Athletes often think that by eating enough food and drinking enough water each day they’ll provide their bodies with enough energy to train hard and fully recover. However, athletes don’t just need enough food and water to perform their best – they also need the proper amount of micronutrients for their bodies to function properly.
Micronutrients, such as vitamins and minerals, carry out essential metabolic processes and aid the body with recovery, muscle growth and development, and energy production. Some of the most common micronutrients required by athletes for proper function include calcium, iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium, and sodium. Vitamins A, B6, B12, and D are also extremely helpful with overall metabolism and transforming an athlete’s food into energy.
When searching for a multivitamin, athletes should look for a product that provides a variety of vitamins and minerals along with the key micronutrients required for optimal performance and recovery. Multivitamins should also be free of additives or fillers and should be easy to digest.
In this article, we’ll review the best multivitamins for athletes and explore their many health benefits. Not only do these products contain all of the necessary micronutrients needed by athletes but they oftentimes come customized to each athlete’s needs.
Comparison of the 5 Best Multivitamins for Athletes
Performance Lab
Performance Lab
This ultramodern multivitamin is designed to improve overall health and enhance peak human performance in male athletes.
Ritual
Ritual
This minty multivitamin - developed by Harvard-trained scientists - helps teens ages 13-17 to fill in nutrient gaps.
Persona
Persona
This multivitamin pack is custom-tailored to each athlete's unique health needs through the use of a highly-detailed online questionnaire.
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BUY HERERootine
Rootine
Rootine’s custom vitamin packs take into account your DNA, blood levels, and lifestyle habits to make sure you’re only the vitamins you need.
Future Kind
Future Kind
Future Kind has identified the three key nutrients that vegans are most commonly deficient in and has removed everything else that is non-essential.
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BUY HERE5 Best Multivitamins For Athletes
Best Multivitamin for Athletes: NutriGenesis® Multi by Performance Lab
The NutriGenesis® Multi is an ultramodern multivitamin designed to improve overall health and aid human performance. This multivitamin product contains over 17 essential daily vitamins and minerals and has two separate formulations for men and women.
NutriGenesis® Multi is made with whole-food cofactors to aid absorption and is encapsulated in NutriCaps® to promote digestive comfort.
The female version of this multivitamin contains higher amounts of folate, calcium, iron, and magnesium to help support healthy hormonal function and reduce the risk of forming iron-deficiency and osteoporosis.
The male version of this multivitamin contains higher amounts of zinc and potassium in order to support healthy testosterone levels and maintain normal blood pressure.
Plant-based and vegan friendly
Free of additives, GMOs, and allergens
Optimal dosages
4 capsules per serving
Only available for purchase on their website
Best Multivitamin for Teenage Athletes: Ritual Essential
Most multivitamins contain vitamins that you may already have enough of. Some people assume that the more vitamins you take, the better your body runs. However, that’s not necessarily true.
Although our bodies can use most of the vitamins we consume, they will excrete some of the excess vitamins through urine and sweat. Additionally, we get some of our vitamins through our drinks along with our normal diets thus leaving us with unnecessary, extra vitamins that end up being wasted.
Ritual solves this problem by only giving you certain vitamins that your body may not always get from food alone.
Essential For Teens contains 9-10 key nutrients needed for the proper growth and development of teen girls and boys who are ages 13-17.
Contains heart-friendly fat – Omega 3
Delayed-release capsule
Vegan-friendly & allergen-free
Lacks iodine
Best Personalized Multivitamin: Persona Vitamins
Persona Nutrition provides athletes with their own personalized, monthly subscription vitamin pack to best meet their specific health needs.
In order to best customize individual vitamin packs, customers should initially complete a quick assessment on Persona’s website to receive personalized, science-backed supplement
recommendations. Specific questions on this assessment gather information on specific types of diets, allergies and food sensitives, health conditions, medication use, and more.
Alternatively, customers may also use the option to filter vitamins by certain health needs on the products page. Products that are specifically offered as ingredients tailored to fitness include Arginine w/ Ornithine, BCAAs, CoQ10, and MSM.
All vitamins and supplements offered by Persona adhere to FDA certified Good Manufacturing Practices and several of the ingredients included within its vitamin packs are trademarked, providing customers with greater transparency and trust.
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Best Blood-Based Multivitamin: Rootine Custom Formula Vitamins
Rootine is the only vitamin that actually incorporates your DNA, blood nutrient info, and lifestyle habits into its formulation, these vitamins take the cake when dealing with personalized plans.
