5 Essential Nutritional Components to Help you Build Muscle

If you want to build your muscle, you shouldn’t focus only on hitting the gym. Working out regularly is essential for muscle growth, but nutrition is absolutely essential for the entire process.

Let’s take a look at the list of essential nutrients and vitamins that you need to build muscle!

1. Minerals

Minerals are a group of nutrients that play an essential role in balancing many functions of the human body. You can divide minerals into two different categories – primary and trace ones. You may think that the first ones are more important, but the truth is that both groups play a significant role in muscle growth and promoting optimal health.

CALCIUM

Major minerals include calcium, which is vital for bone strength, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, and magnesium, which participates in numerous different processes that occur in the human body. The primary benefits of these nutrients include promoting water balance, as well as maintaining healthy skin, nails, and hair.

Trace minerals are selenium, iron, zinc, copper, chromium, iodine, etc. Their functions are equally important as they can also help in boosting blood strength and immunity, as well as transporting oxygen.

If you want to get enough minerals, you should make sure to consume a variety of healthy foods. You can go for lean red meat or poultry, as well as seafood, but fruits, veggies, and leafy greens should be the staples of your nutrition. Cereals, beans, and legumes can also be helpful, and healthy sea salt is excellent if you are looking to add some flavor to your food.

5 Important Minerals and Vitamins all CrossFit Athletes Need to be Eating

VITAMIN D

It supports the absorption of calcium and phosphorus and improves the capacity raising the generation of testosterone. Vitamin D helps muscle development and is essential for the immune functioning, bone development and reduces inflammation.

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According to Harvard University 1 billion people have a vitamin D deficiency, resulting from the fact that most people don’t spend enough time outside in the sun, which is the biggest supplier of vitamin D.