01
Sep
Reading time - 5 mins
After a hard session, we all know the feeling of muscle soreness and stiffness. You can follow some basic tips to help with your muscle recovery, including rest, sports massage, and adding certain supplements to ensure muscles have the proper nutrients for a speedy recovery.
There’s no magic bullet when it comes to fitness and recovery, but one that comes close to it is Magnesium. This very popular mineral is connected to many health benefits, including muscle recovery. Let’s dig in a bit deeper to understand the connection between magnesium and muscle recovery.
Magnesium is the fourth most abundant mineral in the body, and it’s involved in many cellular reactions. This mineral is involved in many functions such as regulation of blood pressure, energy production, maintaining heart and brain health, nerve function, sleep quality and muscle contraction. These are just some of the many health benefits that magnesium has in the body.
You can find this mineral in plenty of delicious foods, including spinach, pumpkin seeds, almonds, avocado, salmon, tofu and many more. You can also find magnesium in supplement form as powder or tablets.
When it comes to muscle recovery, magnesium plays a role in regulating muscle contractions. It does that as it acts as a natural calcium blocker, which can then help muscles to relax.
Calcium and magnesium bind to proteins such as troponin C and myosin, and they will both compete for these binding spots. Calcium will contract muscles, while magnesium will relax muscle contraction. If your body doesn’t have enough magnesium to compete with calcium, your muscles may contract too much, resulting in cramps and spasms.
Giving your body the proper nutrients after a hard training session can help prevent those unwanted contractions. By adding supplements or foods rich in magnesium to your routine, you will be giving your body the best chance to fight that muscle soreness the next day.
We know that you can eat a healthy and balanced diet to give the body all the needed nutrients. However, studies have shown that few people will meet their daily magnesium intake requirements. If that’s you, adding a magnesium supplement can be on the cards here. There is a wide range of magnesium supplements available in the market. Click here for a variety of brands.
As you know, when you deplete your body through strenuous exercise, you need to replenish somehow. Whether you are eating a healthy and balanced diet or adding supplements, your body needs all the tools you can give to help with a speedy recovery.
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