Workout Trends

Workout Trends helps you DESIGN an action plan for your life, a program you can follow despite the demands of a BUSY lifestyle, the one that can get you RESULTS. Learn what WORKS and what DOESN'T for your fitness goals.

Read More

Can Cannabis Help You Out in the Gym?

CBD

Can Cannabis Help You Out in the Gym?

69

Hard-core gym junkies often prefer not to pollute their bodies with alcohol and other illicit substances, but if you’ve spent years treating your body like a temple, we have some good news for you!

Partaking in CBD can actually help your gym regime. Careful cannabis usage has been proven to have some positive effects for gym-goers. Let’s find out how this works, so you can make an informed decision.

Contents

1. A More Positive Mindset

How many times have you grabbed your gym bag and groaned at the thought of hitting the free weights or punishing your quads on the stair climber to hell? More often than you’d care to admit, we imagine.

The problem with being a regular gym user is that it’s a hard, relentless slog at the best of times. People who Twitter on about endorphins may have a point, but for the most part, endorphins are in short supply at 6AM on a cold, wet Monday morning.

Using CBD can have a positive effect on our mental wellbeing. It helps us get into the ‘zone’. Many serious athletes say CBD is their drug of choice because it allows them to achieve a state of meditational focus where they can train smarter and harder. This, in turn, creates a positive feedback loop, which makes exercise feel more fun and fulfilling.

With CBD and cannabis products becoming more mainstream by the year and consumable in a variety of ways, from edibles and tinctures to vaporizer-compatible oils, the health benefits of CBD have never been more accessible to the common athlete.

And when we feel more motivated, we are more inclined to work harder and for longer.

2. Medicinal Marijuana Aids Recovery

CBD has anti-inflammatory properties, which is useful when you love to lift at the gym. Using a bit of cannabis aids recovery by reducing the body’s anti-inflammatory response, which in turn minimizes post-workout pain. Not only is this easier on the body, but you’ll also need shorter recovery periods.

Recovery time is important, but as anyone training for an event such as a triathlon or marathon knows, enforced recovery days due to excessive pain are a hindrance in a training program.

The science behind this is as follows: cannabidiol found in CBD suppresses cytokines, which are part of the body’s inflammatory response to exercise. In cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol, which is the psychoactive component of weed, does the same, although it also stimulates the body’s response, too. This article in Nature explains it in greater detail.

3. Taken in Moderation

Like all good things in life, if you use cannabis, less is more. While cannabis can definitely help you in the gym, smoking weed day and night won’t help you at all. Instead of rolling a joint, try this Volcano Vaporizer. You can control it using Bluetooth and an app.

4. Make Sure Cannabis Is Legal in Your State

Judicious use of cannabis is good for gym users, but only if it’s legal in your state. It’s also worth pointing out that many employers conduct random drug tests, so don’t use cannabis if you are at risk of being tested in the workplace.

Comments are off this post!