Boost Muscle Health with Vitamin C

Boost Muscle Health with Vitamin C

JORGE’S DAILY FIT TIP
By Jorge Cruise, LifeScript Fitness Coach
Sunday, June 1, 2008

Vitamin C plays a very important role in muscle recovery. This essential nutrient helps your body produce collagen, a major structural protein found in connective tissue that holds muscles, bones and other tissues together. But that’s not the only reason you need vitamin C to build healthy muscles. During exercise, as your breathing increases to meet the demands of your workout, the chemical interaction of oxygen with your cell membranes, protein and other cellular components creates unstable substances called free radicals.

These highly reactive substances are much like small fires that must be extinguished before they burn, or “oxidize,” neighboring molecules in other cells, creating muscle soreness and stiffness. That’s where vitamin C steps in. As a dietary antioxidant, vitamin C blocks free radical damage in and around your cells. Citrus fruits and dark green leafy vegetables are rich in vitamin C, along with most other fruits and vegetables (even iceberg lettuce!)