Could These Vitamins Be Sabotaging Your Strength Training?
Antioxidants help your body fight off cell-damaging compounds, but taking them in supplement form may actually reduce the effects of strength training, according to new research published in the International Journal of Exercise Science.
When women underwent a 10-week strength-training program while taking supplements of vitamins C and E, they saw no increases in lean muscle mass or decreases in body fat, while those taking no vitamins experienced changes in both after their lifting program.
The researchers believe some amount of oxidative stress is necessary in strength training because it helps your muscles use protein effectively.
Antioxidants are often touted for their ninja-like ability to knock out cell-damaging compounds. But new research suggests that for greater strength training gains, you may be better off without the hit squad.
First, a quick primer: There are certain factors like environmental toxins, circadian rhythm problems, cigarette smoking, chronic psychological or emotional upset, infections, and even a sedentary lifestyle that can kick off a metabolic process called oxidative stress.
That’s when free radicals-basically, unpaired electrons-start zipping around your body looking for a mate, damaging DNA along the way. If your body was Tinder, these are the jokers you want to swipe out of existence.
Previous research has noted that free radicals and the resulting oxidation are normal to some degree, but when there’s an overload, that’s when it leads to chronic and degenerative illnesses, including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune disorders. You also age faster, just to make it all worse.
Enter antioxidants. Your body already produces a bunch, but it sure helps to amp up that process in other ways, particularly by staying active, eating your veggies, getting enough sleep, implementing de-stress tactics, and supplementing with antioxidant vitamins like C and E.
However, the new study notes, if you’re looking to increase muscle mass, you may want to leave that last item off your antioxidant to-do list.
In the study published in the International Journal of Exercise Science, Brazilian researchers recruited 33 young, healthy women and split them into three groups: a control, a placebo, and a antioxidants/vitamins C and E group. Those taking the placebo and the vitamins underwent a strength training program for 10 weeks, with fat mass and lean muscle mass assessed multiple times, while the control group did not exercise.
After the 10-week period, only the placebo group-those weight lifting but not taking any antioxidant supplements-saw an increase in muscle mass and a loss in fat. They boosted their lean muscle by just over three pounds while losing about 1.5 pounds of fat.
Despite following the same lifting protocol, the people taking the antioxidant supplements did not experience any significant increase in muscle or decrease in fat.
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While the study did have its limitations-particularly its small sample size-the findings are intriguing in terms of how oxidative stress might play a role in strength training.
In fact, while we think of oxidative stress as harmful for our body, we may actually need it to reap the benefits of strength training.
Here’s why: When you lift weights, you produce oxidative stress, too. But that’s not a bad thing, because it helps your muscles use protein better, said lead researcher Martim Bottaro, Ph.D., professor at University of Brasilia.
Oxidative stress that’s produced by weight training increases the cell signals for protein synthesis, he noted. So, if you decrease your oxidative stress too much-by taking those vitamins, for example-then you can’t use protein as effectively. And that’s a bummer, because to increase muscle mass efficiently, you need to utilize protein for muscle building and recovery.
So even if you’re consuming the correct amount of protein for your strength efforts, but if you’re taking antioxidants, that protein won’t translate into muscle mass gains.
“The takeaway message from this research is that if you’re a healthy young person and want to improve body composition by lifting weights, you should avoid supplementation of antioxidants like vitamin C and E,” said Bottaro.
But, Bottaro added, keep in mind that age matters, as does the type of exercise you do.
As you get older, oxidative stress increases. The same is true with very high-intensity, high-frequency, and long-duration exercises such as marathons and century races. In those situations, antioxidant supplementation is useful, he believes.
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