Slayer's Den

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The 5 Minerals for Muscle​

Can a mineral deficiency cause impaired muscle gains, difficulty losing fat, and even bad moods? Yep. Here are the minerals athletes need.​

If you’re an athlete or lifter, you sweat and thus you’re likely deficient in zinc, which, along with selenium, maintains high testosterone levels and the immune system. That’s a mineral deficiency you certainly don’t want.

If you’re a plain old human, you’re also likely deficient in magnesium. By some estimates, up to 80 percent of Americans aren’t getting enough magnesium and may be deficient. And then there’s the exercise thing, which also applies to magnesium. The more you sweat, the more magnesium you ooze out.

Magnesium alone is responsible for over 300 biochemical reactions in the human body, ranging from muscle and nerve function to protein synthesis. Do you have insomnia, anxiety, or suffer from panic attacks? If so, it could well be the result of too little magnesium in your diet, or too poor absorption of magnesium through your diet or supplements.

Other important minerals like chromium and vanadium help maintain regular blood sugar levels and insulin, the importance of which would take another 10,000 words to explore.

Suffice it to say that while there are 11 minerals essential to human health, the 5 listed above are the ones that are most often in short supply in athletes and should thus be supplemented with their chelated forms.

The actual definition of a chelated mineral is pretty long-winded, so suffice it to say that it involves double binding an amino-acid to a mineral. The process ensures an amino-acid chelate that’s not only small enough to pass through the intestine, but small enough to be transported right into the cell itself.

Mineral formulations that aren’t chelated are problematical. At worst, they’re not absorbed. At best, they’re absorbed nominally because the majority of the foods we eat have chemicals in them that inhibit their absorption.

Granted, you could take non-chelated mineral supplements in-between meals. That might work, provided your stomach was completely empty, but that doesn’t happen very often unless you’re anorexic. And then there’s the problem of stomach upset. Many minerals cause your stomach to rebel unless they’re taken with food.

Chelated minerals, however, can be taken with food (or on an empty stomach) without fear of absorption problems and without fear of stomach upset.