Magnesium for Muscles: How It Supports Muscle Health

You don't need to be a weightlifter to want to support your muscle health. We use our muscles to do just about everything, so keeping them in tip-top shape should be a priority! One great way to support your muscles is by ensuring your body gets enough Magnesium. Magnesium is essential to muscle relaxation and nerve, heart, and bone health.†

Magnesium's Function in Muscles

So why would you take Magnesium for muscles? To understand how Magnesium helps our muscles contract and relax, we need a short primer on how muscles work on the cellular level! Many muscle cells have binding sites for Calcium molecules. When these Calcium molecules bind to these proteins, this changes the structure of the protein in a way that causes muscle contraction.[1]

Muscle contraction is needed for our muscles to work; flexing, moving, and pumping our heart all rely on these contractions. But the flip side is muscle relaxation, which is also incredibly necessary. Imagine if every time you tensed up, you stayed that way. Not so pleasant, right? Thankfully, the proteins that bind with Calcium can also bind with Magnesium due to their similar structures. When Magnesium binds with these proteins, it blocks off the sites for Calcium, allowing your muscles to relax.[2] That's why you need good sources of Calcium and Magnesium moving through your body; there needs to be a balance so that muscle contraction and relaxation can work in tandem.

Magnesium also serves another essential role in our cells: ion transport. By modulating Sodium and Potassium pathways in the cell membrane, Magnesium helps transport these ions into and out of cell membranes so they can get where they need to go.[3] Sodium and Potassium are minerals critical for the transmission of nerve impulses, like when your brain tells your muscles to contract or relax. Magnesium also supports a healthy heart, which is one of the most important muscles in the body!†

How Magnesium Aids in Muscle Recovery from Exercise

Have you ever gone out for a run, a bike ride, or physically strenuous activity and felt sore and tense the next day? We all know that when we work our muscles, they can hold onto some of the tension that is so useful when we're running, pedaling, or lifting. These are occasional muscle cramps. Like in the mechanism described above, Magnesium plays an essential role in muscle relaxation. By competing with Calcium for receptor proteins in muscle cells, Magnesium helps keep muscles from becoming too tense or staying tense for too long.[2] This excess tension can cause muscle soreness from exercise, and studies have shown that Magnesium can help with muscle recovery from exercise.[4]

Daily Magnesium Requirements

Magnesium is an essential mineral, and we can't produce it within our bodies, so it's on us to ensure we get enough through either diet or Magnesium supplementation. You can find Magnesium in whole grains, beans, and dark, leafy green vegetables like spinach.

Because our bodies change as we age, so do our dietary requirements! For women aged 14-18, the daily Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for Magnesium is 360 mg. This amount increases to 400 mg if pregnant. For men 14-18, the RDA is 410 mg. For women aged 19-30, the RDA is 310 mg or 350 mg during pregnancy. For men of the same age, the RDA is 400 mg. Women aged 31-50 have an RDA of 320 mg, or 360 if pregnant. Men aged 31-50 have an RDA of 420 mg. At ages above 51 years, the RDA is 320 mg for women and 420 mg for men.

Nature Made® Magnesium Tablets support essential nerve, muscle, and heart functions in one daily tablet. Magnesium is an essential mineral required for more than 300 enzymatic reactions in the body, including helping to convert food into cellular energy. And, as we went into above, Magnesium supports muscle relaxation and helps to relax the body. Our Magnesium is sourced from high-quality ingredients, and Nature Made® is the #1 pharmacist-recommended vitamin and supplement brand.*†

Different Types of Magnesium

Magnesium comes in many forms, and they all have their benefits. Nature Made® High Absorption Magnesium Citrate Gummies offer a tasty way to get Magnesium Citrate, which is better absorbed than Magnesium Oxide. Magnesium Citrate is highly bioavailable and is made by combining a salt form of Magnesium with citric acid.†

Nature Made® High Absorption Magnesium Glycinate Gummies are 100% chelated and have better absorption and GI tolerance than other Magnesium supplement forms such as Magnesium Oxide. The Magnesium Glycinate form is gentle on the stomach.†

We also offer Wellblends™ Calm & Relax™ Capsules, a scientifically designed 2-in-1 blend with Magnesium to help relax the body and clinically studied Ashwagandha to reduce stress. The herb Ashwagandha has long been used in Ayurvedic medicine and is revered as an adaptogen to help support stress resilience. With Magnesium for muscle relaxation and SENSORIL® Ashwagandha, which is clinically studied to reduce stress‡, Nature Made® Wellblends™ Calm & Relax™ capsules are a vegetarian way to help your body and mind cool down after a long, strenuous day.†

Always consult your primary care provider or another healthcare professional when starting or changing your supplement routine. Our team at Nature Made® recommends taking supplements with a consistent meal, like breakfast or dinner, and a glass of water. If you're looking for a way to help supplement your Magnesium intake for muscle support, check out Nature Made® Magnesium.†

*Based on a survey of pharmacists who recommend branded vitamins and supplements.

‡SENSORIL® is clinically studied to reduce cortisol and perceived stress.†

SENSORIL® is protected under U.S. Patent No. 7,318,938 and CA Patent No. 2,508,478, and is a registered trademark of Natreon, Inc.

† These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

References

1. Gomes AV, Potter JD, Szczesna-Cordary D. The role of troponins in muscle contraction. IUBMB Life. 2002;54(6):323-333. doi:10.1080/15216540216037
2. Potter JD, Robertson SP, Johnson JD. Magnesium and the regulation of muscle contraction. Fed Proc. 1981;40(12):2653-2656.
3. Bara M, Guiet-Bara A, Durlach J. Regulation of sodium and potassium pathways by Magnesium in cell membranes. Magnes Res. 1993;6(2):167-177.
4. Reno AM, Green M, Killen LG, O'Neal EK, Pritchett K, Hanson Z. Effects of Magnesium Supplementation on Muscle Soreness and Performance. J Strength Cond Res. 2022;36(8):2198-2203. doi:10.1519/JSC.0000000000003827
5. National Institutes of Health. Magnesium. June 2, 2022. Accessed on December 20, 2023: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/.