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Article by Ashley C

Nutritionist 

Updated: October 28, 2025

4 minute read

What Is Magnesium?

If there was one mineral doing the most work behind the scenes and getting the least credit for it, magnesium would win that title every single time. It's involved in over 350 processes in your body. Energy production, muscle contraction, nerve signalling, heart rhythm, sleep, stress response, inflammation, recovery and hydration. If something important is happening in your body, magnesium is almost certainly part of it. And yet a huge proportion of people aren't getting enough of it. Not because they're being careless. Because modern diets, busy lifestyles and the simple act of sweating make it genuinely difficult to maintain.

Why So Many People Are Deficient Without Knowing It🧂

Here's the frustrating part. Magnesium deficiency doesn't always show up on a standard blood test.

Most of your magnesium is stored inside cells rather than circulating in the bloodstream, which means blood tests can look completely normal while your body is actually running low at a cellular level. You can be deficient and have no idea, experiencing the symptoms without ever connecting them to the cause.

Those symptoms include poor sleep, muscle cramps, fatigue, low mood, brain fog, increased anxiety, poor recovery and a general feeling of being depleted. Sound familiar? For a lot of people, the answer is yes.

What's Draining It 🤔

Several things pull magnesium out of your body faster than diet alone can replace it. Heavy sweating is a big one. Every training session, every hot day, every sauna and every long run takes magnesium with it. Intense exercise increases metabolic demand on top of the sweat losses, which is why active people need significantly more magnesium than someone who isn't moving much.Chronic stress depletes it. Poor sleep depletes it. Alcohol depletes it. Diets high in ultra processed foods and low in vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds provide very little of it to begin with. And certain medications reduce absorption further.

 

The result is a large portion of the population walking around in a low-level magnesium deficit, wondering why they feel tired, tight and a bit off.

What It Does for Sleep  💤

This one surprises people who haven't come across it before. Magnesium plays a direct role in relaxation, stress reduction and sleep regulation. It influences neurotransmitter activity in a way that supports the nervous system winding down properly at the end of the day. Studies have shown it improves sleep efficiency, reduces the time it takes to fall asleep and decreases the number of times people wake during the night.

 

For anyone in a period of heavy training, high stress or disrupted sleep, this is particularly significant. Because sleep is where recovery actually happens. You can do everything else right and still feel like you're not recovering if your sleep quality is poor.

What It Does for Performance and Recovery💧

Magnesium supports muscle contraction, energy metabolism and neuromuscular coordination. It helps prevent cramps, reduces exercise-induced soreness and supports the kind of recovery that means you can train again tomorrow without feeling like you've been hit by something.

 

Athletes with already good magnesium levels tend to see modest performance benefits from optimising intake further. Athletes with low magnesium levels tend to see meaningful improvements in strength, endurance, recovery and hydration balance once they address it. Given how common deficiency is, most people fall into the second category more than they'd expect.

 

Research also suggests active individuals need around 10 to 20% more magnesium than sedentary people, putting the target closer to 400 to 500mg per day. In elite athletes, low magnesium status has been linked to higher rates of muscle injury, tendon pain and fatigue, particularly in women and those training at high intensity.

Not All Magnesium Is the Same 🔎

This is worth knowing if you've ever bought a magnesium supplement and not felt much difference.

 

Different forms of magnesium are absorbed at very different rates. Magnesium oxide, which is one of the most common and cheapest forms found in supplements, has notoriously poor bioavailability. Your body absorbs very little of it before it passes through.

Magnesium citrate is significantly more bioavailable. It absorbs more completely, which means it actually reaches your cells and does the job rather than going straight through you. It's the preferred form for hydration, muscle performance, recovery and sleep support for exactly this reason.

 

It's also the form OWNKIND uses. Because there's no point putting something in if it isn't going to be absorbed properly.

The Bigger Picture 🤳

Beyond performance and sleep, magnesium has a broader role in long-term health that most people aren't aware of.

Higher magnesium intake has been associated with a lower risk of stroke and type 2 diabetes. Supplementation has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity and reduce markers of inflammation like CRP. It also supports nitric oxide production, which improves circulation and has knock-on benefits for recovery, hydration and cardiovascular health.

 

It supports mood too. Research shows supplementation can reduce symptoms of low mood and anxiety, particularly in people with diets that are already low in magnesium. Which, as we've established, is a lot of people.

Where to Get It From Food  🌱

Leafy greens, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, dark chocolate and avocados are all good sources. A diet built around whole, minimally processed food will naturally provide more magnesium than one heavy in packaged and convenience food.

 

That said, even people eating well and training regularly often fall short of the higher requirements that activity creates. Food should be the foundation, but for active people it frequently isn't enough on its own.

What OWNKIND Does With This.

OWNKIND includes magnesium citrate in every formulation because hydration without magnesium is an incomplete picture.

You can replace your fluids, top up your sodium and still feel the effects of magnesium being low. Cramps, slow recovery, poor sleep, tight muscles, low energy. Magnesium sits at the intersection of all of it.

 

Every sachet is formulated to support hydration, electrolyte balance, performance, recovery and sleep quality. Not just ticking boxes but actually addressing the minerals your body needs, in forms it can absorb, in amounts that make a difference.

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