Underrated nutrients magnesium and phosphatidylserine can help jack up your training results.
If you think you are getting all of the nutrients you need from your diet, think again. Even the most health-conscious consumer who whips up dishes that would make Jamie Oliver’s mouth water probably isn’t getting all of the nutrients necessary for optimal health. In fact, most Americans are falling short and robbing themselves of the opportunity to look and feel their best.
We are an overfed yet undernourished nation, consuming too many calories in the form of nutrient-poor food. Our collective waistlines are expanding while our health is taking a downward turn as we miss out on several vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber and healthy fats. And, though you may be well informed about the importance of vitamin D and omega-3 fats, for instance, have you paid any attention to magnesium and phosphatidylserine? If not, now is the time to zone in on these two playmakers.
Mineral Magic: Magnesium’s Versatile Role

According to national survey data, less than half of adults consume enough magnesium from their daily diet. Here’s why this is a serious deficiency that can negatively impair not just your athletic performance, but your general health.

• Why You Need It: Magnesium plays a role in over 300 biochemical reactions and is vital for:
► Nerve functioning.
► Regulating blood-sugar levels.
► Promoting normal blood pressure.
► Keeping heart rhythm steady.
► Supporting immune health.
► Supporting bone strength.
This mineral is especially important for bodybuilders and other athletes. If you want to train hard and get maximum results from your time in the gym or on the trails, you need magnesium. Here’s what you need to know.

• How It Works: The food you eat, particularly carbohydrates, gives your body the energy it needs to train. But our bodies need magnesium to metabolize carbohydrates and fats, and produce ATP, the high-energy system your body uses during fast, explosive activity such as sprinting or weightlifting.
Your ATP levels are like precious commodities, in short supply and used up in the first few seconds of intense exercise. Although our bodies can produce more ATP during rest periods, magnesium is required for ATP production. And if you are on creatine and want creatine to work like a backup battery by recharging your ATP stores, you absolutely have to have enough magnesium in your body. Skimp on magnesium, and creatine supplementation won’t work to its full potential.
Magnesium is absolutely essential for muscular contractions and, therefore, a magnesium deficiency will hamper your athletic performance, strength and endurance. Early signs of deficiency include muscle cramping, muscular twitching or spasms, muscular fatigue, numbness and tingling.

• How You Know If You Are Low: Several factors may contribute to low magnesium stores, including gastrointestinal disorders such as celiac disease or Crohn’s disease; low dietary intake over a period of time; use of diuretics; increased magnesium use during exercise; and physical or psychological stress.
Blood tests can help detect a magnesium deficiency, though blood needs to be drawn in a rested and fasted state for the most accurate results since magnesium levels in blood shift during exercise. However, keep in mind that normal blood levels of magnesium do not necessarily mean you are in the free and clear since blood levels do not reflect tissue levels. A person could have normal blood magnesium levels yet low muscle or bone magnesium stores, which complicates matters a bit. In fact, blood magnesium levels may have very little correlation with muscle magnesium stores. Therefore, in an ideal situation, your physician will take a close look at your dietary intake, supplement intake and blood results prior to making a recommendation.

• How Much To Take: Unlike some nutrients that are tough to find, magnesium is actually in many different foods (see sidebar), but it isn’t found in large quantities in these foods. And a multi­vitamin won’t help much, either. No single multivitamin pill or tablet (versus the kind in packets where you have to take several pills in a day) contains 100% of the daily value (DV) for magnesium. It’s a big, bulky mineral, so if manufacturers added enough magnesium to meet the DV along with all of the vitamins and minerals needed on a daily basis, the pill would be so big you’d choke at the thought of swallowing it.
Plus, if you are dieting or cutting weight, you are even more likely to miss out on the DV of several vitamins and minerals because less food means fewer opportunities to get the nutrients you need, including magnesium.
Supplement ranges of magnesium for athletes can be anything from 400–800 mg per day. The upper tolerable limit for magnesium is 8 mg per kg (2.2 lb) of body weight per day. Magnesium is also found in the popular supplement ZMA (zinc magnesium aspartate), so that’s another option to make sure you’re getting enough of this critical nutrient.*

Hard Cell: Phosphatidylserine


Another training aid that will minimize the effects of overtraining and daily stress is phosphatidylserine. Here’s what you need to know.
• What It Is: Phosphatidylserine (PS) is a structural component of cell membranes that also regulates cell-membrane functioning.

• Why You Need It: Although the majority of research has focused on the importance of phosphatidylserine for brain functioning and its potential to reduce cognitive decline due to aging, it may also improve your training and mitigate the negative effects of physical stress.

• How It Works: Train hard for a long period of time and at some point your body will be spent and need time to recuperate; overtrain and your body will suffer. You may experience nagging injuries; recurrent colds due to the immune-suppressing effects of exercise; see a drop in your performance; or feel the psychological effects of being drained. And, like a double whammy, your testosterone levels will plummet while production of the stress hormone cortisol will increase. PS can help blunt some of these negative effects by curtailing our body’s excess production of cortisol and possibly even increasing testosterone levels.
Chronic physical or psychological stress causes your body to pump out excess amounts of cortisol. Cortisol prepares your body for a fight by increasing your appetite and blood-sugar levels so you have enough fuel, inhibiting the breakdown of fat while also stimulating fat production. But cortisol is also a catabolic hormone, so in addition to making you fat, chronically elevated levels of cortisol will break down bone and the muscle tissue you’ve worked so hard to build. Luckily, phosphatidyl­serine can help.
Studies show that supplemental phosphatidylserine blunts the rise in cortisol due to exercise, thereby decreasing some of the negative effects of exercise-related stress on your body. Now, what about the drop in testosterone — the hormone both men and women need for overall health, energy, strength, protein synthesis and more — related to overtraining? PS supplementation may blunt the drop in testosterone. Studies have also found that phosphatidylserine supplementation improved the amount of time cyclists were able to exercise before they were exhausted, decreased muscle soreness in overtrained weightlifters, and reduced muscle damage in trained runners.
In addition to taking a toll on your body, overtraining takes a major toll on your head, increasing mental stress and the feelings of fatigue and burnout. And a wealth of research points to the importance of phosphatidyl­serine and brain functioning. Research studies show that it improves the decline in brain functioning associated with age and improves some aspects of memory. Phosphatidylserine may also help reduce mental stress and help improve feelings of being clear-headed and energetic.

• How Much To Take: If you want to reduce the negative physical and psychological side effects from training, give phosphatidylserine a shot. Clinical trials have used doses ranging from 300–800 mg. How does that compare to our daily intake from food? The average amount of phosphatidylserine most of us get from food is about 130 mg per day.
There are many factors that impact how you feel on a daily basis, your ability to exercise and make the most of your training sessions and your athletic performance. Two of these factors that have been overlooked for years are magnesium and phosphatidyl­serine. If you want to feel your best and enjoy your favorite sport while making the most from your training, consider supplementing with magnesium and phosphatidylserine.*