Improved performance starts with the right nutrition, and that means making sure your body is fueled properly. Getting the right nutrients, including vitamins and minerals, in the right amounts will enable your body to maximize its recovery and help you perform to your true potential. This can be a challenge, and some vitamins and mineral deficiencies are more common than others. Magnesium deficiencies are the second most common deficiency in developed countries, after vitamin D.
A lack of magnesium raises blood pressure, reduces your glucose tolerance, neither of which are positive for your body or your performance. We’ll talk more about why magnesium is important for swimmers and how you can make sure you’re getting enough of this important mineral in your diet.
Electrolyte balance
Magnesium is an essential dietary mineral that is involved in energy production and protein synthesis. It is also the second most common electrolyte found in humans. As a swimmer, whether you are training in the pool or the weight room you are losing electrolytes, like magnesium, through sweat. These electrolytes need to be replaced. You’ll want to keep an eye on your electrolyte balance when you’re participating in any endurance activity, especially those lasting over an hour.
Muscle relaxation:
Magnesium helps to ensure proper muscle contraction and a lack of it may result in muscle cramps. It is involved in the production of ATP (adenosine triphosphate), which is important for red blood cell production in muscle cells. When your magnesium levels are too low to aid ATP production, your muscles may struggle to contract effectively. Magnesium also helps maintain normal nerve, heart and muscle function, in addition to promoting calcium absorption.
Better recovery
Another benefit to magnesium is that it helps with quality sleep, which is important for swimmers. Studies have shown altered electrical activity in the brain when magnesium is lacking, which can cause you to wake up multiple times during the night, and have an agitated sleep. Poor rest detracts from your recovery time and increases the chance your body won’t be well prepared for your training or race the following day. Magnesium has a calming effect, lowers blood pressure and improves insulin sensitivity.
What’s a good source of magnesium
Magnesium deficiencies can be fixed through proper nutrition. Grains, more common in the western diet, are not a good source of magnesium, whereas nuts and leafy vegetables, which are a good source of magnesium tend not to be eaten as often.
Magnesium can be found in dark leafy greens, nuts, fish, beans, whole grains, avocados, yogurt, bananas, dried fruit and dark chocolate. It is recommended that athletes get around 410mg of magnesium per day. Not getting enough of these foods, and not getting enough magnesium is quite common. An estimated 75% of Americans lack sufficient magnesium in their diet so you might also consider supplementing your diet with a nutritional shake to fill in the gaps. Something like NutriBoost Shake, which contains 100% of the recommended daily amounts of magnesium in just 3 scoops.
If you’re finding you’re fatiguing, having frequent muscle cramps, or poor sleep and want to determine whether you’re getting enough magnesium, check with your healthcare professional. They’ll be able to run a red blood cell test, which is more accurate than a regular blood test, to determine whether or not you have a magnesium deficiency.
Keeping an eye on your magnesium intake will help you make sure your body is getting the minerals it needs to optimize its recovery and prepare you to perform at your best.
ABOUT P2LIFE
P2Life is family owned, performance-based, nutritional supplement company that was designed for swimmers, by swimmers, to protect health and promote performance. P2Life takes great care in ensuring that every batch of their performance line is tested to be free of banned and illegal substances. Even though P2Life products were the preferred choice for over 40% of the USA Men’s Olympic Swim team during the London Olympics, it is not just for Olympians. It is also the preferred choice for the top high school, collegiate and masters swimmers across the globe.
P2Life was founded by Tim Shead, a Masters Swimming Hall of Fame Inductee and 42x World Record Holder, and co-founded by Michael Shead, who was a national water polo player. Tim’s expertise in swimming and years of experience and knowledge working with nutritional products, combined with Michael’s love of innovation and technical background, has enabled the P2Life team to create a technologically savvy company that is dedicated to furthering athletic potential. P2Life has a strong e-commerce platform, which allows them to spend less time and funds on retail stores, and dedicate more time to the swimming community.
A Proven Track Record:
- Over 40% of the USA Men’s Olympic Swim Team were taking P2Life products during the London Olympics. The athletes brought back 12 medals, seven of which were gold.
- P2Life Masters Swimmers have over 700 World Records to their name.
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Sources:
- https://examine.com/supplements/magnesium/
- http://www.chiro.org/nutrition/FULL/Essential_Nutrients_for_Endurance_Athletes.shtml
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17172008
- https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Magnesium-HealthProfessional/
- http://www.webmd.com/diet/supplement-guide-magnesium
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26166051
- http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/844214
- http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43836/1/9789241563550_eng.pdf
Swim Training provided by P2 Life, a SwimSwam ad partner.
Eat this and you will swim fast! USA Swimming specifically tells coaches not to promote supplements to swimmers.
You are missing the point. The article is highlighting the importance of a nutrient in the diets of swimmers and recommends the advice of a healthcare professional and promotes numerous natural foods.
To a consumer of this website, one can see all of this info and then it finishes with “consider” our product and “the USNT uses it!”.. doesn’t matter how much factual info is posted (appreciate the citations though, for real) it is still an ad, an extremely helpful ad, but an ad nonetheless.
Every single thing is an advert. That article on say – technique – shows whether whoever wrote it knows what they’re talking about. All articles, offering “free advice,” are in some way self-promotion, that’s an advert, good or bad. The dog you own shows everyone around you that you are willing to spend your time with the dog, in essence, you’re advertising that the dog’s breed, gender, is worth it. Now not everyone will necessarily like your dog, or necessarily even like dogs, so to them it’s a bad advert, whereas others will love it. Most of the articles online on the NCAA’s right now are all adverts. The coverage alone advertises to some extent the NCAA’s, Swimswam, the athlete’s,… Read more »