It is no longer a mystery that CBD Oil has several health benefits. Athletes around the globe have claimed that it enhanced their performances. Bodybuilders claimed that it helped in muscle recovery.
Here we are going to dive deep about how CBD oil can be used for fitness and look at it from all different aspects, the advantages and disadvantages of it and how to use it in the right way. We have all seen an immense rise in acceptance of “CBD” in the past few years. But is it all good? How can it help when it comes to fitness or muscle recovery without any side effects? Let’s answer those questions.
Should you take CBD Oil before Workout?
To fully understand how CBD oil compliment our body and mind in terms of fitness, we must know what it is and eliminate the wrong expectations. Well, various animal research show that cannabidiol has capability to ease pain to some certain level. So, in the level of fitness it can also help in muscle recovery, soreness etc.
But, taking CBD oil or capsules before workout mainly helps in mind level. If you are expecting dramatic results in physical level by taking CBD oil before workout, that is over expectation.
Why CBD Won’t Make You Stoned: It is true that CBD is a compound of cannabis but it is a non psychoactive one, which has no relation to THC. Only, THC the psychoactive compound is responsible for getting stoned. So, if you fear that taking CBD oil or capsules before workout will make you feel sedated and will have a negative effect on your fitness regime. Fear not, that is an incorrect idea. Instead, it will help you in certain areas to up your fitness game.
How CBD Oil is going to help if you take it Before Workout?
Using CBD before workout is not about what it adds; it is mostly about what it takes away. If you are a person who doesn't really buy into the hype, don’t worry we are not talking based on it. There have been quite a few promising research done surrounding CBD around the globe, which confirm it lessens anxiety without any adverse side effects.
Eliminating a certain level of anxiety can help in feeling more energized and focused than usual and that have direct connection with your performance quality when you are hitting the gym or going for a yoga class. Overall, it makes you calm without getting you stoned.
According to research, CBD is also anti-inflammatory and helps the body to become stress-free.
But take note that it won’t take away all the anxiety or muscle pain caused by exercise, it will sooth it to a certain point.
Benefits of taking CBD Oil after Workout
Some researches on animal already prove the fact that CBD ease pain. It is also anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory. However, there has been no research about its effect on exercise yet.
Although, athletes around the world, where it is legal, have been using it for muscle recovery and to fight inflammation caused by running, weightlifting, swimming etc.
Some reports suggest that, CBD is not miraculous and won’t take away all the soreness or muscle pain caused by exercise but it will somewhat sooth it to decrease the recovery time and improve performance.
Advantages and Disadvantages of CBD Oil in Muscle Recovery
Advantages
Natural and less toxic & has Numerous health benefits: It is not a surprise that CBD is being used as a pre-workout and post-workout supplement for a while now despite there has been no research done specifically about its effect on exercise and fitness.
As, it has already been proved that it has numerous health benefits such as treating back pain, decreasing anxiety, lowering blood pressure, fighting insomnia, improving focus etc. Maybe not directly but in a passive way the benefits of using CBD may certainly have some effect on your fitness.
Moreover, Comparing to Ibuprofen, which fitness many people take after an intense workout routine to feel good, CBD is more natural. Long term Ibuprofen may cause kidney damage, while on the other hand researchers haven’t found any adverse side effects of taking CBD for long time.
Compared to Ibuprofen, CBD is also less toxic and more natural supplement, which doesn’t encourage any foreign compound in your body.
Reducing Fatigue: Fitness enthusiasts do many things to speedup muscle recovery and to reduce fatigue because that’s really important for muscle growth. Also quality sleep and proper rest are advisable to improve fitness.
Well, how exactly CBD oil helps in muscle recovery and reducing fatigue?
Any kind of intense physical activity causes microscopic damage your muscle fibers. Then it takes days to repair the damage causing soreness, muscle pain or stiffness.
As, Cannabidiol has proven to be an anti-inflammatory, it helps the muscle by decreasing the inflammation and also helps the body recover faster than usual. CBD is becoming very common among the athletes to recover from injury.
Disadvantages
CBD oil is still not legalized in most of the countries. So, it is hard to get and also scientists are still learning about it. There hasn’t been enough research about Cannabidiol in terms of fitness or workout advantages.
Although, governments around the world are slowly accepting it, also its market is growing. By 2022 it is estimated to hit $2 billion.
The World Anti-Doping Agency also removed Cannabidiol from illegal substances list but still there are many sports league hasn’t followed the agency yet.
Conclusion
You may get confused about whether or not you should start using CBD oil for fitness (If it is legal where you live), as the whole world yet to accept it. According to the neurologists of frontiersin 1,500 mg per day is very well tolerated by humans and it hasn’t shown any adverse side effects. Well, if you are thinking about using it to improve your performance for physical activities, you don’t even need that much. If you are a professional athlete or sports man, you should check out the rules first in your league before you start using it.
Guest Post by Kate Majurik