Luke Douglas is a fitness and health blogger at Ripped.me and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.

The use of CBD supplements has been on the rise lately and for a really good reason. In a survey done in 2019, around 14% of Americans said that they use CBD products, out of which 40% said that they use them for pain-related issues. CBD products certainly have a lot of neurological benefits as well, but someone might wonder how they can be used as a fitness supplement.

Let’s dive into some basics first and then see how you can add CBD products into your workout routine.

A word or two about CBD

The cannabis plant is composed of some 120 chemical compounds and one of them is cannabidiol (CBD), which makes up around 40% of the plant’s extract. If you worry that you’ll get high after consuming CBD products, you shouldn’t. Hemp-derived CBD contains low amounts of THC (the compound that has psychoactive properties), around 0.3%, and it was legalized in 2018 and approved by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which means that it’s perfectly safe.

However, the FDA hasn’t approved many food/drinks infused with CBD, so you’ll have to be cautious if you consume those. It has all kinds of positive effects on your body, as it alleviates stress, manages pain, and enhances performance, and it can also be used to treat some neurological disorders. Its application is wide-ranging, so many people use it to treat all kinds of issues.

Pre-workouts

Pre-workouts are supplements that you take prior to working out. It’s a common practice to eat protein-rich foods and take pre-workouts to improve your gym performance. They increase blood flow to your muscles, which enhances muscle-building, helps stabilize your blood sugar during exercise, which keeps glycogen from depleting and reduces muscle protein breakdown while working out. Not only do they maximize your performance, but they also help you recover faster. When administered in lower doses, CBD has been shown to increase alertness and focus, while higher doses are usually associated with sedating effects. That’s why you can use it both as a pre-workout and post-workout.

Using CBD as a pre-workout

A lot of pre-workouts are based on caffeine and other stimulants, such as teacrine for example. This is the case with CBD as well. Caffeine is probably the world’s most popular pre-workout supplement, but it causes addiction and can affect your sleep quality, so you have to make sure to control the dosage you consume. Teacrine is structurally similar to caffeine, but your body won’t build a tolerance to it. You can use a teacrine supplement on its own, or you can combine it with some CBD products before hitting the gym. CBD’s anti-inflammatory effects can help prepare your muscles for intense workouts and the mood-elevating properties can help you relax and focus on your training. It can help you a lot at moments when you need a few extra reps to build those muscles.

Post-workouts

After giving your muscles an intense workout, the most important thing is to let your body have a good rest afterward. While pre-workouts are used to boost your energy and endurance to let you work out longer, post-workouts are used to replenish lost energy and build muscle. So, when you’re resting, your muscles actually aren’t. They’re rebuilding themselves and post-workouts can improve and hasten that process.

Using CBD as a post-workout

One of the main properties of CBD is its ability to reduce inflammation and manage pain, which allows your body to recover faster after an intense workout. If you regularly use CBD, you can reduce the severity of swelling, soreness, irritation, and other symptoms of muscle cramping, spasms, injuries, etc. It comes in a variety of forms, such as soft gels, topical creams and Epsom salts, so you can apply it directly to the painful area or you can opt for capsules.

CBD also has the ability to improve sleep quality, which is a really important part of recovering your body after a workout. Lack of quality sleep can lead to some health issues, so even if you don’t sleep a lot, at least make sure to enjoy a deeper sleep and benefit from a good rest.

To conclude

If you’re thinking of adding CBD supplements to your workout routine, the most important thing is to know what kind of goals you want to achieve. The reason for this is the fact that the type of delivery method and when you take CBD supplements can both play an important role in how your body responds to it. Reaction time is different if you ingest capsules or apply creams and lotions. It can help you with weight loss, treating pain, anxiety and inflammation, improve sleep quality and many other things. The research on the effects of CBD is limited, but it’s obvious that there are no side effects and it doesn’t cause addiction.