CBD For Sports & Muscle Recovery

Did you know that CBD may be a beneficial pre- or post-workout supplement? Exercise and active sports can take a toll on your body. Everything from yoga to weightlifting to marathon training can cause undue stress and inflammation in and around your joints, resulting in pain, tenseness, and for some, an inability to participate in the activities that they love. Muscle recovery and relief from inflammation don’t always happen quickly, which is why many athletes are now looking to CBD to get them moving again.

Starting in 2018, the World Anti-Dope Agency (WADA) has started allowing athletes to use cannabidiol (CBD) and will not be testing for the substance. It’s an important step forward for the athletic community, many of whom have been relying on CBD for years to relieve inflammation during training.

How May CBD Be Beneficial After Workouts?

As far as recovery compounds go, CBD benefits are particularly useful for relieving the stresses that sports and exercise put on your body. It all comes down to the mode of CBD delivery in the endocannabinoid system.

Here’s how it works: Within your nervous system are two main cannabinoid “receptors,” called CB1 and CB2. When you consume CBD, you activate the receptors in CB2, which helps regulate your immune system. Inflammation is an immune response; consider it the body’s natural reaction to stress, injury, or infection. While CBD alone can’t reduce inflammation, it can support the functions that do. Positive CBD effects can be beneficial for sports and muscle recovery, in turn helping athletes, regular gym goers, and weekend warriors experience relief faster than they might have otherwise.

So what about CB1? Those receptors help regulate things like mood, memory, sleep, and appetite, and are more affected by THC than CBD. Inflammation, however, because it’s an immune response, reacts more to CBD and stimulation of CB2 receptors.

Using CBD – Inflammation After Exercise

CBD has been lauded for its ability to help control pain and inflammation following sports and exercise. Inflammation is part of the body’s normal response to the stress of exercise and is actually the sign of something positive (active healing), but the muscle soreness and joint pain that come with it are no fun to deal with, especially if you’re trying to stay on a consistent routine. The ability to help soothe this post-workout problem is one of the biggest hemp oil benefits.

Inflammation is a normal part of being active, and it’s natural to want safe, therapeutic relief. CBD is non-toxic and non-habit-forming. Unlike THC, which is also used to reduce post-workout inflammation, CBD has no psychoactive effects. It’s these properties that make CBD such a useful tool for both general and professional athletes alike, a notion supported by WADA’s recent decision to no longer consider CBD a prohibited substance.

Working out is important for your overall health and well-being, and while post-workout inflammation is part of getting stronger, it shouldn’t slow you down for long. If you’re interested in trying CBD for sports and muscle recovery, look for a product with a quick delivery method that can get to work when you do.