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Nutrition Pills for athletes

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footballer55

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As a football player looking to maintain and grow in muscle, health, strength, and overall size, what kind of vitamin pills/supplements should I be taking?
 
May be a multi vitamin at most. What does your diet look like? What's your height and weight? If you have a sound eating program ( meats, veggies, fruits and nuts) you should be okay. You may not be getting enough calories. Also depends on your training program.
 
Unless you have some diagnosed deficiency spend your money on quality real food instead. Just like Shawn and Nate said.
 
I'll second and third the above. Proper nutrition and when you eat relative to your workout is very important to gaining size, every bit as important as your exercise regimen.

Make sure you get some protein and carbs about 40 minutes or so prior to your workout. Don't want cramps but don't want to wait too long either.

The only supplement I'd consider and in my experience the only one really worth taking is amino acids, making sure it contains a good ratio of BCAA (branched chain).

If you're getting a good supply already in your food this is unnecessary as well, so use common sense, eat right, train smart and you don't need any supplementation.
 
The only real medical recommendation made for the general population (i.e. those without a deficiency) in the Northern hemisphere is to supplement vitamin D if your diet is an inadequate source of this. It's quite possible to get enough in your diet, depending on where you live and if you prioritise your diet. With the winter months coming on it's one of the few I'd recommend getting your blood levels checked for, and maybe replacing if needed. If you work inside 9-5 it'd be quite easy to be deficient due to lack of sun.
I'm totally speaking from a place which probably overvalues vitamin D though, as a general practitioner (family doctor) who had a background in orthogeriatrics, where you can really see the harms of low vitamin D in the older population's bone health.
Also fish oil, Dan John loves that fish oil - but you can get that with a good varied diet including oily fish and it will be much more enjoyable. He has a pretty aggressive suggestion for a regimen in Easy Strength, which I wouldn't be keen to follow, but he knows a lot more about lifters and football players than I do!
 
And a multi-vitamin will often contain a decent amount of vitamin D - mine contains 1000 IU. People take a lot more than that, but taking that one pill every morning with some extra vitamins and minerals seems like a low-risk way to go for a starter.

-S-
 
This is a slippery slope. It would be very easy to rush right out and buy several things after you believe that maybe one thing has shown results. If you do start on something, ensure that is all you use for a good period of time (3 months?) to tell whether you've gotten results or not. I would recommend possibly an increase in good quality protein from milk and eggs. Eggs for breakfast and if you don't consume much milk I would say start with at least 3 - 12 oz. glasses of whole milk per day. If you have trouble with milk, then a good quality whey protein supplement may be the way to go.

The only other thing I would recommend is a high quality vitamin D supplement. As much as 5000 IU/day. The problem I believe with multi-vitamines is that the substances used to include that vitamin into a multiple are not as pure as it would be stand alone. Ensure when you look at ingredients that "soy" is not listed.

Now having said that, ensure you are on a good program that includes cleans or deadlifts, squats, a press, and a rowing motion. If you have someone locally that can teach you the "O" lifts get with them. Good luck
 
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