Weight building gym supplements often have a lot of unknowns within their ingredients; you can find yourself reading the little label and feel like your back in science class trying to work out the period table of elements. To make it even more complicated than it is you find yourself reading words like sodium chloride, dipotassium phosphate, magnesium oxide, pyridoxine hydrochloride, d-calcium pantothenate, copper gluconate, cyanocobalamin, ergocalciferol and you begin to start getting a headache trying to work out exactly what the word means. So I hope you're ready for a science lesson because I'm going to break down some of the most common products in sport supplements and work out they mean so you can know exactly what you are putting in your body.

Potassium: Also known as the chemical element symbol of K. Potassium is the eighth most common element found within the human body and vital within plants, it is incredible reactive in water allowing to ignite the hydrogen within water creating an incredible amount of energy. Normally used in a crystallised salt form within supplements; a 60kg human has on average 120 grams of potassium, it is key when it comes to brain and muscle nerve function because it has a positive ion making it an electrolyte. As potassium can be a very volatile element it is good not to consume too much of the substance but in regulated doses it's a good thing.

Sodium: Also known as the chemical element symbol of Na. Sodium isn't found naturally within our planet nor ourselves, it is normally found as sodium chloride which is sodium attached with chlorine in its most lament terms. It helps regulate blood pressure, blood volume and ph balance within the body, it is also very important in regulating fluid intake in the body which is dynamic with exercise. Sodium like potassium is very important with stable brain and muscle nerve function. Again like potassium it is a very dangerous element, though important within bodily functions you do not want to be consuming more than around 1.5 grams but this can differ depending on the level of exercise executed on the body.

Calcium: Also known as the chemical element Ca. Know you will probably already know a lot about this element already, so I'll cut out all the obvious parts and only add the interesting parts. Like Sodium it cannot be found in its natural state as sedimentary rock but It will intern be used in its salt form with supplements. You can have up to 1000mg per day of calcium but during the middle part of our lives it is not an important element to intake with our bodies. This really isn't a scary element and you can be content in knowing that it is now being heavily tested as a cancer preventive.

Magnesium: Also known as the chemical element Mg. Magnesium ions are essential to the basic nucleic acid chemistry of life. After oxygen, water, and basic food, magnesium may be the most important element needed by our bodies, activating over 300 different biochemical reactions necessary for your body to function properly. It is absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract and filtered by the kidneys and because of this is pretty much impossible to overdose on but it can cause a laxative effect so to be careful. The body contains about 24 grams of magnesium and 60% of it is found within the skeleton.

So now you know the most common elements that are used within supplements...what they do, and how they work. But if there is something in the list you don't know look it up, it's important.