Training for Obstacle Course Races, Part 2: Programming

In part 1, I talked about what are, in my opinion, the 4 greatest priorities in training specifically for an obstacle race. Here, I'm going to bring those together into a sample training program.

The program is going to be split into 2 simple phases: one for further out for the race, and one for closer to the race where lifting volume will be reduced and running increased.

Remember that the goal of this program is purely to perform well in an obstacle course race. If you want to train for powerlifting or any other sport simultaneously, you'd be better off using a different program.

The distances of your runs will vary depending on the actual race distance. If you're doing a Tough Mudder (10-12 miles), a short run might be 1-4 miles, a moderate 4-8, and a long run 8+.
If you're doing a Spartan Sprint (3-4 miles) a short run might be 1-2 miles, a moderate one 2-4, and a long run 4+. If you're training for a particularly long race, your running training is going to take a lot more out of you than someone training for a comparatively short race. You may have to decrease your volume on the lifting and other movements to compensate for this, so that you don't get run-down... pun intended.

Up to 3 months out from race day: general strength and conditioning base work

Rotate these workouts in order at a frequency of choice. I recommend 3-4X/week. 
An example of this is:

3x/week
Monday: Workout 1
Tuesday: Workout 2
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Workout 3
Friday: Rest
Saturday: Workout 4
Sunday: Rest

4x/week
Monday: Workout 1
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Workout 2
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Workout 3
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Workout 4
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Workout 1

So on...

On off days, you can do additional cardio if you wish, but keep it to something low-impact like swimming, elliptical, or cycling. There's no need to add more stress to your shins and knees with more running since it's already programmed. You can also do some easy bodyweight movements on off-days, but don't go to failure on any of these.

Day 1: Jumps and lower body strength, speed run

Warm-up

1. 20 minutes jumping (pick 1-3 jumps per session. Don't treat this like cardio -- you should be putting maximum power into each jump)

2. Squat: any variation (back squat, front squat, safety bar, zercher, barbell hack, etc): 5-10 sets of 5, with short rest periods (90 seconds max). Start on the low range of sets and low weight - around 60% of your 1RM. Do each rep powerfully and violently, using the Compensatory Acceleration Training method that I discussed in my second post. When you can do all 10 sets with extreme violence, you can increase the weight and start over with your sets. Remember, you're training for an obstacle race, not a powerlifting meet
3. Lunges and leg curls for high reps.

4. Short, fast run (aim for small time PRs each time)

Day 2: Carrying, long run
1. Carry of choice: you can do a different carry every session, or choose 2-3 and work hard at those over a certain period. I would definitely suggest choosing farmer's carries as one of your lifts. Do some heavier, shorter carries and some longer lighter ones as described in Part 1.
2. Pull-ups: bodyweight only, 3 sets of max reps
3. Push-ups: same as pull-ups
4. Two Ab exercises of choice

5. Long run (aim for small time PRs each time)

Day 3: Jumps and lower body strength, recovery run
1. 20 minutes jumping
2. Single-leg squats
3. Deadlift (any variation): EMOM (Every minute on the minute). Choose a weight between 70-85% of your 1RM and set a timer. Each time the timer reaches a new minute, do a rep. Continue this for 10-40 minutes, depending on the weight you chose, how much work you can handle, and how insane you feel that particular day.
4. Short to moderate run, easy to moderate pace

Day 4: Upper body strength and hypertrophy

1. Pull-up: Weighted if you can, otherwise do 5 sets of as many as possible with bodyweight only. If you can't do any, do negatives.
2. Overhead press: any variation
3. Push-up: same idea as pull-ups, but if you can't do a push-up do them on your knees.
4. 2 accessory movements
5. 30 minutes low-impact cardio (not running)

A scene of pure havoc from my last Tough Mudder. 

3 months out until race day: conditioning ramping
Here, non-running work will be limited to 3 days a week, at a lower total volume, and the focus will shift towards running. There are 5 total workouts per week. This template follows a 7-day weekly schedule, with rest days factored in so that you should be hitting each of these workouts every week, unlike in the base template where the rotation scheme meant that each week was somewhat different.

