BY THE EDITORS OF MAXIMUM FITNESS

A daily multivitamin and multi-mineral supplement can help ensure that your nutritional bases are covered and help your body stave off illness (think about it, if you’re sick in bed, you can’t be in the gym building muscle) and recover from the intense training sessions you encounter throughout your training program.

If you want to take it up a notch, you can also add a daily antioxidant cocktail of 1,000 milligrams of vitamin C, 400 international units (IUs) of vitamin E and 90 micrograms of selenium, which may help reduce the biowaste that is produced from muscle stress, lessen delayed-onset muscle soreness and speed up recovery, according to a study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. While some short-term tissue damage is an essential part of building muscle, excessive amounts can slow the process.

TAKE EXTRA VITAMIN D
The sunshine vitamin plays an essential role in building muscle, binding to specific receptors in muscle cells to enhance muscle contraction and protein synthesis. To make sure that you’re getting enough of this vitamin, take 1,000 IUs each day as cholecalciferol or vitamin D3.

Want more supplement information? Pick up the September/October issue of Maximum Fitness—on newsstands July 27, 2010.