Enhancing Your Exercise Routine With CBD

CBD is becoming an essential part of many people’s lives and there are several impacts it can have on your exercise routine. Whether you’re a beginner or a professional athlete there’s something to gain from incorporating CBD oil into your routine. It can be instrumental in helping you get a better workout and recovering faster. From optimizing the healing of your body to helping you before you even begin! There is a roll CBD can play if you’re a long distance runner or if you’re a competing bodybuilder, this magical plant can improve your overall experience. 

Science is catching up to anecdotal stories and solidifying what people have been saying for years. Positive results can be had whether you choose to use CBD as a pre-workout boost or post exercise recovery tool. CBD can help increase energy, focus, stamina and endurance in a way that our bodies recognize as natural. Our internal endocannabinoid system keeps us in homeostasis and what doctors refer to as the “Goldilocks Zone”. This is the optimal state for our bodies but the stress of our daily lives tend to push us out of harmony. Ingesting CBD before your exercise routine can realign your body back to where it needs to be. Thus achieving an optimal experience and helping us perform at our best. 

CBD As a Pre-Workout Exercise Supplement

Many over the counter pre-workout supplements claim to give you an extra pump and energy boost, but come with negative aspects too. Most contain caffeine and similar ingredients that stimulate the body into feeling focused and awake. Caffeine also contributes to a rise in cortisol which is detrimental to muscle repair (more on that later). Using a high quality hemp oil instead, gives our bodies the push it needs, while boosting recovery without the negative impacts of pre-workout supplements. 

CBD helps regulate our serotonin receptors which allows us to become more focused and alert during exercise. It also has an effect on regulating blood sugar levels. As blood sugar is balanced, insulin production drops, and fat burns more efficiently. Cannabinoids have also been shown to be vasodilators. This allows blood to flow to parts of our body quicker and deliver oxygen to muscles providing more effective exercise and muscle function. All of this improves the way our body react when under the stress of exercise or other endurance activities. 

CBD As a Post Workout Exercise Supplement

When taken as a post workout supplement, there are vast improvements on recovery and healing. If you’re the type that exercises at night, you may see the benefits more than others. At night, exercise promotes wakefulness and alertness which can sometimes make it difficult to settle down and get sleep. CBD calms and eases the mind several different ways with cortisol levels playing a major factor. 

Cortisol levels are highest in the morning fading throughout the day and released during stressful times such as exercise and strenuous activity. CBD has a positive effect on the body’s adrenals, the home of cortisol production. Reduction of cortisol levels is imperative to recovery and muscle growth, while too much can have a negative effect. If not regulated, our muscles do not heal properly and can lengthen the time needed to recover completely. Cortisol also effects sleep, preventing us from reaching the deep relaxation of the REM sleep cycle. Which our body uses as time to rejuvenate and repair.

While it promotes restfulness on a mental level, CBD also has physical recovery aspects as well. Aches and pains associated with a good exercise routine, can be mitigated ingesting hemp oil post workout. Naturally occurring inflammatory responses, may be alleviated or arrested completely. As a natural plant based product, full spectrum hemp oil is a much safer alternative to over the counter medicines, such as NSAIDs. Evidence is stacking up that these drugs do more harm than good with even fatal consequences if taken for prolonged duration. Everyone will react differently to any given substance or compound. Cannabinoid oil is a safer alternative which can improve our lives without the negative impacts of pharmaceuticals.