Day 1: Lower body
1. 20 minutes jumping
2. Single-leg squats
3. Squat or deadlift: any variation. Keep volume low, aim for strength maintenance.
4. Leg curls: high reps
5. 30 minutes low-impact cardio

Day 2: Long run (aim for time PRs each time)

Day 3: Upper body, short run
1. Pull-up: Weighted if you can, otherwise do 5 sets of as many as possible with bodyweight only. If you can't do any, do negatives.
2. Overhead press: any variation
3. Push-up: as in the first routine
4. Short to moderate distance easy run

Day 4: Rest

Day 5: Short, fast run (aim for time PRs each time)

Day 6: Full-body,
1. 10 minutes jumping
2. Carrying: as in the first routine
3. Pull-up: same idea as pull-ups, but if you can't do a push-up do them on your knees.
One ab exercise of choice
4. Moderate distance, moderate pace run

Day 7: Rest



I tried to make this as straightforward as possible, but if you have any questions leave a comment or send an email to besmartbejacked@gmail.com.

Remember that there's no one perfect way to train, but this is how I'd do it if I wanted to purely focus on obstacle course races. 

Don't Incline Like You Bench

The bench press and the incline press with a barbell are two excellent exercises for developing the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The two movements involve similar mechanics, but given the difference in bench angle and the purpose of each movement, there are some key differences between the two. Too often, I see people performing the incline press with the exact same mechanics as the flat bench press, and this is very suboptimal. I made this mistake for a long time, and only recently as I modified my incline press form did I start seeing gains in that lift again.

If you want a big press, a big chest, and healthy shoulders, here are some key ways in which you should perform the incline differently than the flat bench.


Reasons for performing the lift
I generally think of the flat bench as a powerlifting movement (particularly since I compete in powerlifting), and the incline as a bodybuilding or assistance movement. This isn't to say that the flat bench isn't a good bodybuilding movement of course, but my goals with each are different, as is common for a lot of guys who want to be able to answer the question "how much ya bench?" honestly without being embarrassed.
For this reason, I perform the bench with a powerlifting-style form, since that's the best way to move the most weight. The point of this type of form is to put your limbs in the best-leveraged position to ensure maximal force production on the bar and to keep your shoulders in a safe position to prevent injury. At the bottom of the lift, your elbows and wrist should be directly in line under the bar, at a 90 degree angle to the floor.
If you want to learn more about benching like a powerlifter, check this video out:

For the incline, I perform it more like a bodybuilder. I use the form that allows me to "feel" it in my chest the most, particularly the upper portion of my chest, with the intent of gaining size. This form actually allows me to push more weight at an incline as well. I'll generally do the incline for slightly higher reps than the bench.


Elbow position
For the bench, I tuck my elbows as I bring the bar down, and flare them out slightly as I press up and rotate my elbows.
For the incline, I keep my elbows more flared throughout the lift. This is the position that allows me to "feel" my chest work the most and doesn't hurt my shoulders, unlike when I try to "tuck" on incline bench. A huge part of this is that the bar will take a different path depending on how your elbows are tucked or flared. It essentially looks like how Ahhhnold does it below, except that I'm not an Austrian death machine (unfortunately). Again, this might vary for different people with different shoulder structures and arm lengths but I believe it should work similarly for most people more times than not.

Perfect execution of the incline

Bar contact point
This is the single biggest mistake I see people make when they do inclines, and it could be thought of as either the cause or the effect of elbow position. The less you tuck your elbows, the higher on your chest the bar will hit. Likewise, he higher on the chest that you try to hit with the bar, the more your elbows will be flared when the bar makes contact (provided you aren't turning the lift into some kind of weird tricep extension). Elbow position and bar contact point go hand-in-hand. The picture below demonstrates the relationship between the two pretty well.

When I do flat bench, the point of contact is low on my chest, below my nipple line.

With the incline, the bar's contact point should be high on the chest - well above the nipple line, like you saw Arnold doing earlier. If you try to contact lower than this with more tuck, you're more likely to have the bar get out of the "groove" and tilt forward in front of you, which will make the lift much harder. It will also result in failure to fully engage the upper chest. This is an error I see a lot of guys make, and is a large part of why a lot of people will have mediocre incline benches relative to their flat bench, and sad-looking upper pecs.


Grip width
Grip width will vary by person depending on shoulder width and arm length. For both presses, you should be choosing a grip width that allows you to get to that perpendicular forearm position that I mentioned earlier at the bottom of the lift. Since you'll be tucking more for bench and flaring more for incline, this means that grip width will have to be different for the two to allow for proper elbow position and contact point. This will generally mean that you take a wider grip for incline than flat bench. I personally do flat bench with my index fingers about an inch from the smooth part of the bar, and do incline with my index fingers 4-5 inches from the smooth.

