To blunt muscle growth load up on antioxidants.
A "health hack" that can hurt muscle gains is antioxidant supplementation.
Intuitively, it makes sense that to grow a muscle you need to stress it. This physical stress
creates cellular oxidative stress...an appropriate response to initiate a signaling cascade of repair, recovery, and growth.
You don't want to just put out oxidative stress with an antioxidant.
For example...
Imagine you have a great workout.
You successfully transfer mechanical stress to oxidative stress and thus signal adaptation and growth.
But instead of letting your body do its thing, you decide to "help" your body manage the oxidative stress and take some antioxidants post-workout.
In doing so, you blunt the hormetic stress,
turning down the signals designed to turn on growth. (r,r)
Whoops.
Conclusion
I'd avoid antioxidant supplements like vitamins E and C around workouts.
They can blunt oxidative stress / signaling pathways that are important for the
adaptive response to exercise.
