Vitamin C is a well-known vitamin that is commonly associated with oranges and good health. It’s often referred to as ascorbic acid on product packaging and since it’s water-soluble, it’s essential that you consume enough of it each day. Water-soluble vitamins are not stored by the body like fat-soluble vitamins, and instead excess is expelled daily – that’s why it’s important to keep on top of vitamin C each day!

While vitamin C is known as the health nutrient, it’s also an essential vitamin for people who regularly exercise and hit the gym. We decided to explore how vitamin C can benefit your workout and what you can do to make sure you are getting enough.

How Can You Get Enough Vitamin C?

Different sources will tell you contrary information relating to the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of vitamin C, but EU regulation states that adults aged 19 to 64 need 80mg per day. If you’re into your fruits and veggies, you’ll have no problem getting your RDA of vitamin C but since less than a third of adults in the UK manage to consume their five-a-day (according to a recent report from the National Diet and Nutrition Survey), it’s likely that you or someone you know needs to actively up their intake.

Most people have heard of scurvy but often incorrectly assume it’s an archaic disease that only affected the sailors and pirates who roamed the oceans decades ago. Actually, scurvy is very much prevalent in modern day society and between 2009 and 2014, hospital admissions relating to scurvy went up by 27%. Scurvy is caused by vitamin C deficiency and symptoms include tiredness, weakness and soreness in the arms and legs.

Consuming enough vitamin C is easily achievable but it does take careful planning. An orange will give you 70mg, but an apple will only give you 8mg so it’s essential that you choose your fruit wisely and do your research beforehand. Papaya, kiwis and mangoes are other good options, but tropical guavas win the vitamin C race, giving you a whooping 165mg in a single fruit!

If you regularly include a time of intense exercise in your day, you will certainly need to increase your vitamin C intake. EU regulators recommend consuming an additional 200mg on top of the RDI (80mg) in order to get more out of your vitamin C during and after exercise. This is obviously a considerable jump and if you struggled to get your five-a-day on an average afternoon, you are certainly going to struggle with this. Thankfully, supplementation can be of help here and if you’re not a fan of taking tablets then a vitamin C-infused drink could be the solution for you.

Argi+ is crammed with nutrients, including vitamin C, and we recommend mixing a sachet with 330ml of Forever Aloe Vera Gel. Together these two powerful beverages will give you 264.8mg of vitamin C, which means you’re only 15.2mg short. If you eat an orange or a couple of apples throughout the day as well, you’ll hit the 280mg target with ease.

Keeping Healthy With Vitamin C During A Workout

Exercise is of course good for you in so many ways but there is a darker side of the gym that may cause you to feel a little under the weather. Fitness equipment review website Fitrated recently investigated the hygiene standards of gym equipment across 27 different gyms, and rather disturbingly found that there were more than one million germs per square inch on each of the pieces of equipment they had gathered samples from. The bacterium strains they found were believed to put people at risk of skin, respiratory and ear infections and quite frankly if you’re going somewhere to get fit and healthy, this is the last thing you want to be exposed to.

But it’s not just the gym that can put your immune system at risk; any form of intense physical exercise can also compromise your immune system. Studies show that more than 90-minutes of high-intensity exercise can make you more susceptible to illnesses for up to 24 hours after that exercise session. This means you need to trigger operation illness prevention ASAP after exercising!

While it’s clear that antibacterial wipes are a must when going to the gym, it’s the vitamin C that can make a real difference. As already mentioned, you should increase your daily vitamin C intake to 280mg if you enjoy an intense workout session, and this is because the vitamin C will contribute to maintain the normal function of the immune system during and after intense physical exercise when consumed in this quantity. Doing what you can to prevent illness by equipping your immune system with the vitamins it needs to operate properly will help you to get the most out of exercise.

Vitamin C Assists Energy Levels

Whether you struggle to function first thing in the morning, you find yourself flagging mid-afternoon or you find your eyes drooping by 8pm (or all three of these scenarios), vitamin C could be the pick-me-up you need!

There’s nothing worse than having a pending workout hanging over you when you feel ready to hit the duvet, but because vitamin C contributes to the reduction of tiredness and fatigue, foods, drinks and supplements that are high in this nutrient can help give you what you need to power on through.

While tiredness can be relieved by sleep or rest, fatigue is not often resolved by such and as a result its affects can be quite overwhelming. Fatigue can be both physical and mental and it’s often made worse by long periods of inactivity. In fact, lack of physical activity can actually cause fatigue so if you have no other symptoms that are a cause for concern, pushing yourself to get out and exercise, even if it’s for a walk in the fresh air, is likely to do you some good. Grab a sports bottle filled with Argi+ mixed with Forever Aloe Vera Gel and you’ll get a powerful dose of vitamin C whilst you wander, and it may even spur you on to increase your pace.

Keep Moving With The Help Of Vitamin C

You can’t have an effective workout if you’re struggling with restricted movement, but thankfully vitamin C can also help here. Vitamin C contributes to normal collagen formation for the normal function of bones and cartilage, and the formation of collagen is vital when it comes to moving around!

Collagen is a protein that’s naturally produced by the body but unfortunately it can weaken and lessen with age. Its role is to help give structure and shape, it’s extremely flexible and it can withstand quite a lot of weight, however diminished collagen in the bones or cartilage can lead to fractures, joint pain and skeletal fragility. So, if you want to continue to lead an active lifestyle well into retirement, keeping on top of vitamin C will do your collagen levels a world of good.

Vitamin C Puts The ‘Iron’ In ‘Ironman’

Fitness enthusiasts are likely to be familiar with Ironman competitions. These series of long-distance triathlons require you to take part in a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.22-mile run, in that order, without taking a break. This is obviously pretty exhausting work – you’ll definitely need at least 280mg of vitamin C that day – but this type of exercise could, ironically, also affect your iron levels.

Iron deficiency is a common disorder in athletes since the mineral is lost through sweat, skin, urine and the gastrointestinal tract. In fact, high intensity exercise will increase iron loss by as much as 70% compared to someone who’s sedentary. Iron is responsible for normal oxygen transport in the body, it has a role in the process of cell division, and it contributes to the normal formation of red blood cells. Red blood cells can break down quicker in people who exercise so it’s very important that they keep on top of iron levels.

Vitamin C can help counteract iron loss by instead helping to increase iron absorption. There are two types of iron: heme (from animal sources) and non-heme (from plant sources). Vitamin C works with non-heme iron by converting it into a form that can easily be absorbed by the body. According to one study, having 100mg of vitamin C with a meal increases iron absorption by 67%, so it’s certainly worth having a 330ml glass of aloe and Argi+ with your lunch!

Add power to your fitness plan by boosting your vitamin C intake with Argi+ and Forever Aloe Vera Gel. Buy your limited edition Argi+ and Aloe Mini Tripack today.