Strength Athlete’s Guide to Magnesium: How to Get Stronger with this Micronutrient
Strength athletes are notorious for paying too much attention to their macronutrients, but having little to no knowledge when it comes to micronutrients. We’ll look at what this knowledge deficit really looks like, and spend time highlighting the ONE micronutrient you just simply SHOULDN’T be neglecting— magnesium.
What do Athletes know about Nutrition?
Micronutrient Nutrition Knowledge (NK) Among Strength Athletes
Many of us fail to pay attention to micronutrients because quite simply— we’re too occupied focusing on the macronutrients—carbs, protein, and fat.
Although this is an ill assumption made from my observations as a powerlifter myself, and as a nutrition coach, I knew it carried some type of weight based on the understanding that the average American struggles with their daily recommended intake of micronutrients.
To see if I had anything to corrobate this assumption, I wanted to see if there were any published studies that assessed the nutrition knowledge of strength athletes specifically.
To date, studies assessing nutrition knowledge (NK) among strength athletes are unfortunately extremely limited.
Not surprising.
The only study I could find that evaluated NK among strength athletes was conducted by Peerkhan and Srinivasan in 2010. Peerkhan and Srinivasan evaluated the nutritional intake, attitude, and knowledge of Indian sportsmen in three varying sports:
Volleyball players
Weightlifters
Runners
Peerkhan and Srinivasan tested subjects in the following nutrition-related categories:
Carbohydrates
Protein
Fat
Vitamins and Minerals
Hydration
They found that runners were the best informed and aware about the role of nutrients in athletic performance, followed by volleyball players, with weightlifters the least knowledgable about nutrition.
More specifically, weightlifters scored only 23% of accurate knowledge when it came to vitamins and minerals.
I already complained once about the lack of studies that focus on strength athletes, so instead of another unproductive jab, let’s take a few minutes to review some studies that focus on this topic in a similar population group.
Micronutrient Knowledge among Collegiate Athletes
Collegiate athletes are often acknowleged to be a wealth of nutrition information.
They spend hours training; many of them involved in their respective sports at an early age.
They must know what they’re doing when it comes to nutrition, right?
Well, not exactly.
Research in this area has been studied extensively to explore whether or not associations exist between increased nutrition knowledge, dietary intake, and overall performance.
The majority of some of these studies evaluate knowledge based on questionnaires and exams that include a broad range of topics in nutrition. These topics range from: macronutrient importance, nutrition impacts on performance, and thankfully—micronutrient understanding.
Here is an unorganized, bulleted list of some of those studies that look at micronutrient knowledge:
In a study published by the Journal of Strength and Conditioning, researchers found that 76.6% of varsity Division 1A athletes believed that vitamins supply energy to the body.
Vitamins do not supply energy to the body; they aid in energy metabolism.
A similar study also found that 80% of collegiate football linemen also believed that vitamins are energy-producing.
In another study, nutrition questionnaires answered by female college athlete cross-country runners from nine universities also exhibited poor nutrition knowledge (NK) when it came to vitamins. Questions that were answered incorrectly involved vitamin supplementation vs. vitamin-enriched foods and vitamin content in fresh vs frozen/canned vegetables.
Vitamin supplementation is not necessary in the average, healthy individual if a diet includes a variety of foods.
Frozen/canned vegetables are just as nutritious, if not more, as fresh vegetables.
In comparison to other aspects of NK evaluated (macronutrient, physical performance, etc), the subjects in these studies displayed the lowest proficiency on micronutrients, similar to the study conducted by Peerkhan and Srinivasan.
Nutrition knowledge regarding micronutrients and their importance rank the lowest in proficiency, even in active individuals.
What does Magnesium do in the Body?
So, now that we have a bit of context to get you motivated to learn more about micronutrients, let’s get to work.
Among the many micronutrients that athletes should be paying attention to, magnesium is definitely one that has made its way to the top of the list.
