As a bodybuilder, you place huge demands on your body. In order to meet those demands and provide yourself with the ideal environment to build muscle and lose body fat, you need to be covering all of your multivitamin needs.
That can be an extremely confusing topic, but don’t worry – we’ve broken down to what you need to know.
In this article, we review the best multivitamins for bodybuilding. We’ll also cover all of your essential questions regarding taking multivitamins to get huge and shredded.
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Why Listen to Me?
I’ve been on the bodybuilding/fitness scene for close to 40 years. Within that time, I’ve been a gym owner, personal trainer, and international bodybuilding magazine contributor. I’ve trained hundreds of bodybuilders and personally taken every type of supplement that has been introduced to the market over the past few decades. This in-the-trenches experience, combined with my 6 qualifications from the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA), gives me the confidence to offer the guidance presented here.
Comparison of the 5 Best Multivitamins for Bodybuilders
NutriGenesis® Multi
Persona Nutrition
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Rootine
Bulk Supplements
TL; DR: What You Need to Know
As a bodybuilder, you will never realize your muscle-building potential unless you address your body’s need for multivitamins. Look for a wide range of vitamins that are dosed at between 70-100% of the RDA. The 3 most important vitamins for bodybuilders are:
- Vitamin C
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin B1
The best multivitamin supplement on the market for bodybuilders is Persona Foundational Multivitamin, which provides all 10 of the preferred vitamins for bodybuilders at high dosages. This will easily meet all of your daily vitamin requirements as a hard training bodybuilder.
The best-customized multi is Rootine Custom Vitamins. These guys will analyze your DNA, blood sample, and lifestyle factors to produce a multivitamin that is specific to your unique bodybuilding requirements.
Why Are Vitamins Necessary for Bodybuilding?
As bodybuilders, we put a lot of energy into finding the right types and balances of protein and carbs, but very little thought to the types of vitamins that will help get you huge and ripped. That is a mistake. Here’s why you need to get serious about vitamins and minerals.
When you train hard in the gym, you will be depleting a lot of vitamins and minerals from your body. These will be primarily lost through sweating and urine. Your body also uses up more vitamins during the production of energy for your training and during the recovery process. The main vitamins that are lost by bodybuilders are B vitamins, vitamin C, chromium, selenium, iron, and copper.
Not having the right balance of minerals in your body can interfere with the proper digestion and absorption of the macronutrients – protein, carbohydrates, and fats. That will mean that you will not be able to build the level of muscle that you should be. (1)
An imbalance of vitamins and minerals can result in poor overall health, which can affect your muscles and nerves and keep you out of the gym. (2)
Lack of multivitamins can slow down your metabolism and impair your digestion, both of which will negatively impact your fat loss and muscle building potential. (3)
How Did We Research the Best Multivitamins for Bodybuilding?
In researching the best multivitamins for bodybuilding we dug deep into the research as well as surveying what the best bodybuilders on the planet are taking. We’ve spent in excess of 40 hours analyzing peer-reviewed research studies. As a result, you know what your reading is based on the most up-to-date scientific knowledge. But that’s not all – we’ve combined that research with tried and true in the trenches experience to bring what really works when your goal is maximum muscle mass with minimum body fat.
Daily Vitamin Requirements for Bodybuilding
Not all multivitamins are equal. If you’re going to spend your hard-earned money, you’d better make sure that what you’re paying for really works. Here’s what to look for:
- Nutrient Range – There are a lot of vitamins out there. In fact, there are 28 that are classified as being essential! You’ll get some of those through whole foods but you should endeavor to get a wide range of them from your multivitamin. Rather than going for a multi that has high concentrations of a few compounds, you are better off looking for that has more vitamins in lower dosages. (4)
- Nutrient Concentration – In line with our last suggestion, you don’t need a multivitamin that includes more than 100% of the RDA for any vitamin. But you should get muti that doses each compound at between 70 and 100% of your daily allowance. If you have 70% as a lower limit, you can be pretty sure that you will get the balance from your diet. (5)
- Cost-Effectiveness – As a hardcore bodybuilder, you are no donut already forking out for protein powders, pre-workouts, and other performance-enhancing supplements. With that in mind, you need to keep your budget manageable. Multivitamins need to be a lifestyle habit, so look for a low priced brand that meets our other criteria.
