Magnesium for Muscle Pain: 3 Ways It Boosts Your Recovery

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that muscle soreness is common after an intense workout.

You’ve put your muscles to work, and the microtears that develop from high-intensity activity can lead to soreness in the days after your workout.

While it’s completely natural, extended or severe pain could be a sign that something is missing…If soreness becomes chronic, you could have a magnesium deficiency—a mineral that plays an important role in inflammation and muscle contraction/relaxation.

So, we’re breaking down what you need to know about magnesium and muscle pain. We’ll cover the causes of muscle pain, how magnesium can help, and what to look for in a supplement.

What Causes Muscle Pain?

Many factors can cause muscle pain—intense exercise, traumatic injury, sleeping “wrong,” and more.

But typically, this pain subsides after a couple of days and you’re back to normal function. But if the pain doesn’t go away or subside, it could be because you’re missing nutrients needed to support proper muscle recovery.

While we usually chalk up muscle pain to injury, there are several additional causes. Muscle strain during exercise is a biggie, as well as an insufficient warm-up or cool down, but there can also be medical causes that result in muscle pain:

• Fibromyalgia
• Infections (flu, polio, bacterial, etc.)
• Thyroid issues
• Potassium deficiency
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Myofascial pain syndrome
• Autoimmune conditions
• Medications (statins, ACE inhibitors, etc.)

Muscle pain can be both localized (one area) or affect a large chunk of the body.

Should you foam roll before or after your workout? Find out in our guide here!

Magnesium Deficiency

Although there are many food sources of magnesium, it remains one of the most common nutrient deficiencies—and usually goes undiagnosed.

It’s estimated that anywhere from 15% to 20% of the population is deficient in magnesium and that number increases to more than 80% in postmenopausal women.¹ There are two types of deficiencies that can occur: frank deficiencies and subclinical deficiencies - clinical and subclinical.

The former is something like scurvy with obvious symptoms attached to low levels of a nutrient. A subclinical deficiency means a silent reduction in physiological, cellular, and/or biochemical function as a result of low nutrient status.

Subclinical deficiencies are more concerning, as they’re more difficult to diagnose and predispose individuals to several health problems and chronic diseases.¹

Think you may be magnesium deficient? Watch for these symptoms:

• Muscle twitches, tremors, and cramps
• Mood changes
• Osteoporosis or weakened bones
• Fatigue
• Muscle weakness
• High blood pressure
• Arrhythmia
• Muscle tightness

If you’re checking yes to more than one of these symptoms, get your magnesium levels checked and keep reading for ways to boost your levels!

How Does Magnesium Help With Muscle Pain?

Boosts ATP production

The body relies on a consistent supply of energy to perform optimally, and that energy comes from a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short.

While ATP is used to power virtually every process in your body, one of those includes muscle contraction during your workout and relaxation after. It breaks the actin-myosin cross-bridge, thereby freeing the myosin for the next contraction.

Without sufficient ATP, this contraction can’t happen—and the synthesis of ATP is magnesium-dependent. For ATP to become biologically active, it must bind to magnesium to form an Mg-ATP complex.² But ATP is also needed to produce the energy that allows you to get through your workout in the first place and recover properly.

Relaxes tense muscles

If you’ve ever finished a workout and felt super sore and achy, magnesium could be something to add to your post-workout supplement stack.

As it does in the heart, magnesium acts as a natural calcium block to induce muscle relaxation by binding to proteins like troponin C and myosin.³ When calcium binds to receptors in muscles, these proteins change shape to generate a muscle contraction.

However, because magnesium competes with calcium for binding, it can help to inhibit muscle contraction and promote relaxation, thereby preventing muscle cramps and spasms. That said, evidence on the benefit of magnesium for muscle cramps is largely mixed⁴—but it certainly can’t hurt!

Supports sleep

Sure, your workout is what builds strength and mass, but the recovery period is important—if not more important than the training itself—to solidify those gains.

You can work as hard as you want in the gym, but if you're not sleeping enough to recover, those gains aren’t translating. Sleep is a huge piece of the puzzle when it comes to muscle recovery and mitigating delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and magnesium helps to facilitate a good night's sleep.

It’s suggested that sleep deprivation decreases protein synthesis and increases degradation pathways, thereby favoring loss of muscle mass and hindering muscle’s ability to recover after damage induced by exercise, injury, and certain conditions associated with muscle atrophy.⁵

But during sleep, testosterone and growth hormone (GH) are also secreted. If you’re not getting enough sleep, specifically slow-wave sleep, GH and testosterone secretion decrease, which means your muscles aren’t getting what they need to grow and repair.

