CBD for Muscle Recovery After Sport Activity

To some people, using cannabis as a post-workout supplement may sound a little crazy. However, elite athletes commonly use cannabis as a recovery tool. After an intense training session or workout, you may be sore, nauseous, and tired. Many people either take anti-inflammatories such as ibuprofen or open a beer or two to take the edge off these symptoms.

The Danger of NSAID Drugs

NSAID drugs such as Aleve and Ibruprofen are extremely dangerous for our bodies. Although they help to relieve symptoms of inflammation, they have toxic effects, which, if tabulated separately, would be the 15th most common cause of U.S deaths.

For this reason, we suggest that athletes use CBD products to alleviate their symptoms. Many CBD products are non-toxic and more potent than their NSAID alternatives.

Here at Enecta, we’ve created this piece to help our readers understand how beneficial CBD and cannabis can be as a recovery tool, and how to use these benefits to aid your workout recovery.

You Won’t get ‘High.’

For those of you who are worrying about getting high after taking CBD products, don’t worry, because you won’t. CBD is a non-psychoactive compound found within the cannabis and hemp plants. Other compounds such as THC are psychoactive and will get you ‘high.’ But High quality CBD products, deliver all the health benefits of cannabis without clouding your mind.

What is CBD?

There are 85 currently identified cannabinoids, with cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) typically present in very high concentrations in the cannabis plant. For this reason, they are the most widely studied cannabinoids.

Strains of cannabis that are cultivated for maximum CBD concentration tend to be low in THC and are bred specifically for medical and therapeutic applications.

Here at Enecta, we grow, harvest, extract, and process all of our own organic hemp plants to create the best products on the market.

To increase the efficiency of CBD, we extract it from the hemp plant and use it as a concentrate. This makes Enecta’s CBD products ideal for treating children, adults, the elderly, and those who wish to remain clear-headed at all times.

Post-Workout Recovery: Indica or High-CBD

If you are looking to use cannabis for mental or physical recovery, you'll likely require pain-relieving, anti-inflammatory, relaxant-inducing strains.

These properties are more prevalent in the indica strains of the plant or any strains that are particularly high in CBD levels. Indica cannabis strains can offer athletes a deeply relaxing physical feeling, that allows the mind and the muscles to relax completely.

If you want to avoid getting ‘high,’ we recommend taking CBD products rather than smoking cannabis. CBD is effective in small doses and has a vast scope of therapeutic benefits in comparison to other cannabinoids. 

Consuming CBD-rich cannabis

CBD-rich strains can be found in edibles, concentrates, and flower forms. The ideal method of consumption will depend on how fast you need relief. For instant relief, we recommend that you use a specialist vaporizer to inhale some CBD concentrate liquid once it has been heated and converted into vapor.

Edibles

If you want to sustain relief throughout the entire day and evening, we recommend taking CBD concentrate drops sublingually throughout the day or taking capsules. 

Bear in mind that it can take 90 minutes for CBD’s effects to begin, so many athletes both vape and consume edibles, so they have constant relief from aches and pains.

What are the benefits of CBD for Athletic Recovery?

Pain: 

Cannabis works as an analgesic, which helps to combat pain after and during physical exercise. 
Cannabis is an analgesic, helping to alleviate pain both during and after exercise. Many athletes use cannabis after their workouts to manage pain from their aching muscles.

Inflammation:

THC and CBD are both incredibly effective as natural anti-inflammatories after exercise. Cannabinoids work as powerful agents to reduce inflammation. They manage to exert their effects through suppression of cytokine production, inhibition of cell proliferation, and the induction of apoptosis. 

Sleep and Relaxation:

The relaxing and soothing effects of cannabinoids are well known amongst users. With concentrations of CBN administered by 1% body weight working as an effective treatment of insomnia. One of the most important aspects of being a healthy athlete is recovering during a restful night’s sleep.

Reducing Nausea: 

CBD has anti-emetic effects, which helps athletes to reduce their levels of nausea after exercise. Many studies show that cannabinoids are more effective than pharmaceutical medications for the treatment of vomiting and nausea.

Reducing Muscle Spasms:

Cannabinoids have antispasmodic properties. Which can prevent common muscle spasms in athletes that are caused by trauma, muscle strain, dehydration, and nerve damage.

Increased Appetite

Cannabis has proven effective in stimulating the appetite. Boxers, powerlifters, and martial arts professionals with specific dietary regimes find that cannabis can help them consume more calories. This is because cannabis increases the levels of leptin and ghrelin, two hormones that regulate hunger levels within the human body.

CBD & Drug Testing

A lot of the data that we currently have concerning CBD is anecdotal, and this means that it can show up as a false positive in some athletes when they are drug tested.

If you are worried about passing a drug test, you need to work out the risks involved when deciding to take a CBD product. Or you could speak to the regulators in your chosen athletic profession and explain that you would like to use CBD for recovery, and see what their opinion is on CBD and false-positive test results. 

As CBD products increase in popularity, regulatory bodies will likely become more tolerant with regard to drug tests, as they see the health benefits that these cannabinoids can offer their top athletes.