Too much of a good thing? - Antioxidants impact on training results

Inflammation is something that gets a lot of negative publicity. Most people work and do everything they can to reduce it. Perhaps the most common strategy to reduce inflammation is through antioxidants. Antioxidants impact on inflammation has been studies a LOT! The results of those studies are fairly consistent showing their ability to reduce inflammation. But what if inflammation isn't all bad? What if it's just misunderstood?

Physical activity creates inflammation

Exercise and physical activity should be a regular part of everyones life. For athletes it plays an even bigger part. This activity has a wealth of health benefits and is crucial to improve an athletes performance. Right next to all of these benefits is something that typically is labels as a negative, inflammation. A build up of inflammation can leave you feeling incredibly sore the next day and result in decreased performance. Depending on what is in store for the next day this soreness could be a problem. This is where antioxidants can come to the rescue! For individuals who consume a lot of processed food, that can be very inflammatory. Antioxidants can come to the rescue here too! That is why you shouldn't be eating fast food daily and should eat your broccoli.

Antioxidants impact on inflammation

Antioxidants are one of the first lines of defense against inflammation. The most popular way of acquiring antioxidants is normally by eating fruits and vegetables. It has become incredibly easy to consume an excessively large amount of these nowadays though due to supplements. Emergen-C is an incredibly popular example. One serving has 1,000mg of a key antioxidant vitamin C in it (1,111% of the recommended daily value). Nobody is eating enough berries to consume that much naturally! With such easy access to high levels of antioxidants the questions turns to whether we should consume such high levels? And if so, does timing matter?

When too many antioxidants have a negative impact

It's a balancing act when it comes to inflammation in regards to exercise. When exercising, that inflammation is actually critical for progression and improvement. Your body learning to deal with inflammation on its own trains the body to be better able to handle those stressors again later. Handling inflammation better like this means what once made you sore and was difficult has gradually become easier. For example, when someone just starts running they may feel absolutely beat after a 10 minute mile. After months of running the body handles that stress/inflammation a lot better and now that level of soreness is felt when running a 5 minute mile.

Taking excessive amounts of antioxidants acts like training wheels for the body. Without having to learn how to handle the stress and inflammation on its own, it will take a lot longer to make the same amount of progress. So be cautious if taking excessive amounts of antioxidants regularly. Save it for those special circumstances when quick turnarounds are needed. This doesn't mean to completely skip your fruits and veggies though, nice try. Continue incorporating those regularly and here's to all your progress ahead!

Study referenced: click here