CBD is all around you, everywhere you shop these days. You can’t turn on your computer without seeing an article or an ad pop for CBD oil or CBD products. It feels like everyone else is using CBD, so why shouldn’t you? Maybe you should. You’re an athlete, someone who works out frequently and is prone to sore muscles as a sign that you’ve pushed your body. Now your muscle tissue needs to heal itself and grow bigger and stronger. It can works like a charm as a PRE or Post Workout Supplement.
That’s how athletes build muscle, by tearing the ones that they have. Tiny, microscopic tears happen from pushing muscles to their limits and the body responds by building that tissue back, repairing it and making it stronger so it will be harder to break it down again. This is why muscles get larger and stronger.
It takes a good steady supply of protein to keep building muscle tissue but it also takes supplement that assist your body in feeling better, healing and rebuilding faster, delivering the boost directly at the source, and sometimes to relieve pain that is a part of working the muscles and the joints hard in workouts.
CBD for Athletes
CBD is a product that is vegan in nature. It has no chemical additives in its purest forms either. CBD comes from plants and can be found in organic varieties, grown right here in the USA.
CBD is full of Omega 3 and Omega 6 oils that are fatty acids that the body needs. Many people don’t get enough fatty acids because there are only a few sources for this dietary necessity and one of them is fish. Many people do not eat fish; either they don’t like fish or fresh seafood is not available to them.
For the athlete, omega oils are essential to lowering inflammation, which is exactly what you feel in your joints and your torn muscles. Omega 3 oils are polyunsaturated fats, your body is incapable of making on its own. Omega 3 oils are a very crucial part of the cell wall itself.
Omega 3s support mental health, heart health by increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and decreasing the bad cholesterol (LDL) in your body. Omega 3 also helps you to maintain proper weight.
Omega 3 oils help to prevent asthma, promote brain development in infants and children, and creates stronger and healthier bones.
You may see how this is very important to an athlete as well? CBD is loaded with Omega 3 and 6 oils. Omega 6 seems to have an ability to help reduce the pain of arthritis, keeping joints more fluid, which is also beneficial to the athlete.
Omega oils are considered essential oils to the body and without them, you can develop fatty liver, high cholesterol, heart disease and more. They may even play a role in preventing certain autoimmune diseases.
Why Pre-Workout?
When ingested, CBD begins going to work in the body immediately. If you take it as you are beginning a workout or directly following a workout, you will be delivering exactly what your body needs in the moment that it needs it.
CBD has been shown to increase mental focus, which is perfect for athletes who need to get into a ‘zone’ when they workout. The person who rides a long distance bike during training for competitions needs to be able to settle into a rhythm and pace themselves. This is often described as meditative for many athletes.
By helping you relax into your zone and get into your rhythm, CBD can help you achieve workout goals and also go to work in the body immediately, as you need it to aid the joints that hurt or the muscles that are enduring stress.
If you are using pre-workout, bear in mind that using too much might make you so relaxed that you would prefer to take a nap. Getting just the right amount of CBD might take some practice for you. Once you’ve done that, you’ll also wish to consider which method of taking CBD is best for you.
Taking CBD in capsules will take longer to digest, as will edibles in general. You may not hit ‘peak’ of CBD in your system for as long as 2 hours when it is consumed with food. Oils taken under the tongue will absorb in the body’s blood supply quickly and be at work in your system within 10 minutes in most cases. Inhaling CBD by vaping or smoking CBD flower will also hit your system within a few minutes as it bypasses digestion and is absorbed into the blood supply directly in the lungs.
Why Post-Workout?
For many athletes, it is the post-workout aches and pains that they enjoy the least about training. This is a great reason to use CBD after working out. It will begin working within minutes if you use it in one of the fast absorption methods mentioned above. This will bring relaxation after a long workout and help the body to begin repairing the muscle tissue by providing plenty of omega oils to it.
The pain management assistance from CBD is well-known and researched. Some runners experience muscle cramps after long runs and race marathons. CBD can help ease the cramps and the pain of joints that are pounded from hard pavement.
Bodybuilders experience a lactic acid build-up that can cause nausea and CBD is known for helping to ease stomach upset, including IBS and Crohn’s Disease. As muscles are being shredded by weightlifting, inflammation will happen and CBD can help to reduce this inflammation and reduce discomfort that follows hard workouts that really break tissues down hard – which is what bodybuilders are trying to do on purpose so that their muscles will continue to get larger.
Whether you choose to use CBD before or after a workout is up to you and how it makes you feel. You may enjoy the way it relaxes you after so that you can fall asleep easier at night following workouts that have your adrenaline racing. On the other hand, you may find that it is the motivator that you need to get started every day. Neither is right or wrong, it’s what works best for you.