While most other vitamins are just amalgamations of what the average athlete needs, these are made to order with exact dosages. Based on a personalized test.
They are also a monthly subscription and refill automatically.
What can go into a personalized Rootine sachet?
- Vitamin B12
- Vitamin B2
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin C
- Calcium
- Copper
- Vitamin D3
- Alpha Lipic Acid 9. Zinc
- Folic Acid
- Vitamin E
- Phytosterols
- Iron
- Manganese
- Magnesium 16. MSM
- Selenium
- CoEnzyme Q10
The only multivitamin you need to take
Scientific algorithm specially tailors your personal vitamin requirements
Slow-release microbeads are more natural for us to absorb, like real food
Only the highest grade vegetarian nutrients are used
Easy to understand ingredients
Requires testing to get your vitamins compared to generic companies
Can be up to $60/month
For best results, semi-regular bloodwork is necessary
Best Vegan Multivitamin for Athletes: Essential For Vegans By Future Kind
Future Kind has developed the premier multivitamin for athletes who consume a plant-based diet.
Essential for Vegans contains the three major nutrients that most vegans and vegetarians are deficient in- Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, and Omega-3
This multivitamin supports the health of vegan athletes by promoting better energy, boosting their immune systems, as well as supporting their overall mood and cognition.
Better yet, Essential for Vegans sources its omega-3 from pollutant-free algae and its vitamin D3 from lichen to provide women with a 100% cruelty-free supplement.
Athletes should take 2 softgels of Essential for Vegans daily, preferably with food. Each daily serving provides women with 400mcg of B12, 650 mg of algal omega 3 oil, and 50mcg of Vitamin D3.
- Vegan-friendly
- Contains 3 major nutrients that most vegans are deficient in
- Doesn’t provide excessive amounts of other nutrients
- Some vegans may want or require additional nutrient support
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Best Vitamins for Athletes
Vitamin D: The deficiency of this vitamin in athletes usually results in fractures and other forms of musculoskeletal pain. According to this research, many athletes suffer from a deficiency of vitamin D. Knowing that it’s a very crucial vitamin in regards to skeletal health, you should try as much as possible to supplements its supply by getting multivitamins with a reasonable amount of vitamin D.
Vitamin E: Cell metabolism usually results in the formation of free radicals. What this means is that the level of free radicals in athletes will be greater than that of regular people. As an athlete, your body undergoes metabolism when you exercise or during training. Vitamin E as well as other antioxidant vitamins are capable of mopping out those free radicals, thus preventing the adverse effect of free radicals in the body.
Vitamin K: This vitamin aids blood clotting. Athletes are generally susceptible to various types of injury, either during training or regular exercise. This makes it important to supplement your vitamin K consumption.
Folate: Folic acid plays a vital role in the production of red blood cells. For optimal athletic performance, there must be a good blood supply and flow throughout the body.
Vitamin B6: This vitamin plays a huge role in cell metabolism. Conversion of food into usable energy is important for the optimal performance of an athlete.
Vitamin B12: This is one of the most widely studied vitamins. It’s known to boost energy, improve the formation of red blood cells, and also help in boosting energy. The combination of Vitamin B12 and folic is known to aid the conversion of creatine into phosphocreatine.
Calcium: For stronger bones and quality muscle contraction. It’s important to supplement calcium consumption in other to improve the musculoskeletal system.
Iron: Endurance athletes are more susceptible to iron deficiency. Iron is also important in breaking down oxygen, thus it’s important for optimal performance.
Magnesium: It helps in faster recovery, insulin balance as well as hormonal balance.
Supplements for Athletes
In addition to having a healthy diet and using a daily multivitamin, athletes can also benefit from the use of certain supplements. The following supplements are the most popular among athletes and have been proven to be extremely effective through clinical studies:
- Creatine – Comes in numerous forms and is known for its role in building strength and muscle mass.
- Beta-Alanine – Enhances the effects of creatine, reduces fatigue, and increases exercise capacity.
- Betaine Anhydrous – Enhances muscular endurance and improves overall performance.
- BCAAs – Enhance muscle recovery and promote muscle growth.
- Chondroitin Sulfate & Glucosamine– Promote joint function and mobility.
- Protein Powder – Provides additional protein required for recovery and muscle growth and comes in numerous forms. Whey protein is one of the most popular forms of protein powder.
- Collagen – Reduces joint pain and provides support for healthy skin and joints.
The author
Dr. Dimitar Marinov