Range of motion
On incline, it's ok not to quite touch the chest. This isn't permission to do half-reps, but since the incline isn't a competition lift (except sometimes with a log in strongman) you won't be any worse off stopping the bar 1-2 inches above the chest. This small distance can be a big difference for some people as far as shoulder pain goes. If it hurts to bring the bar to your chest on incline, try this. I've heard of some big and strong guys doing this to avoid shoulder pain, such as John Meadows and Paul Carter. I do it myself sometimes when my shoulders feel crappy, though I touch my chest most of the time.
You could do this for flat bench as well if your shoulders are really messed up and you don't care about competing in powerlifting, but if that's the case you're probably better off using a chest exercise other than the bench press rather than cutting the range of motion short.


Following these cues should help your chest pressing become stronger and pain-free.

Training for Obstacle Course Races, Part 1: Priorities

I've done two Tough Mudders, two Spartan Races, two Warrior Dashes, and one Muckfest MS.
There's one reason I do these: they're really freakin' fun. The environment is usually awesome, and the volunteers and participants are friendly to everyone regardless of experience level.

However, they're a lot more fun if you're good at them. And I don't see the point in paying $100+ to run around in mud if you're not even going to be able to do half the obstacles.

So I'm going to talk about what things you should prioritize in training for one of these and put it all together into a periodized training plan, with distinct phases that each will have a particular focus.


Training Priorities

1. Running
This is first and foremost. No matter how fast you can do the obstacles, your time isn't going to be good if you can't run. A lack of running training was the bane of my Tough Mudder time both times I did it. For me, the cardiovascular aspect of running wasn't a problem. I wasn't getting winded. My problem was muscular endurance, particularly in my calves. My calves cramped hard after several miles both times I did Tough Mudder, and I had to go through the rest of the race taking frequent breaks to allow the cramping to subside. It was one of the most painful things I've experienced, and while I obviously sucked it up and finished, I could have finished much faster if I hadn't cramped.

This also may have had something to do with it.

I attribute my cramping entirely to a lack of running training, as I made sure I was sufficiently hydrated and had plenty of electrolytes beforehand both times. If you've seen my calves, you'll know that they're naturally pretty huge relative to the rest of my body despite the fact that I rarely work them directly. I assume this means they're pretty type-II fiber dominant and thus predisposed to being awful for long-distance running. My running training was basically to do a grand total of four 2.5 mile runs a few weeks leading up to the event. I felt good on these, so I assumed I was fine. Big mistake. This worked out fine for shorter races like the Spartan Sprint, but at Tough Mudder I experienced a wake-up call. I blamed the cramping during my first TM on lack of sufficient hydration and electrolyte supply, but when the same thing happened, even earlier in the race, the second time around despite chugging Gatorade for the 2 days before the event, I realized that I should probably try some long-distance running before my next Tough Mudder. I know, what a shocking revelation! If you don't give your body the proper stimulus to adapt to long-duration running, you're not going to be a very good runner.

Don't make the same mistake I did when it comes to running. A few short-distance runs and high-volume squatting won't condition your body to run 12 miles. You can't just lift in your training for a race.


2. Pull-up Strength
Getting good at pull-ups is a great way to generally improve your performance in obstacle course races. Pull-ups are an excellent way to gain general strength, and for an obstacle course race, they'll build strength in the specific ways you'll need to succeed. Pull-ups can help build strength, muscle size, and muscular endurance in the lats as well as the smaller back muscles, upper arms, and grip. Getting good at pull-ups will directly transfer to your ability to complete hanging obstacles such as monkey bars (which I believe are at every Tough Mudder and nearly every Spartan Race), climbing walls (which are at every obstacle race I've ever seen), and will also help your ability to complete events such as rope climbs or the Spartan Race's "pulley," where you have to pull on a rope to bring a weight to the top of the pulley and then control its descent.

These sort of events are the most common ones that I see people fail on, and the only reason for that is a lack of general pulling strength. If you're lacking general strength and want to fix that for the sake of your obstacle race performance, pull-ups are probably the most important strength exercise you can focus on.

Training pull-ups with a variety of grips, doing them both unweighted for higher reps and weighted for lower reps (when you're strong enough for that) can be beneficial. Building your 1RM weighted pull-up to absurd numbers isn't necessary, but having greater absolute strength at weighted pull-ups will make unweighted ones easier.

