Exercise is necessary to stay healthy, but all that hard work will be wasted if you don’t follow the right post-workout recovery practices. Many people who exercise regularly turn to natural supplements for help, and CBD has become increasingly popular for exercise recovery over the years. Does CBD help you recover faster, and if so, what is the best CBD for pain and soreness that can occur after exercise?
What Is Exercise Recovery?
Exercise recovery is the healing process your body goes through after you work out. While exercise is good for you, it also damages your body’s tissues, making a period of recovery necessary. Depending on the circumstances, exercise recovery can be anywhere from entirely comfortable to almost unbearably painful, and the process of recovering from exercise can last anywhere from a couple of hours to a few days.
How Long Does It Take to Recover from Exercise?
Most experts suggest that you give your body at least 72 hours (3 days) to fully recover from exercise. The results of a series of studies published in 2003 indicate that out of a range of options, 72 hours provides an ideal window for your muscles to fully heal without allowing any considerable degree of atrophy. It might be possible to recover from exercise safely without waiting for three whole days, however.
How Do You Improve Exercise Recovery Times?
You’ll recover from exercise faster if you get plenty of rest, stay hydrated, and eat healthy foods. Some people also use anti-inflammatory supplements to help their bodies heal, and the non-intoxicating hemp cannabinoid CBD has recently become extremely popular within the athletic community.
What Is CBD?
CBD is a hemp-derived cannabinoid that does not get you high. Instead, CBD provides mildly relaxing effects while interacting with your brain’s 5-HT and TRP receptors, which are involved in inflammation and pain.
Researchers have looked closely at CBD’s potential to reduce inflammation. In 2020, for instance, a research review examined the usefulness of CBD for both inflammation and oxidative stress. Since increased inflammation is a hallmark of the exercise recovery process, it’s understandable why athletes are so interested in using CBD during the post-exercise period.
Is CBD Useful for Muscle Recovery?
People certainly think CBD is useful for muscle recovery, and it’s promising enough for this purpose that scientists have thoroughly researched the effectiveness of CBD for muscle recovery. What we can say for certain is that CBD will not get you high, and research into the side effects of this cannabinoid has found that it is very well-tolerated even in high doses.
Can CBD Help You Recover from Exercise Faster?
If it’s true that CBD reduces inflammation and oxidative stress, this cannabinoid might help your muscles recover faster from the inevitable damage that exercise deals. By reducing oxidative stress and inflammation in your muscle tissue, CBD might help your muscles recover more quickly than usual, and scientists are starting to publish research on this subject.
In 2021, for instance, a new review of research regarding CBD for sports recovery concluded that “CBD has the potential to be used as a part of the strategies to recover from fatigue and muscle damage related to physical and cognitive exertion in sports.” Just the year before, another scientific review drew similar conclusions.
CBD for Muscle Recovery Times: The Bottom Line
The risks of trying CBD for muscle recovery are low, and the potential benefits are high. This cannabinoid is non-intoxicating, it appears to have zero addictive potential, and its side effects (if they occur) are almost always mild.
With many different types of CBD products to choose from, you have no lack of options when it comes to ways to use this cannabinoid. Just keep in mind that topically applied CBD is often best for muscle recovery in individual areas of your body while oral CBD products are better for full-body effects.
To find a great CBD product for muscle recovery, check customer reviews for keywords related to exercise, carefully read product descriptions and ingredients lists, and check for third-party lab reports. Lastly, keep in mind that only full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD extracts provide the entourage effect, which might make cannabinoids more potent.
The NFL season is here! Don't miss any NFL news & rumors by subscribing to Chat Sports on YouTube!
Back to the Sports Tech Newsfeed