A 2010 study looked at the effects of sleep deprivation and muscle growth.⁶ Participants were put on a strict sleep schedule for 14 days whereby one group slept 5.5 hours per night—the average amount of sleep for most Americans—and the other group was allowed 8.5 hours.

Results showed that despite all external factors besides sleep being equal, those sleeping only 5.5 hours lost a whopping 55% less fat and 60% more muscle than those who slept 8.5 hours. The takeaway here is if you’re looking to maximize gains, you need to be sleeping enough. And while most of us have difficulty sleeping to some extent, you can say goodbye to the days of sleepless nights and hello to major gains.

If you’re ready for the best sleep of your life and ready to maximize your recovery (and minimize muscle soreness), check out Performance Lab Sleep.

Sleep is an innovative natural sleep formula designed to help you awake feeling revitalized and refreshed without any nasty next-day grogginess that most conventional sleep aids leave you with.

It’s a powerful blend that supplies natural low-dose melatonin from CherryPURE® Montmorency Tart Cherry. And with additional joint- and muscle-soothing antioxidants, CherryPURE® promotes deep sleep better than any synthetic melatonin can.

It encourages natural melatonin and serotonin production for drowsiness, and the addition of three forms of magnesium promotes sleep-supportive muscle relaxation to help you fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.

Find out more about Performance Lab Sleep

Best Sources Of Magnesium

Diet is a great way to increase your magnesium intake and avoid muscle pain. Here’s what you should load up on:

• Spinach, boiled (and other dark leafy greens)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Lima beans
• Tuna
• Brown rice
• Almonds
• Dark chocolate (>85% cocoa)
• Avocados
• Bananas
• Black beans
• Cashews

Diet is always the best (and most enjoyable) way to increase magnesium intake.

However, it’s not always easy to consistently reach recommended magnesium levels, especially if you’re training intensely, dealing with high levels of stress, or have other health factors that might require an extra boost.

That’s where high-quality magnesium supplements come into play—particularly when it comes to managing muscle pain and recovery. Each of the following supplements offers a different magnesium formulation to support muscle relaxation, cellular energy, and overall recovery after intense exercise:

1. Performance Lab® NutriGenesis® Multi

For everyday muscle recovery and all-round support, our NutriGenesis® Multivitamin is the one.

It contains a full spectrum of 24 essential vitamins and minerals, including highly bioavailable magnesium. This unique form of magnesium, complexed with cofactors through NutriGenesis® technology, ensures efficient absorption and utilization, supporting energy production and muscle relaxation.

By delivering a balanced intake of essential nutrients, NutriGenesis® Multi promotes optimal whole body performance and helps fend off unnecessary muscle soreness, so you can stay on track with your training.

Shop Performance Lab® NutriGenesis®

2. Performance Lab® Sleep

In order for your body to recover, sleep is essential. Particularly the deeper stages.

During deep sleep, the body repairs cells, tissues, and blood vessels. This is where Performance Lab® Sleep comes into its own.

This formula combines three forms of magnesium—NutriGenesis®, magnesium bisglycinate, and magnesium taurate. These are specifically chosen to ease muscle tension and promote deeper, more restorative sleep.

Magnesium in this blend works alongside L-Tryptophan and Montmorency Tart Cherry to support natural melatonin production, encouraging relaxation without next-day grogginess.

Quality sleep is vital for muscle repair and growth. And the calming properties of magnesium can help you fall asleep faster, aiding overnight recovery.

Shop Performance Lab® Sleep

3. Performance Lab® Magnesium

For those looking to top up their magnesium for focused cognitive and muscle benefits, Performance Lab® Magnesium delivers a combination of Magnesium L-Threonate and NutriGenesis® Magnesium.

This advanced form, particularly the Magnesium L-Threonate, crosses the blood-brain barrier, making it highly effective for cognitive health, stress management, and maintaining muscle function.

Supporting more than 300 biochemical reactions, it’s an ideal choice if you’re looking for both muscle support and a boost in mental performance. Plus, it’s formulated with clean, food-identical magnesium, making it easier for your body to absorb and utilize effectively.

Shop Performance Lab® Magnesium

Final Thoughts

Muscle recovery is a complex process that goes beyond just resting after a workout; it’s about giving your body the tools it needs to repair, rebuild, and grow stronger.

Magnesium is a key player in muscle health and recovery.

Whether by boosting ATP production, relaxing tense muscles, or enhancing quality sleep, magnesium supports your body’s ability to bounce back after intense workouts. When you incorporate magnesium into your diet or choose the right supplements, you’re helping your muscles recover faster and more efficiently, while also promoting overall wellness.