Vitamin C: The Smart Athlete’s Secret Weapon

Behind every strong tendon and smooth recovery is a molecule no one’s talking about. Here's how to use it.

Still Think Vitamin C Is Just for Colds?

Maybe some of you are tired of me talking about vitamin C — but hear me out.

If you’re training hard, pushing your limits, or recovering from an injury, there’s one nutrient that deserves way more attention than it gets: vitamin C. Most people still think of it as just the thing you reach for when you're getting sick. But for athletes and active folks, it plays a much bigger role.

From Absolute Collagen, Ireland

Why Collagen Needs Vitamin C

Vitamin C is often overlooked in recovery conversations, but it’s one of the most critical nutrients for rebuilding tissue—especially after stress, injury, or high-volume training. To understand why, you have to start with collagen.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body. It forms the structural framework for connective tissues—tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone, and even skin—and is what gives them their strength, resilience, and ability to withstand load. When collagen production is compromised, so is your body’s ability to repair and reinforce those tissues under strain.¹

Vitamin C serves as a cofactor for the enzymes needed to build the amino acids necessary to stabilize and cross-link collagen fibers. Without adequate vitamin C, your body can’t complete this step, which means it can’t build or maintain healthy, durable collagen. This is not just a biochemical detail—it’s the difference between recovery and chronic injury risk, therefore making adequate vitamin C intake especially important when one is recovering from injury, surgery, or wound healing.

The Science on vitamin C and Tendon Recovery

A 2022 scoping review published in Nutrients examined the role of vitamin C in healing tendinopathies and found a clear benefit: vitamin C supported tissue repair and collagen turnover, especially when combined with appropriate rehab protocols.²

One thing that I do before every stand-up paddle race is to make sure that I am adequately hydrated, and I take a liposomal vitamin C gel packet to help support my muscles and tendons while paddling at top speed. That vitamin C packet is in addition to my daily intake. In a study by Greg Shaw, athletes who consumed vitamin C-enriched gelatin before a bout of intermittent exercise showed double the collagen synthesis compared to placebo.³ This means you can do more than "wait and heal"—you can actively support repair with the right nutrients.

https://bsmfoundation.ca/the-scoop-on-jell-o-and-collagen-for-recovery-and-injury-prevention/tion...

Recovery, Not Just Repair

Beyond collagen, vitamin C is a potent antioxidant, helping reduce oxidative stress after tough workouts or acute injuries. When you're injured, inflammation is part of the natural healing process. But excessive oxidative stress can slow things down. A 2018 study on elite Taekwondo athletes showed that short-term, high-dose vitamin C supplementation (paired with vitamin E) significantly reduced markers of inflammation and muscle damage.⁴

For athletes in high-output seasons or during back-to-back competitions, vitamin C helps manage cumulative stress on the body—especially when sleep and nutrition aren't perfect.

Dosing, Food Sources, and Timing

While mainstream guidelines suggest 75 to 90 mg of vitamin C per day as a baseline, Dr. Thomas Levy, a leading authority on the therapeutic use of vitamin C, significantly higher doses of 1,000 to 3,000 mg daily, often divided throughout the day to maintain blood levels and tissue saturation.⁵ When vitamin C levels lower, this leaves tissues vulnerable to prolonged inflammation, impaired immune response, and delayed healing unless levels are quickly restored. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so what your body doesn’t use quickly is excreted, which makes frequency just as important as quantity.⁶ Watch my interview with Dr. Thomas Levy on vitamin C here.

You can (and should) still eat your nutrients—foods like red bell peppers, citrus fruits, kiwi, strawberries, and cruciferous vegetables are excellent sources of vitamin C. Unfortunately, you cannot rely on food alone to have sufficient vitamin C intake when your system is repairing tendon or ligament damage or buffering post-training inflammation. This is where supplementation becomes essential.

Timing also matters. Taking vitamin C with collagen-rich foods or supplements before or after training helps provide both the raw materials and the biochemical trigger to stimulate collagen production right when your body needs it most.

The Recovery Strategy You're Probably Overlooking

Last Thursday morning, I pulled a back muscle at the gym — not surprising, considering I’d been sitting too much at the computer and hadn’t been staying on top of hydration. Thursdays also happen to be paddle race day. After the injury, I shifted into recovery mode: extra vitamin C, time under the near-infrared (NIR) lamp, applied heat, took extra BPC-157 and boswellia orally, and used arnica/DMSO gel and vitamin C oil on my lower back.

Board: Flying Fish Board Co., Paddle: Quickblade Stingray

Despite the setback, I was still able to compete in the race — I just adjusted my pace to avoid making it worse. Afterward, I took more vitamin C and continued my recovery protocol. By Saturday evening, I felt completely back to normal.

In the meantime, I didn’t stop moving — just moved smarter. I went surfing on Friday, did paddle training Saturday morning at lower intensity, and adapted my daily yoga practice to gently open the lower back and hamstrings. During breath work, I focused on sending awareness into my hips, back, and hamstrings. And I stayed hydrated through all of it.

Here’s the thing:
You can’t out-train dehydration, nutrient deficiencies, or a lack of mobility. These are non-negotiables, both for preventing injury and for speeding up recovery when setbacks happen.

If you're stuck in your routine, not making progress, or struggling with recurring injuries, and your current approach isn’t cutting it, let’s talk. I’d love to help you elevate your workout routine and lifestyle.

1. U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Collagen Synthesis." StatPearls. Updated July 24, 2023.

2. Effect of Vitamin C on Tendinopathy Recovery: A Scoping Review," Nutrients 14, no. 13 (2022): 2663.

3. Shaw, Greg, et al. “Vitamin C-Enriched Gelatin Supplementation Before Intermittent Activity Augments Collagen Synthesis.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 105, no. 1 (2017): 136–143.

4. Chou, Chin-Chou, et al. "Short-Term High-Dose Vitamin C and E Supplementation Attenuates Muscle Damage and Inflammatory Responses to Repeated Taekwondo Competitions." International Journal of Medical Sciences 15, no. 11 (2018).

5. Levy, Thomas E. Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins. Henderson, NV: MedFox Publishing, 2002.

6. Levy, Thomas E. Rapid Virus Recovery. MedFox Publishing, 2021.