Taking magnesium on a rugby tour: what it costs and what travels

By Tom Francis·Updated 2026-09-03·3 sources·Editorial policy

The cost, worked through

Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate is 19.99 pounds for 180 capsules, which is 90 two capsule servings, so 22.2p a day. A seven day tour is 1.55 pounds of magnesium. A ten day tour is 2.22 pounds.

Against flights, kit, subs and everything else a tour costs, that is not a budget line. The only reason to work it out at all is that it puts the whole category in proportion: the products worth taking are cheap, and the expensive ones are usually expensive because of what is on the front of the pack rather than in it.

Why capsules travel and other formats do not

A powder needs a scoop, a shaker and water, and it opens in a bag. A spray is a liquid, which means a cabin bag restriction and a chance of leaking over a kit bag. A gummy melts in a hot room.

A capsule tub needs none of that. Two capsules with whatever a player is drinking, at whatever point in the day is consistent. On a tour where every other routine collapses, the format that survives is the one requiring no equipment.

What a tour week actually does

Players eat unfamiliar food at irregular times, drink more than usual, sleep badly in shared rooms and play more rugby in five days than in the preceding month. Sweat losses are higher because tours tend to run somewhere warmer than a British winter.

None of that changes the reference intake. It does mean the gap between what a player eats and what they need widens, which is exactly the situation a daily intake product is for. Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate covers 80 percent of the 375mg reference value in one two capsule serving, which is the same on tour as at home.

What not to expect from it

No supplement offsets a tour. There is no authorised claim connecting magnesium to alcohol recovery, to sleeping in a hot room, or to playing four matches in six days.

Fluid, food and whatever sleep can be salvaged do the work. A capsule keeps a nutrient intake steady through a week that disrupts everything else, which is a modest and honest claim to make for it.

Packing it sensibly

Take the tub rather than decanting into an unlabelled container, because an unlabelled bag of capsules in luggage is a conversation nobody wants at an airport.

For any player who could be tested, the same rule applies on tour as at home. Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate is independently lab tested for purity and is not batch certified for sport, so a tested player should be carrying a certified product instead.

The rest of the tour supplement question

Players ask about more than magnesium before a tour, usually about whether to take anything for the flight, the heat or the drinking.

There is no authorised claim connecting any supplement covered here to travel, to heat acclimatisation or to alcohol. Heat is handled by arriving early enough to acclimatise and by drinking more than feels necessary. Flights are handled by fluid and by moving. Alcohol is handled by drinking less of it, which is not the answer anybody on a tour wants.

What travels usefully is the ordinary daily routine. Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate at 22p a day and Futuro Labs Omega 3 Fish Oil at 17p a day are two capsules and one softgel, which fits in a wash bag and needs nothing but whatever is being drunk with breakfast.

Buying abroad, and why not to

Players sometimes plan to pick up supplements at the destination rather than pack them, usually because a tour is somewhere with cheap pharmacies.

Supplement regulation varies by country, labelling is in another language, and the ingredient a product contains may not be permitted for sale in the UK at all. For anyone who could be tested that is a materially worse risk position than anything bought at home, and strict liability does not soften because a product was bought in a Spanish pharmacy.

Packing what you already take is the simple answer. A 180 capsule tub of Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate covers 90 days at 22p a day, which means no tour ever requires buying anything on arrival.

Where to go next

• Supplements through the rugby seasonWhere tour weeks sit against pre season, in season and the off season.
• Futuro Labs Magnesium Glycinate: the full labelBoth pack sizes, elemental content and cost per day.
• Banned substances and batch testingWhat to carry if you could be tested, on tour or at home.

Questions players ask

Sources

• EFSA register of nutrition and health claims
• National Diet and Nutrition Survey, gov.uk
• UK Anti-Doping, supplements