- Ideal vitamin form – there are different forms of vitamins with some being more bioavailable than others. Examples of idealized firms to look out for include the beta-carotene form of Vitamin A, the menaquinone-4 (MK-4) of Vitamin K2, and the chromium picolinate form of chromium. (6)
- Key Ingredients – There are specific vitamins that you need to take in order to maximize your bodybuilding potential. Here are the 10 most important vitamins for bodybuilders that you need to be ticking off on the product label:
- Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
- Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamine)
- Vitamin D (Niacin)
- Vitamin E
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin B2
- Biotin
- Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)
An interesting fact that we uncovered in our research is that certain vitamins may actually restrict the absorption of nutrients. Especially applicable to bodybuilders is the possibility that zinc, calcium, magnesium, and phosphorous may prevent the proper digestion of amino acids. (7) (8)
5 Best Multivitamins for Bodybuilding
Best Overall Multivitamin for Bodybuilders – Performance Lab Nutrigenesis
Performance Lab Nutrigenesis Multi is packed with 17 essential vitamins and minerals to help meet the nutritional requirements of adults ages 30+. These compounds have bens scientifically bioengineered with co-factors that boost absorption and maximize your results.
All 17 of the compounds that are included in this multivitamin are dosed at 100% of the RDA. You won’t find any synthetic or isolated compounds in this formulation, ensuring that all you are getting is pure, natural, muscle enhancing goodness!
The co-factors that are included in this multivitamin include probiotics, fiber, enzymes, and antioxidants that are designed to boost the bioavailability of each vitamin.
Best Personalized Multivitamin for Bodybuilding – Persona Vitamin Pack
Persona Nutrition provides bodybuilders 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 and bodybuilding 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 Multivitamin for Key Nutrients – Essential by Ritual
Ritual’s Essential Daily Multivitamin is a scientifically-developed multivitamin that helps fill in nutrient gaps in the diets of both men and women. Ritual offers specific formulations for women and men who are 18-49 years old, women and men who are 50 and older, as well as a prenatal formulation.
The company provides automatic refills and free shipping, so you never have to worry about stocking up. This multivitamin contains all 9 essential nutrients that are harder to get from your daily diet and comes in a mint flavor to ease digestion and prevent nausea.
The best part about Ritual’s Essential multivitamin is that it’s vegan-friendly, free of major allergens, and does not contain fillers of any kind.
Best Blood-Based Multivitamin – Rootine Custom Vitamins
Rootine Custom Vitamins provides a unique service in the supplement industry. That’s because they will customize a multivitamin formulation to your specific nutrition requirements. By compiling DNA, blood, and lifestyle data, the guys at Rootine will develop the price mix and dosage of vitamins that your body requires. Based on your results, your formulation will include specific dosages of 18 key vitamins. Their absolute commitment to science and personalized delivery to meet the needs of your unique body out Rootine in a league above the competition.
As a bodybuilder, you will be able to get a multi that is specifically designed to meet the challenges that you put upon your body in the gym – that’s pretty impressive!
Rootine is the only multivitamin & nutrient supplement program that builds from scratch 100% custom vitamin packs for every single customer based on 3 crucial data points: Your Unique DNA Biomolecular Makeup Lifestyle Habits & Behaviors Continued Blood Nutrient Level Testing (optional). This is how we know exactly which vitamins and nutrients you need and what doses will be both safe and effective.
Rootine
Best Omega 3 Multivitamin – Bulk Supplements Multivitamin Softgels
When it comes to affordable bodybuilding sups that don’t compromise on quality, it’s hard to go past Bulk Supplements. For less than twenty bucks, these guys offer a 300 softgel pack. The recommended dosage is just one capsule per day, so that truly does represent fantastic value for money!
In addition to most of the key vitamins that are required by bodybuilders, this multi is fortified with omega-3 fatty acids. That is a plus for bodybuilders, who, as we’ve mentioned, should also be taking Omega 3.
Other Supplements Bodybuilders Should Consider
In addition to a quality multivitamin supplement, there are 5 essential supplements that any serious bodybuilder needs to have in his arsenal:
- Whey Protein – Building quality lean muscle mass demands a steady supply of amino acids. That’s because they form the building material to construct muscle. Whey protein provides the most biologically available and fast-acting form of protein that we know of. There are a number of forms of whey but whey protein isolate is by far the best.
- Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) – The BCAAs are the 3 key amino acids of leucine, valine, and isoleucine. These are the only amino acids that are directly metabolized into the muscle cell. Making them essential to the muscle-building process. Look for a product that provides twice as much leucine as the other two amino acids as studies have shown this dosage to be the most effective. (9)
- Glutamine – Glutamine is an amino acid that gets consumed by heard training. It is essential to the muscle recovery process that it be replaced as soon as possible. If you don’t, your recovery will be impaired and so will your muscle-building potential.
- Creatine – Creatine is able to make you stronger in the gym by prolonging the ATP energy process which is used for hard and heavy training. Take 5 grams before heading to the gym.
- Omega-3 Fish Oil – There is a ton of research to show how beneficial omega-3 fatty acids are for your overall health. But they also help you to get massive and ripped. These fatty acids assist blood circulation to more efficiently carry nutrients and oxygen to your muscle cells. They also help your burn fat by increasing the metabolic rate. (10)
Best Multivitamin for Athletes
The multivitamin needs of athletes are quite similar to those of bodybuilders. However, athletes have some unique requirements. These include the need for endurance and the offsetting of the long term wear and tear on the joints and ligaments that their discipline demands on their body. For these reasons, it is important that athletes prioritize multivitamins that are high in magnesium, iron, and zinc.
Take-Home Message
The bottom line on multivitamins is that, as a serious bodybuilder, you need to be taking a good multi every day. Doing so will plug up any nutritional gaps in your diet while also ensuring that your body’s muscle building and fat loss mechanisms are operating at peak levels. The best overall bodybuilding multivitamin on the market right now is Persona Foundational Multivitamin. For a more personalized formula check out Rootine Custom Vitamins. Finally, if your budget is tight head on over to Bulk Supplements and grab one of their multi gel packs for less than twenty bucks!
Best Multivitamins for Bodybuilders FAQs
What is Your Natural Bodybuilding Potential?
How much natural bodybuilding potential do you really have? Beyond all the hype and marketing, can you actually add 20, 30 or 40 pounds of muscle mass to your frame? Do you have it in you to stand on a bodybuilding stage drug free? Can you even determine natural bodybuilding potential? Is it possible to determine if a lifter is a natural or steroid user?
The answer is generally yes to both questions. If your goal is to be a competitive bodybuilder, genetics plays a key role in your muscular potential. This unavoidable reality is as true in bodybuilding as it is for any other sport. To be an internationally ranked sprinter, for example, you cannot be a short person. You need to have a decent leg length to promote long strides when you’re running. It is the same with bodybuilding. The guys who rise to the top with the most impressive levels of fat free mass will have some sort of genetic advantages. In a way, that is extremely unfair.
You can have a guy who is training and dieting very hard, doing it all the right way and getting only mediocre results. Then you can have another guy who doesn’t work as hard, does all of the wrong exercises and is pretty lax on his diet, who looks amazing, with a ridiculously low body fat percentage and who cleans up on the competitive stage.
But that’s life! During the 1960s and 70s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was training with exactly the same workouts and weights as around a dozen other guys in the original Gold’s Gym in Los Angeles. Yet, there’s only one Arnold. Six time Mr. Olympia, Dorian Yates, bench pressed 315 pounds the first time he got under the bar! And eight time Mr. Olympia, Ronnie Coleman, had huge flaring thighs with veins that could be seen through his spandex pants before he even knew what steroids were!
Here are answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about multivitamins for bodybuilders.
Why do bodybuilders need multivitamins?
People who train intensely, specifically bodybuilders, lose key vitamins and minerals while training through their sweat and as their bodies use these key nutrients for energy production, recovery, and protein synthesis. These nutrients are responsible for a ton of important processes throughout the body which include the production of hormones and enzymes that regulate energy production, muscle tissue repair, and nutrient absorption.
Using a multivitamin enhances these functions that are essential to bodybuilding, such as metabolism, muscle building, the reduction of illness, and overall athletic performance.
Which vitamins do bodybuilders need the most?
Bodybuilders tend to have the highest risk of deficiencies in B vitamins, Vitamin C, chromium, selenium, iron, and copper as these are the most common vitamins and minerals that are lost through sweat and intense training. These key nutrients play huge roles in bodily functions such as energy production, muscle tissue repair, and nutrient absorption.
What is the most important thing that bodybuilders should look for in a multivitamin?
Bodybuilders should look for a multivitamin that contains both nutrient variety and a high concentration of key nutrients. There are 28 essential vitamins available so bodybuilders should look for a product that contains most of these vitamins at a concentration somewhere between 70 and 100% of their daily allowance.
