals need to be digested by something else, before integrating into a tissue form we can actually absorb.

In other words, we want our multivitamin supplement to have the same minerals there are in the food we consume.

B-Vitamins in Multivitamins

Furthermore, we want to look at the vitamins that are in the multivitamin supplement we purchase. More specifically, the b-vitamins. When we are considering b-vitamins, it is important to know that a huge difference in human beings is their ability to convert b-vitamins. That is, convert them from one form to another and use them for metabolic processes and other jobs.

Thus, we want to make sure the b-vitamins we purchase are in their active state.

Meaning, they already are in the form that our body instantly can use for our metabolism. In this state, they do not need to be converted. It is important for various b-vitamins such as b12, b9, b2 and b1.

You can see if the respective vitamins are in their active form by looking at the label. Of course, it is more expensive to process them into this form, and manufacturers will portray this. We can look up the active form of each vitamin on the Internet.

But usually, there will be an explanation after the mention of each vitamin. For example, a multivitamin with the active form of folic acid, which is b9, is followed by l-methylfolate, which is the active form.

Though, if it says B6 and nothing after it, most likely it is not the active form. Because it costs more to extract the active form, manufacturers will always illustrate this.

How Bad Vitamins and Minerals Are Extracted

Many of us have gone into the trap of buying some cheap vitamins. Nonetheless, if you actually knew where they came from, you would probably reconsider buying them. Do not think they come from fruits and vegetables.

Some vitamins actually are extracted as the byproduct of kodak films. Yes, you read that right, kodak films.

They undergo some weird chemical processes that just happen to have these vitamins as waste products. In turn, these are put into your typical one-a-day vitamins. They are so hard and compact that we can see them on x-rays in some individuals as unprocessed vitamins, years after consumption.

Vitamins Should be Easily Dissolvable

Another important point to mention is that vitamins should dissolve easily. If they are too compressed, we are not be able to absorb them. You want to look for pills that dissolve as soon as water touches it.

Not something hard and compact that comes out in the toilet weeks after consuming it.

Moreover, we want to have phytonutrients from many different fruits and vegetables in our multivitamin supplement. They are natural compounds that we see in fruits and vegetables.

That way, we make sure we get a wide variety of nutrients we normally would not eat.

Most of us, usually have a diet which consists of 20 foods on average. With some added phytonutrients, we make sure we get nutritional benefits from foods we normally never eat. Instead of getting macronutrients from only a few fruits and vegetables, you can get them from 50 different ones.

Greens Powder Is an Essential Workout Supplement

Greens and plant powder is another essential workout supplement we love! You might eat some basic greens and plants like broccoli, spinach, bananas and apples, but that is only four. A powdered greens product gives you more than 30 depending on the product.

These powders are filled with antioxidants, macronutrients, polyphenols and plant nutrients that you might not get from your diet. Plant nutrients are vital because we use them for many processes in our body, such as detoxification and gene signaling.

Nearly all metabolic conditions and disease states are improved by consuming more plant nutrients, more specifically, phytonutrients.

Vitamin D

You might have heard of the recent spread on social media about people getting too much vitamin d. This may only be true in the “naughty” sense. Truthfully, most of us do not get enough vitamin d from our multivitamin supplements. But it is definitely one of the most essential workout supplements. 

For a vitamin d supplement to be effective, it should include vitamin k. It is important, especially if we are attempting to replenish the vitamin d levels in our bodies. Vitamin k helps us utilize our vitamin d supplementation.

Recommended Daily Allowance

The doctors usually say the recommended daily allowance of vitamin d is 2000 IU’s. Truthfully, if your vitamin d levels are very low, a dose of 2000 will not make any movement in your vitamin d levels.

For most individuals with low levels, we need a dose of at least 5000-10000 IU’s to see an increase in vitamin d levels.

When we test our vitamin d levels, we want to make sure we ask for vitamin d3 specifically. The doctors are usually happy if you are within the range of 2000. But that range actually only tells us you are not in the danger zone of disease. Which does not mean you have optimal health.

Therefore, you want to be on the higher end of the spectrum, at least 80. Here vitamin d levels will be more optimal for health reasons such as regulating hormones and glucose metabolism.

Meaning, for therapeutic levels of vitamin d, aim to be at the top of the range. And if we want to get to those levels through supplementation, it is vital that the vitamin d supplement also includes vitamin k.

It is important to note that taking vitamin d supplementation does not replace the importance of being outside in the sun. The sun has many other benefits besides vitamin d. But it might help you get enough vitamin d without having to sun-bathe your whole body every day.

Omega-3

Lastly, we are covering omega-3 as one of the essential workout supplements. Most omega-3 supplements come in various ratios of EPA and DHA.

EPA is mostly responsible for anti-inflammatory properties, while DHA is responsible for cognitive functioning and brain health.

In cases like pregnant women and brain fog issues, we want to use supplements that are higher in DHA. This is to supplement the growing baby’s brain health and cognitive functioning for the person with brain fog.

On the contrary, if we have a person with a history of bad diets, bad blood sugar levels, and a lot of inflammation, we want a more EPA dominant omega-3 supplement.

High Quality Omega-3 Is More Expensive

As for omega-3, it is a supplement we do not want to buy cheap. This is because omega-3 oxidizes rapidly, thus, it goes rancid very fast. Therefore, if they go bad during the process of creating the supplement, they will do you more damage than good.

When supplementing with omega-3 we want to consume healthy omega-3’s to replace them with bad ones. Thus, we want non-oxidized and healthy omega-3, which is then replaced with the bad omega-3’s.

Omega-3 is responsible for many processes such as cell membrane health and molecular signaling in the inflammatory processes. So, it kind of turns inflammation off, while omega-6 turns it on.

This does not mean omega-6 is bad, because we need inflammation sometimes. This is how our body recovers from injury, and how it knows that it needs to heal something.

What to Look for in Omega-3 Supplements

To make sure you buy healthy omega-3 supplements, it is important that they are not cleaned with solvents. If they are, they will be covered in fat and soluble chemicals. Moreover, they should also be low in mercury, other metals, and oxidation.

Of course, this is more expensive. But it is not worth ruining your health by buying rancid supplements.

There are only a few manufacturers of omega-3, and they sell the purest quality more expensive. When they extract the oil, they sell the highest quality batch at the highest price. Then, as the extracted quality lowers, they sell it at a lower price.

If you buy cheap omega-3, you get the lowest quality of omega-3 and the highest amount of bad omega-3. Therefore, prioritize your health, and buy the real stuff.

Conclusion

Our favorite essential workout supplements include multivitamins, vitamin d, greens powder and omega-3. These are supplements that not only help your muscle building goals, but also your overall health. You can take these supplements every single day, regardless what training phase you are in. Prices for quality products are higher, but it is always worth it. Consuming rancid products is not only a total waste of money, but also harmful to your health.

Thank you for reading our article!

– Terry Asher

Summary

Article Name

Essential Workout Supplements: Everything You Need to Know

Description

Many products are advertised as essential workout supplements. Most of them are garbage. We cover the high quality supplements!

Author

Terry Asher

Publisher Name

Gym Junkies LLC

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