As sort of a supplement to pull-ups, you can also do some bouldering if you have access to a rock gym. Bouldering will work your grip much harder than just doing pull-ups, and test your ability to make difficult grip transitions like you may have to in a race. It's more specific to what you'll actually have to do in an obstacle race, so it's definitely a good idea to get to a rock gym once in a while if you can for some practice. If get good at bouldering, climbing walls or completing a hanging obstacle will be a piece of cake. 

3. Carrying Strength (in a variety of carrying methods)

Weighted carries are a great way to build up general work capacity and muscular, particularly in the back and forearms. For many obstacle course races, however, a weighted carry will often be one of the actual obstacles. Tough Mudder has the partner carry, as well as a variety of other carrying events with implements ranging from tires to logs. Spartan Race is particularly big on weighted carries, and will have you carry sandbags, logs, buckets filled with gravel, and even strongman-style atlas stones for a variety of distances depending on the weight of the object.

Since there's so much variability in the types of carries that you'll have to do, there's no point in specializing in any carry in particular. The 3 general carries you should be doing are carries with an object on your back, farmer's carries, and carries with the object cradled in your arms. You can use a variety of objects, and no matter what you use, if it's sufficiently heavy you should be plenty prepared for race day. You can also try offset weighted carries, particularly where you're keeping the object on only one shoulder, since you'll often have to end up doing carries like that in a race.

For carries on your back, you can use a yoke frame, if you have access to it. Most people don't, though, so you can use a barbell, a heavy log, a sandbag, another person, or whatever else you can think of. I definitely wouldn't suggest going super heavy here. It's unnecessary to walk with a 500+ lb yoke. The weight of a person is the heaviest carry you'll encounter in any obstacle course race, so the best way to practice for that is to actually carry a person. The distance of the partner carry in Tough Mudder isn't too long, but you'll also have to do some carries that are much longer in distance with relatively lighter weights. So I suggest doing a mixture of shorter (50-150 ft) carries with heavier (100-250 lbs) weights, and longer (up to a half mile) carries with lighter weights (20-80 lbs).

As a side note, for the Spartan Race's sandbag carry (I believe the weight is 50 or so lbs for men) I personally find it easiest to carry the weight on my head, so you might want to see how this feels for you if you're using a sandbag. I may be the exception rather than the rule here, since I have a wrestling neck.

For farmers carries, you can use farmer's handles, dumbbells, buckets filled with gravel or whatever, or even a barbell in each hand (if you hate yourself). I wouldn't suggest going super heavy for these either - certainly keep it under 100 lbs per hand, as these types of carries will generally be longer and lighter.

For "cradle" carries, you can use a person (don't let them grab around your neck), a barbell in a Zercher-style cradle, a single dumbbell, a sandbag, a strongman stone, or literally any other single heavy object. I'd suggest staying in the 70-150 pound range here. You're never really forced to do the cradle carry unless you get an actual atlas stone, as carrying on your back or head will most likely be less fatiguing, for your arm muscles in particular, and will help you save your arms for hanging obstacles.


4. Jumping
For getting up the tall walls, as well as running up the quarter pipe in Tough Mudder, it's going to help to be explosive. While a large amount of lower body training time will be spent on building work capacity and general strength, training jumps will translate well into your ability to get your body up and over obstacles.

Explosive people don't need human pile-ups.

Utilizing box jumps (both weighted and unweighted - stick to weighted vest or light dumbbells for these), squat jumps (weighted with a barbell or dumbbells), long jumps, etc. can all enhance your ability to express force in the capacity that you will have to during an obstacle race. Strength and conditioning coach, former shot-put thrower, and 900+ squatter Chad Wesley Smith believes that training jumps can help a wide variety of athletes improve their explosive capabilities, and he probably knows what he's talking about.
When it comes to jumping, ease into it and don't kill yourself from the start, particularly with depth jumps. Start off with low heights and weights, and work your way up.

In addition to actual jumping, some other explosive movements can and should be incorporated into the program as well. I'll get more into that later, in part 2.

These are the 4 things that I believe will be best for generally preparing you for obstacle course races. Of course there is more that goes into a good training program for one of these races, but these 4 should be the foundation.

I also want to say that while it isn't a "foundational" skill, if you're going to do a Spartan Race PRACTICE THE SPEAR THROW. There's a lot of instructional articles on the internet about how to make spears to practice with. I still haven't mastered this yet, but it's annoying that this is the only obstacle that I've had to do burpees for the past 2 years. Fuck burpees.