This essential mineral is required by EVERY single cell in the body, which roughly translates to about 300 metabolic reactions. To name a few, magnesium is involved in the following processes:
Energy metabolism
Cell growth
Glycolysis
Protein synthesis
Scientific jargon aside, magnesium intake is associated with:
Being able to lower blood pressure
Contributing positively to bone health (in accordance with calcium and vitamin D intake)
Decreased risk of stroke
Although magnesium ranks high on the list of importance, most Americans aren’t getting enough. In fact, almost ⅔ of Americans are not meeting the daily recommended intakes for magnesium.
That ⅔ translates to about 60% of Americans living in the US today.
Why are Americans not Getting Enough Magnesium?
Meeting the daily recommended intake for Magnesium through food alone is actually not all that difficult... unless you make up ¾ of the American population that consumes a diet low in vegetables, fruit, and oils.
Yes—unfortunately a staggering ¾ of Americans miss the mark on this mineral due to consuming foods high in calories, but low in nutrients.
Foods that are under consumed by most Americans include some of our most magnesium rich foods, which include things like legumes, nuts, vegetables, and whole grains.
How much Magnesium Do I Need?
Magnesium recommendations, much like many other micronutrients, are based off of biological sex, lifecycle, and age.
Here is a sweet table by NIH with the current dietary recommendations.
Note: The range displayed above is the recommended dietary allowance for magnesium in regards to age.
Women who are 19 to 30 should aim for 310 mg/day
Women who are 31 to 50 should aim for 320 mg/day.
Men who are 19 to 30 should aim for 400 mg/day
Men who are 31 to 50 should aim for 420 mg/day.
How do I make sure I am getting enough Magnesium?
Assessing true magnesium levels adds a whole other layer to the onion.
Since 99% of magnesium is located in the bone, muscles, and non-muscular soft tissue, it’s hard to get an accurate reading of whether or not you may be at risk for deficiency.
Nonetheless, obtaining an assessment of your total serum magnesium concentration will probably be your best if you’re curious, and don’t want to spend a whole lot of money. Just keep in mind that this assessment is not the most accurate indicator of magnesium status.
Due to the limitations of being able to get an accurate measurement of magnesium status, dietary recalls can be conducted to provide some insight.
Work with a Dietitian to see what your dietary recall can tell you.
How lack of Magnesium can Impact Performance
We understand that magnesium is involved in a whole slew of metabolic processes, but why do athletes in particular, need to pay attention to this mineral?
I guess at this point, it probably will not surprise you that some studies indicate that athletes also fall under the category of individuals who aren’t consuming enough magnesium, huh?
Bummer.
Why is this so important?
Endurance athletes, such as cyclists and runners experience increased losses of nutrients through sweat and urine due to increased energy expenditure.
Although most strength athletes barely break a sweat compared to our endurance-obsessed friends, the proposed mechanisms of magnesium in relation to performance still apply.
At the end of the day, the primary goal in any exercise is to produce adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP) in an efficient manner.
To break this down, let’s take a high-level look at what glucose metabolism in relation to physical activity looks like:
The above paints a very basic picture of glucose metabolism in relation to increased physical outout, but the pathways involved are much more intricate that involve numerous biological compounds.
For the sake of keeping this concise, I’ll just note that one of the biological compounds involved in glucose metabolism just so happens to be magnesium itself.
Although the mechanisms between physical performance and magnesium are still being researched, we understand the following to be true:
Magnesium is involved in aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, particularly in the metabolism of adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Low magnesium in the body increases the overall energy cost to produce ATP, which increases oxygen use during exercise.
Increased oxygen translates to increased breakdown of glycogen in the muscles, which ultimately increases lactate production in the body, contributing to muscle fatigue, and impacting performance.
Studies show adequate levels of magnesium in the body does not increase the overall energy cost, making ATP production efficient.
Since magnesium levels are pretty hard to assess, many of these studies are limiting because baseline magnesium status among studied subjects are highly variable.
A general consensus exists that positive associations between magnesium supplementation and physical performance are not due to increased levels of magnesium per say, but just adequate recommended levels.
