If you’ve been paying attention to professional athletes and CBD, you’ll know that dozens of celebrities are using CBD. Some use it to enhance their performances during practice, but most use it as a recovery aid.
As a serious athlete, you can use CBD gummies, oil tinctures, sprays, or creams to help your recovery time as well. Rather than being laid out for a couple of weeks waiting for an injury to heal or your muscles to recover from a particularly intense workout, perhaps you could try CBD.
Many athletes use CBD to help them get back on the court, mat, or course sooner. It’s a trick both amateur and professional athletes are quickly learning. Here’s how it works.
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CBD and Your Body
Before diving into the many benefits athletes have discovered by using CBD, you must understand how it works within your body. Your body is already full of cannabinoids. They transmit messages to endocannabinoids in your endocannabinoid system.
The endocannabinoid system is responsible for helping to balance hormones. It’s also responsible for controlling some immune responses. When you have an imbalance of hormones or a negative immune response, an increase of cannabinoids could help to curb some of those responses and balance out your systems.
The best CBD gummies possesses a wealth of cannabinoids, fatty acids, and other nutrients designed to help your body reach a level of homeostasis. For athletic recovery, this means helping you to feel better both mind and body.
CBD’s Many Benefits for Athletic Recovery
There are boundless claims on the internet that CBD is changing lives. Athletes in particular may notice the effects of CBD more strongly simply because they put their bodies through so much physically and emotionally. Some athletes feel muscle strain more than others, and the constant aches and pains from daily workouts can feel overwhelming.
CBD has many benefits that could help athletes feel better faster. If you’re looking for a way to improve your athletic performance and recovery, here are some of the biggest benefits.
Reduces Inflammation
The number one barrier to recovery for most athletes is inflammation. When muscles and tendons are strained or injured, the natural immune response is for blood and water to rush to the sight, causing painful swelling. This response is meant to help protect the area from future problems, but it can slow down recovery time.
Bringing down the swelling with elevation, rest, and ice is a great way to reduce it quickly, and CBD can help. It’s believed that it has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that can target inflammation and slow it down so that you can treat associated injuries.
Relieves Pain
Reducing inflammation is a great start to pain relief, but CBD might take it one step further by inhibiting pain receptors from reaching your endocannabinoid system. It has a similar effect as NSAIDs, but without potential harm to your stomach.
Pain is an important part of preventing serious injury. It’s a signal that tells the body to stop performing an action because it’s hurting the body, so it’s good to feel some pain until you’re fully healed. But CBD can help to mute the pain during recovery so that it’s more bearable.
Decreases Anxiety
Anxiety plagues many athletes. They have a strong desire to perform, but both external and internal pressures can create severe performance anxiety, even during practices. The more anxious you are, the more likely you are to make a mistake.
CBD is a common treatment for anxiety. It’s believed to inhibit transmissions of fear and worry while reducing the production of the stress hormone cortisol. Athletes who are anxious to perform might use CBD to calm their nerves and stay safe and loose while working out.
CBD can also be used to curb anxiety during recovery. Some athletes become very anxious when dealing with the stress and worry of getting back on their feet, and CBD can help calm the mind so that the body can do a better job of healing itself.
Boosts Mood
Along with reducing the production of the stress hormone, it’s believed that CBD can boost serotonin production. This means that it can stave off feelings of depression caused by an injury or a slow recovery time.
Remember that the mind and body are closely intertwined, and when you’re in a better mood, it helps all the functions of your body work properly.
Aids Sleep
A good night’s sleep is perhaps the most important component of workout recovery. It’s during this phase that your body can perform essential repairs on muscles and tendons that have been stretched and torn during your workout.
If you struggle to sleep, CBD might be able to help. It could help to curb anxiety that contributes to insomnia and/or tossing and turning through the night. It could also help to limit the pain that you feel from a difficult workout or injury, helping you to fall asleep and stay asleep throughout the night.
CBD Use During Competition
It’s important to note that using CBD during many competitions is illegal by your league’s standards, even though you can’t get high from it. Most major leagues and many minor leagues ban the use of CBD before or during a sporting event. They believe it creates an unfair advantage.
A lot of leagues allow you to use CBD at any other time, making it great for working out or practicing. Check with your league to avoid any problems.
Best Way to Take CBD
There are many different ways to use CBD, and you can test out a few different options to determine what works best for you.
Most people take CBD internally. CBD gummies and capsules are a great way to consume CBD inconspicuously.
The most impactful way to take CBD is sublingually. By spraying some CBD oil into your mouth or holding a few drops of oil under your tongue before swallowing, you can increase absorption of CBD into your system for maximum effect.
Topical creams are also great for targeting pain and inflammation at the site. It can penetrate the top layers of skin to let the CBD do its magic in your blood stream.
Any way you take CBD is a great step towards healing and faster recovery.
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