In part 2, I'll go over how to implement these foundational areas to improve upon  into a program, complete with organization into focused phases based on how far away from the race you are.

Being Smart About Supplements, Part 2: Bad Supplements

Here's the continuation of my supplement series, where I'll talk about supplements that aren't worth their price and supplements that are straight up stupid and dangerous.

Save your money for something else:

Pre-workouts

I'll never understand why people waste so much money on pre-workouts. First of all, if you really need a supplement to get you ready for training, you should probably just take a week completely off and let your "hunger" for the weights come back. If you aren't internally motivated to destroy the weights, no amount of external motivation (whether that be a pre-workout, a motivational speech, or an actual slap in the face) is going to solve that. You shouldn't need something to get you "up" for training. If you do, maybe you should consider a different hobby. I could go on about motivation, but that's not the point of this post.

Aside from my philosophical disdain for pre-workouts, there's the aspect that they're economically inefficient. The primary ingredient in nearly every pre-workout is caffeine, but while 30 servings of N.O.-Xplode costs $30, 30 servings of caffeine pills can easily cost under $8. There are caffeine-free pre-workouts, but if you've ever taken one of these I'm sure you found that it wasn't particularly potent.
The other ingredients that make up "proprietary blends" of pre-workouts mostly consist of hyper-doses of vitamins (B12 being a popular one) and, in the case of some pre-workouts like NO-Xplode, "pump" agents like L-Arginine that are intended to improve nitric oxide production. Oral ingestion of Arginine has been shown to be basically worthless in producing nitric oxide production in the body, so no point in wasting your time with that (1). Frankly, if you want a "pump" I think one of the best things to take might just be regular caffeine. I personally always get extremely warm and pumped after just drinking a cup of coffee. The hyper-doses of B12 are, surprisingly, not likely to offer any benefit unless you're already B12 deficient. If you're getting the RDA of B12 from your diet, there isn't any particularly convincing evidence that supplementation would be helpful (2). Besides, there are far more cost-effective ways to supplement B12.
Many pre-workouts also contain creatine, which is certainly not worthless, as I said before, but is far more cost-effective to buy on its own.


Fat Burners

I'm not sure why someone would think a fat burner is going to help them if they aren't dieting and training properly, but I've seen plenty of guys eat like shit while taking fat burners. The point of fat burners is to increase your daily metabolic rate so that you burn more calories. Most commercial fat-burners consist of a stimulant with a bunch of other crap thrown in. Since ephedrine, a once-legal stimulant, is now very closely regulated, the stimulant in most fat burners will be caffeine. Ephedrine, by the way, is one chemical group away from methamphetamine. This is why cold medicines are so closely regulated, as they contain the compound pseudoephedrine, which is what Walter White used to make meth before he had access to methylamine. Science, bitch! Anyway, unless you want to pay $25 for a 72-pill bottle of Hydroxycut that you're supposed to take 6 times a day, you're probably better off just taking some regular caffeine or drinking some coffee. There seems to be a common theme here with caffeine... Or, you know, you also could just not order that pizza.

Specific Amino Acids

A huge number of supplements out there are simply amino acids. Sufficient amino acid intake is extremely important to any person for obvious reasons, and as I discussed in Part 1 of this series, BCAAs such as those found in whey protein can play a huge role in maximizing your potential for athletic performance and muscular development. I'm definitely not saying that BCAAs are useless (though you'd get all the BCAAs you need through a whey powder, so it's really not necessary to buy them separately). What I'm talking about here is supplementing singular amino acids, such as arginine, lysine, etc. Hyper-dosing any singular amino acid is pretty much useless. Your body needs a balance of amino acids to synthesize proteins. Different proteins require different proportions of amino acids to synthesize, but taking a huge dose of glutamine isn't going to do a damn thing (3). You'd only see benefits from supplementing specific amino acids if you're deficient in that particular one. If your diet is even remotely decent, you won't have any particular amino acid deficiencies, so you're probably not going to gain much from taking any amino acid.


Testosterone Boosters

These make up a huge portion of the supplement market, and for good reason: they're appealing to men, and they sell. The claims of these supplements tend to be fairly outlandish. Are they too good to be true? Well, if these supplements did what they claimed, you'd probably see a whole lot more guys walking around at 250 lbs and 6% bodyfat, wooing women everywhere they go with their huge muscles, high test, and sex panther prowess.

