To achieve optimim results from training, it is necessary that you must supply your body with all the correct vitamins and minerals as well as enough of the major components of the diet being proteins, carbohydrates and fats. These are called the 'macro-nutrients' of the diet as they are needed in much larger amounts compared to the micro-nutrients' being the vitamins, minerals and other biological substances which are needed in much smaller amounts in the diet than are the 'macro-nutrients', but are found present in different amounts accompanying the macro-nutrients in food.



It is true that most of the micro-nutrients are already present in the foods that make up the macro-nutrients, but hard-training bodybuilders havebeen shown to require much more than food can provide in terms of the micro-nutrients which are often lost out of foods through cooking. In addition, the stresses of training the body uses up a large amount of the micro-nutrients in growth and repair of body tissues, and extra levels are required at amounts that could not be acquired by food alone, and so are taken via a few pills from a health-food store in the morning, evening, and with meals.

The important question is what to take and when during the day. A good time in the day to take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement is during the first meal of the day and this meal SHOULD be breakfast. If you are inclined to miss out breakfast then you really are working against yourself in terms of any lean muscle mass gains that you would otherwise make if you did have a good breakfast on a daily basis. After you have been asleep for a good number of hours, on waking up your blood sugar level is low, and the body is at the point where it has to start accessing materials to raise blood sugar levels and this ALSO means that your muscles can be accessed to raise blood sugar i.e. the muscles are being broken down (catabolised) in such a way that is the exact opposite to what we have in mind which is building muscles (anabolism) i.e. BODYBUILDING!

Therefore, as you can see, a good breakfast is a very important meal, and along with milk to drink, an egg-white omelette with a couple of yolks only (using about eight or ten egg-whites is a good basis for a great breakfast; for instance, you can add complex carbohydrates by having some boiled rice with your omelette, and indeed, complex carbs are another important part of breakfast and boost blood sugar levels steadily as they are digested).No making the excuse that a good breakfast takes too long to make, because it doesn't!

If you dont have a very big appetite in the morning then just grab a banana, and don't worry, as your appetite can be your guide, and will increase as you gain weight as you need to nourish new muscle tissue. You will also benefit from extra vitamin B-complex and C supplementation, as they are soluble vitamins and are used up quickly in general tissue metabolism especially when your muscles are growing !!!

Therefore, it would be a good idea to try supplementing with extra B-complex and C vitamins in the morning and before sleep, and perhaps before your workout that day. When using high levels of vitamins such as this, remember to take in extra amounts of water / fluids which may come from just drinking water (recommend bottled water) or water used in making brand-name carbohydrate sports drinks and for mixing your creatine with. Consuming a couple of litres of fluid each day may be enough for some, not enough for others. Optimum hydration is required to flush out waste products from the body tissues that lower levels of fluid intake could not accomplish.

Until next time, train hard and be strong !!!