Multivitamins & Omega-3 – Two Ignored Supplements?

With all the talk these days being about which protein you are taking or which protein supplement your friends are using. It is common in most nutrition plans I see or talk to people about that the majority of the time people forget the basics and the simple essentials that help our bodies to function optimally alongside an exercise or training program.

I’m talking about Multivitamins and Omega-3 Supplements. Why are these important? Read below to find out.

Lets Start with Multivitamins. When you are exercising or training on a regular basis your body requires a load more vitamins than usual to make sure it can complete all its daily tasks on top of the added demands from living a more active lifestyle as essential minerals are lost and used up by the body in intense workouts. The vital nutrients needed by the body help to improve such basic things like increase energy and metabolic pathway regulation that ensures the metabolic reactions that happen in our body are efficient. This includes how your body utilizes the protein you may take after training.  The last thing you want is to let all your hard work go to waste by ignoring such a simple protocol of taking a Multi-Vitamin.

Don’t be one of those people that think you have planned your diet to perfection so you have nothing to worry about. The mistake here is that you spend all your time concentrating on hitting your macros (Carbs, Fats, Proteins) that you completely overlook the micronutrients that come from other sources. My conclusion on this is that the Multi-Vitamin should be the foundation of your supplement program and without them the other supplements you are taking will not be anywhere near as effective. Hopefully this has convinced you to look into this if you hadn’t already?

Moving on to Omega-3 and why this is another supplement that should be in your stack. First things first Omega-3 is one of the essential fatty acids (EFA’s) that the body is unable to produce itself so needs to outsource it from food and supplementation. Omega-3 and other EFA’s are crucial for repairing cell damage within the body, which is an ongoing process when exercising regularly. One of the main functions of Omega-3 in our diets is to improve joint health. Yep that’s right our joints are constantly under stress when we are exercising at high intensity and the last thing you want is for them to not be up to the task. Studies also show that sufficient amount of omega-3 helps us to increase muscle mass as well as increase fat loss around the abdominal region. Sure you can eat a ton of fish such as salmon but how likely is that going to be on a daily basis. You can save yourself a lot of money too by investing in a high quality Omega-3 supplement. With this in mind, building muscle or losing weight are both one of two goals that most of us will be looking to achieve and Omega-3 supplementation can be your best friend in helping you achieve them.

Hopefully this has got you thinking. It’s time to get these supplements into your diet and nutrition plan. Don’t ignore the science and let your body work at it’s optimal level

If you need some support on which ones are the best to select and where you can get them from then drop me a message or leave a comment below. Personally I use Opti-Men from Optimum Nutrition for my Multi-Vit and Reflex Nutrition for my Omega-3.

EJP