Minerals are just as essential to building strong, healthy muscles as vitamins are.

Last week we discussed the importance of taking a quality multivitamin/mineral supplement for bodybuilders, and we listed the top vitamins for building a rock-hard, chiseled physique. While supplements you take should provide all vitamins and minerals for complete nutrition and good health, just as with vitamins, some minerals are more important than others for muscle building. This week we’ll explore these muscle-making minerals.

Metabolize with Manganese

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Manganese is a double-duty mineral, one that not only helps build muscles by metabolizing amino acids but also helps construct bones to support those muscles. Most quality vitamin and mineral supplements include manganese, but you can get it through your diet, too, when you eat whole grains, nuts, and legumes.

Iodine for Muscle Function

Shrimp and other seafood are good sources of dietary iodine.

There’s not a lot of iodine in foods though it can be found in seafood and, of course, iodized salt. It’s an essential mineral, though, one that affects muscle function and is important for thyroid performance which can affect your metabolism and ability to build muscle.

Double Down With Iron

A nice, lean steak along with a serving of steamed or raw spinach is a tasty way to get iron for building muscle.

Iron helps build muscles in two ways. First, it helps oxygenate muscle cells for growth and performance via the blood. Second, iron is a component in chemical reactions that help your body make amino acids and hormones, both big parts of muscle building. You can supplement it or focus on eating iron-rich foods such as red meat, eggs, and green veggies.

Potassium and Sodium

Potassium doesn’t taste as salty as sodium, and it balances out sodium’s effects on blood pressure.

Your muscles won’t perform optimally without these two minerals. Both potassium and sodium work to balance the fluids in your body, and are a required for muscle contractions. Though you might worry about sodium raising your blood pressure, Harvard Health says that potassium counteracts it and lowers blood pressure. When you sweat during your workout, you’re losing sodium according to IDEA Health and Fitness. Extremely high doses of either mineral can be dangerous, however, so don’t overdo them. Although most comprehensive supplements will provide some potassium, you won’t find any that include sodium. You can typically get that from your diet or even by shaking some salt over your dinner. Plenty of foods already contain potassium, though, including milk, fruits, meat, grains, and legumes.

A Triple-Threat for Your Foundation

Calcium is good for more than building strong bones–it also helps build muscle by facilitating muscle function and helping with hormone secretion.

Building a strong foundation to support your bodybuilder physique is important, and that is why, along with vitamins and minerals for building muscles, we are also listing ones that support your bones. Fluoride, calcium, and phosphorous are the top three minerals for building strong bones though they do have something to offer your muscles, too. Phosphorous plays a part in converting food into energy and helps transport nutrients in and out of your cells. And if you thought calcium was all about teeth and bones, think again. Calcium is necessary for muscle contractions and helps with hormone secretion, both of which are necessary for building muscle.

Magic Bullet?

ZMA is a precise ratio of specific minerals and vitamin B that promotes muscle building in multiple ways.

If you haven’t heard of ZMA before now, pull up a chair. It is a precise combination of two minerals, zinc and magnesium, and our old friend from last week, vitamin B₆. On their own, each does its part to keep you healthy and help build muscles but when the three are combined in a particular ratio, they create a super-supplement that has been reported to increase testosterone and IGF-1 (Insulin-like growth factor-1) which both result in increased strength and muscle mass, plus it improves sleep for enhanced recovery, according to ExRx.net. It’s true that there isn’t a ton of research on the supplement, but what’s out there is favorable. Even though your go-to multivitamin/mineral likely provides zinc, magnesium, and vitamin B₆, remember that a specific ratio of the three is needed to see results. Because ZMA is relatively inexpensive as supplements go and because no toxicity has been reported from taking ZMA, it wouldn’t hurt to add it to your supplementation regimen when building muscle and losing fat is the goal.