Last updated on 10 November 2021
People who are serious about health and fitness are always looking for new ways to benefit from workouts. Now with the growing popularity of CBD, cannabis is gaining momentum in the fitness and bodybuilding community. More people are adjusting their diets and daily supplements with vitamins, protein drinks, and cannabis.
Why CBD?
Before you can make an educated decision about whether to add CBD into your fitness regimen, you need to know what it is. CBD comes from hemp or cannabis plants. Before you stop reading because you don’t want to use an illegal drug, you should be aware that CBD and the hemp plant is not an illegal substance in most countries.
How Can CBD Improve My Work Out?
Growing muscle is one of the most challenging tasks for a bodybuilder or fitness enthusiast. Naturally, our bodies cannot continue to grow muscle after a certain point. Anabolic hormones in the body cause growth while catabolic hormones result in muscle break down. Anti-catabolic nutrients help with muscle recovery and muscle retention in order to reverse muscle break-down. We have catabolic hormones in our bodies that break muscle mass down. In order to reverse that issue, a person needs to take anti-catabolic supplements. CBD supplements can help people reach their bodybuilding goals by lowering the number of catabolic hormones in the body. With lower catabolic hormones, the body will not be able to break down muscle mass as quickly allowing a person to increase muscle mass.
For the best results, you should avoid caffeine while using CBD supplements. Caffeine can increase cortisol levels. That is the reason it is not recommended to use supplements with caffeine.
How CBD can help with Fitness and Bodybuilding
CBD Helps With Inflammation
We have all pushed ourselves at one point or another during a workout. That extra push we give can result in soreness and inflammation making the next workout challenging. Many people mask that pain with over-the-counter, anti-inflammatory medication.
CBD, which is a plant-based supplement, has been shown to help some people with the same type of pain. CBD has the potential to help a person get back into their workout groove without having to take something that could cause other side effects.
Even well-known anti-inflammatory medicines could take a toll on a person’s liver every time they take it. Over time if a person takes that anti-inflammatory on a regular basis they could do some serious damage to their liver.
CBD As A Sleep Aid
Getting a good night sleep is one of the keys to helping a person lose weight and build muscle. Anyone who is not getting enough rest has a body that’s not functioning properly. That means the person’s body can’t burn off energy the right way or help build muscle the right way. CBD has been shown to help some people get their sleeping back on track. Another great benefit of CBD is that it does not have the addictive effects that some of the sleep medications, out on the market, do have.
Anyone trying to be healthier through a fitness program and/or bodybuilding program will want to do their research on CBD supplements. Although there has not been a lot of research, the research that has been done shows there are many potential fitness, bodybuilding and health benefits to using CBD.
Side Effects
Along those same lines, most over-the-counter medications have side effects. At this point, the side effects of CBD have been very minimal and very minor. There have been some complaints of tiredness, upset stomach and a few cases of diarrhea. Outside of those few side effects, most people have stated they have encountered minor side effects or none at all.
Can CBD Help With Weightloss?
CBD has the opposite effect of THC which is found in cannabis. THC typically makes people want to eat more than usual. CBD has shown the ability to help regulate a person’s blood sugar levels. With regulated blood sugar levels, there are less fat-storing hormones produced by the pancreas in a person’s body resulting in less fat being stored. Since more fat can be burned off as energy there will be fewer fat cells in a person’s body.
Along the same lines, a person who is anxious on a regular basis can throw their cortisol levels out of whack. A person with cortisol levels too high or too low end up with unpleasant symptoms. One of those symptoms can be increased in weight, which most of us try to avoid. CBD supplements can help regulate a person’s cortisol levels so that they peak when they are supposed to and lower at appropriate times. Both of these pieces combined, regulated blood sugar levels and cortisol levels can help a person lose weight safely and appropriately.
The Bottom Line
CBD has incredible fitness, bodybuilding, and overall health benefits. Anyone looking to build muscle, lose weight and ease the stress of performance for a match, or sleep better should look into CBD products. As with any new supplements or medication be sure to consult your doctor before you introduce something new into your body.
Your doctor will be able to give you advice about dosage and how long you should continue taking CBD. He or she will also be able to talk to you about your other medications and if there could be any type of reaction across medications or adverse side effects.
Author
With close to two decades of successful stint in the Media industry, I felt I was surely missing a piece in my life puzzle. I took a break and set out to seek the purpose of my life. I travelled, lived out of a suitcase, let things flow into life without resisting, and after five challenging years, I found my rhythm. I love to write about Cannabis and Health and try my best to simplify esoteric concepts into simple ideas for life.