By consuming adequate levels of magnesium everyday, supplementation enhances performance by bringing intake to an optimum level.
However, human studies that examine Mg supplementations’ effectiveness in muscle strength varies.
A few studies have shown a positive association between serum Mg levels, but some have shown no effects at all.
A cross-sectional analysis found that serum Mg concentrations showed positive results in various exercise modalities such as grip strength and lower-leg power in older individuals. Some other positive associations involved elite basketball, handball and volleyball players, and even in elite judo athletes.
On the other hand, we also note a couple RCTs that didn’t show any significant impacts of Mg supplementation, which included a group of healthy elderly women and a group of marathon runners.
Can Strength Athletes Benefit from Magnesium to Enhance Performance?
Before you become dissuaded as a result of the last two studies I mentioned, I still stand firm that strength athletes need to pay attention to magnesium in their diet.
Let’s summarize a couple points:
Nutrition knowledge on micronutrients is limited, even in highly active individuals.
Roughly two-thirds of Americans fail to consume the recommended daily intake of magnesium due to consuming a diet high in calories, but low in nutrients.
At this point, it wouldn’t be too innocuous to draw an assumption that the majority of strength athletes are not getting enough magnesium.
Now, let’s understand a couple of other factors that are particular to strength athletes.
Powerlifting, weightlifting, and strongman all require competitive athletes to:
Pay attention to body composition in order to optimize muscle mass.
Weigh in for their competitions.
Studies show the following:
Athletes involved in sports that require them to pay attention to their body composition often consume less than optimal amounts of energy, which may translate to a poor micronutrient intake.
Athletes involved in weight-class sports often consume suboptimal amounts of energy, which may translate to a poor micronutrient intake.
Although further research is warranted to explore the mechanisms of magnesium and performance, I feel like I make a strong case in why you should be paying more attention to magnesium, not just as an athlete, but as average health conscious individual.
Top Six Magnesium and Protein-rich Foods for the Strength Athlete
Utter the word ‘protein’ and a strength athlete will come flocking. Whisper ‘magnesium’ and you lost them.
In order to make magnesium appealing to you, I thought it’d be neat to curate a list of the top six foods not only rich in magnesium, but protein as well.
You are so welcome.
Other magnesium-rich foods include:
Spinach, cooked (1 cup): 157 mg
Brown rice (1 cup): 86 mg
Dark chocolate (1 oz): 65 mg
Bananas (1 cup): 41 mg
Here are some simple tips on increasing magnesium intake:
Make sure to consume the recommended 4 - 5 servings of vegetables a day.
Try and opt for whole grains (brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, etc) rather than refined grains as a source of carbohydrates twice a day.
Snack on nuts and roasted legumes like chickpeas and edamame.
Magnesium Supplementation: What You Need to Know
As a Dietitian, my goal is to make sure you try your best to obtain all the necessary micronutrients through whole foods (in a perfect world). However, we know this is not always the case. If supplementation is the route you want to take, it is important to understand that not all magnesium supplements are created equally. Magnesium supplements come in various forms. As a general rule of thumb, the ones you want to avoid include:
Magnesium sulfate
Magnesium oxide
Magnesium chloride
Here is one that I would recommend which is also vegan-friendly, soy-free, and gluten-free:
Magnesium Key Take-Aways:
Proper knowledge of micronutrients and its importance are limited, even in active individuals such as collegiate athletes.
Magnesium plays a vital role in energy metabolism, cell growth, glycolysis, and protein synthesis.
Magnesium’s role in performance focuses on the efficiency of using glucose in response to exercise, reducing lactate in the blood, decreasing overall fatigue, thus decreasing the risk of negatively impacting performance.
Strength athletes may require more magnesium due to increased focus on optimal body composition and weight-class parameters.
Top six magnesium and protein-rich foods include: almonds, pumpkin seeds, soymilk, black beans, edamame, and kidney beans.
What are your thoughts on this mighty mineral? Did you learn anything from this post? Let me know below!
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