Does a multivitamin help workout recovery? | Exercise.com Learn: Your Fitness Business Resource

Does a multivitamin help workout recovery?

Tyler Spraul is the director of UX and the head trainer for Exercise.com. He has his Bachelor of Science degree in pre-medicine and is an NSCA-certified strength and conditioning specialist. He is a former All-American soccer player and still coaches soccer today. In his free time, he enjoys reading, learning, and living the dad life. He has been featured in Shape, Healthline, HuffPost, Women's...

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UPDATED: Aug 25, 2020

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  • When your body is healthy, you will recover faster from exercise. As such, a multivitamin, in an indirect way, helps you recover after you work out.
  • Just because you are taking a multivitamin, that doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t need rest after a workout.
  • There are multivitamins designed specifically for athletes.

When your body is healthy, you will recover faster from exercise.

As such, a multivitamin, in an indirect way, helps you recover after you work out!

However, just because you are taking a multivitamin, that doesn’t mean that your body doesn’t need rest after a workout. In fact, no matter how healthy you are, you need to rest a day or two after you work out, depending on the intensity.

According to WebMD, the soreness you feel is normal as your muscle heals, but without rest, healing won’t occur.

It is difficult to get a common consensus regarding how much rest you actually need.

You can work out one muscle group and then switch to another muscle group the next day and another the third day to give each muscle group time to recover. You don’t have to simply lay around for a couple of days.

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Is There Anything That Can Speed up My Recovery Time After a Workout?

Scientifically speaking, there isn’t anything that will reduce your recovery time. There are plenty of supplement companies that claim that if you take their protein powder or creatine powder that you will recover faster after a workout.

The problem is, they don’t actually have scientific evidence to back up these claims.

According to the FDA, if a claim for a supplement seems too good to be true, then it probably is. You need to stick to what can be proven, not what you see on bodybuilding websites, in magazines, and in advertisements.

A good massage, ice, and rest are the best ways to recover after you work out. Keep in mind that being sore is perfectly normal and you don’t need to wait until you are no longer sore to work out again.

You could be sore for well over a week if you are new to working out and you don’t want to undermine the work you have done by taking too much time off! According to WebMD, when you become stronger you are going to notice less soreness after you work out a particular muscle group.

This does not mean that you don’t need to rest, only that you are getting stronger, which is a good thing!

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Are There Multivitamins Recommended for People Who Work out a Lot?

Yes, you will find that there are multivitamins designed specifically for athletes. What’s more, there are vitamins for athletes that are geared specifically for men or specifically for women. There are even vitamins that target specific types of sports!

The reason that there are multivitamins targeted at athletes is that when you work out, your body often uses up more vitamin and mineral stores than the average person. This is certainly not the case with all vitamins, so you do need to be careful about taking too much of a vitamin and causing toxicity.

A good way to ensure that you are only getting what your body needs is to ask your doctor to run a blood panel that includes all of the essential vitamins that your body needs. A good time to do this is after a workout so that you can see if your levels get too low in any particular vitamin type.

A test like this might be expensive, but overdosing on some types of vitamins can actually lead to serious medical conditions that are permanent and even death in some cases. You should never load when it comes to vitamins and minerals.

Where Can I Find the Best Multivitamin for Athletes?

You can read about the different ingredients that you find in the vitamins if you have any questions about how good or bad an ingredient might be for you. What’s more, if you have a reaction to a vitamin that you take, then you can have a full understanding of what ingredient might be responsible for that reaction.

The best way to find a multivitamin for your athletic needs is to base your decision on your bloodwork and a recommendation from your doctor. Comparing different vitamins will also help you get the lowest price for the product that you need, which is always a good thing!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

– Do I have to take supplements?

Unless your doctor has instructed you to take certain supplements, you do not have to take them.

– Are supplements safe?

Whether or not dietary supplements are safe to take depends on a number of factors. Learn more about the safety of supplements here.

  What supplements do I need to take?

No one can answer that aside from your doctor. To learn more about the various supplements that doctors commonly recommend, check out this article.

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