Your muscular system consists of skeletal muscles and the tendons that attach them to bone. The primary purpose of the muscular system is to allow you to move around. Muscles serve additional purposes, however, including helping to move fluid back into your vascular system. There are several vitamins and minerals that you need for a healthy muscular system.
B Vitamins
The B vitamins play a number of different roles in the body -- there are several of them, and each is different. As a generalization, however, they play roles in metabolism, and specifically, in the production of energy from nutrient molecules. For your muscles to contract, you need to burn large quantities of energy in the form of ATP -- adenosine triphosphate -- explains Dr. Lauralee Sherwood in her book "Human Physiology." The B vitamins help ensure you are able to produce that ATP from your food.
Vitamin D and Calcium
You also need vitamin D for muscular function. This vitamin allows you to take up calcium from your food, which you need for muscular contractions to take place, explains Dr. Gary Thibodeau in his book, "Anatomy and Physiology." Your muscle cells store calcium inside them, and when your brain sends a signal to the muscle to contract, the calcium is released into the muscle cell interior, and leads to the sliding of muscle proteins past one another, which shortens the muscle.
Sodium
Sodium is a mineral that you need to maintain muscle function, but it's not something you likely need to ensure you get enough of, as almost everyone eating a typical American diet gets plenty of sodium. In addition to helping your muscle cells maintain fluid balance, sodium is also critical to the signal that the brain sends to the muscle cells, telling them to contract. Too little sodium can lead to muscle weakness and symptoms similar to dehydration.
Iron
Iron is important to the muscular system, albeit a bit indirectly. In addition to a source of energy, muscles also need oxygen in order to contract for lengthy periods of time. You use iron to make hemoglobin, which is the protein that your red blood cells use to transport oxygen from the lungs to the body tissues. Without enough iron in your blood, you can't get oxygen distributed efficiently. This leads to muscular weakness and general fatigue.
References
- "Human Physiology"; Lauralee Sherwood, Ph.D.; 2004
- "Anatomy and Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D.; 2007
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