Except you don't see that. Most commercial test-boosters are better off remaining on the shelves. There are a lot of things that you can do to maximize your natural testosterone levels, and if you're a male you're definitely going to want the highest test levels you can possibly get naturally. Maybe I'll get into more detail about that in a future post, but there are only a few things you can take that will actually skyrocket your testosterone levels. These things are pictured below.

Yeah, those are steroids. I'm not advocating steroid use, but they're the only thing that's going to boost your test to the extreme and give you quick results.

As far as the actual ingredients of commercial test boosters go, they're generally a blend of various herbs and fillers that have little or no evidence to back their effectiveness up. The only herb that has shown some decent promise is Tribulus Terrestris, but the data on that is still very much inconclusive (4). It's cheap enough on its own, so if you want to give it a shot go for it and see if it works for you. Keep in mind that if you think it does, you could just be feeling the placebo effect, which isn't the end of the world if it makes you more confident about your test levels, but it's still money that you could be spending on something else.

If you want to maximize your natural testosterone production, you're better off making lifestyle changes than looking for a magic pill to take you from girly-man to stud.

Stay the hell away:

Diuretics

Before anyone says anything, I am aware that caffeine has a diuretic effect, but if it's taken in a reasonable dose and provided you drink any water at all, you have no reason to worry about dying of dehydration from it.
Other than caffeine, there's really no reason to take a diuretic unless a doctor prescribed it to you. Diuretics are commonly used non-medicinally to cut water for competition weigh-ins or for bodybuilding shows. At elite levels of competition, it's common to do whatever it takes to win regardless of potential health risks, but for the average person trying to lose weight or compete in powerlifting or even bodybuilding as a hobby, you're really better off avoiding strong diuretics altogether. Diuretic misuse has caused more deaths in bodybuilding than anything else. Look up Andreas Munzer if you want an example of this, who was one of the first (if not the first) deaths as a direct result of bodybuilding. If you're into bodybuilding and really want to achieve elite-level dryness, at least consult with a doctor if you're dead-set on using a diuretic.
For someone who wants to lose fat, taking a diuretic to lose weight is a terrible idea. The weight you lose due to diuretics is all water, NOT fat, and the weight loss is very temporary. When you look leaner from dehydration, it's simply because your subcutaneous fat is holding less water. As soon as you rehydrate to a healthy level, you'll look the same. It's similar to when you hear about teenaged girls, not realizing the difference between a weight cut and actual sustainable weight loss, making like high school wrestlers 2 hours before weigh-ins and going for a run wearing garbage bags to lose, like, so much weight! (true story). This is a very rudimentary concept, but a lot of people still don't seem to get it.

Synthol
It's probably completely unnecessary to even mention this, as it's not even really a "supplement" in the traditional sense, and I highly doubt anyone reading this has actually considered getting a synthol injection. For those who don't know, synthol is an oil that is injected into a muscle to make it appear larger. This injection carries a myriad of risks including gross infections and eventual gangrene, not to mention the fact that they look like shit. Apparently it's really popular in Brazil, so if anyone from Brazil is reading this (lol) stay away from that crap.
Read more about it here in this extremely detailed an interesting article:
https://www.t-nation.com/powerful-words/oil-bags-rise-of-the-idiots

Honorable Mention:
To be clear, this isn't meant to be a sub-heading of "bad" supplements. More of just a supplement that didn't quite make the "worthwhile" list.

Multivitamins

This may be a suprise, and it's something that I've only recently changed my opinion on. However, I've come to realize that my micronutrient needs are more than sufficiently met by my regular diet, without any vitamin or mineral supplementation whatsoever. I recently tracked a full day's eating using USDA's supertracker, and as it turns out I exceeded the RDA by a significant amount for every single micronutrient, even getting very close to the safe upper limits for a few. This was an average day of eating for me, about 3000 calories. For people on lower-calorie diets, a multivitamin may be more relevant, but hyperdosing vitamins, just like amino acids, has little utility if you aren't already very deficient. Before you start taking a multivitamin, try thinking of some changes you can make to your diet that might be able to help you reach the RDAs of whatever you're deficient in. If you decide to say screw that and just take a multi, it's not going to kill you though. I don't think that multivitamins are dangerous, just unnecessary if your diet is on point.



References

1. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/nitric_oxide_science.htm
2. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/vitamin-b12-the-energy-panacea/
3. http://www.ergo-log.com/glutaminedoesnothing.html
4. http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/devils-claw-tribulus-terrestris.html