With new studios, classes and gyms springing up all around the city, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to working out and keeping active. Whether you are an athlete or an active individual, you would have heard of a plethora of ways to maximise your fitness goals with supplements and vitamins.
Recently, CBD usage is emerging in the fitness world and it is said to be the final piece of the bodybuilding puzzle. CBD, short for cannabidiol, is a chemical compound from the plant Cannabis Sativa with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant qualities that are known to provide relief from anxiety, pain, nausea, migraines and insomnia.
Unlike one of the other chemical compounds from cannabis (THC), CBD does not make its user high or cause addiction and other negative physical impacts. The fact that it is completely safe to use and has so many positive effects on mental and physical health is why it is rising rapidly in popularity and becoming legal to use in many countries around the world. Read on to find out why CBD is changing the fitness game and becoming the supplement of choice for top trainers and athletes.
Better focus = Better result
Like many others, you may believe that the effectiveness of your workout is solely based on your physical capability. In fact, studies have proven that psychological focus also plays a vital role in how effective your workout is.
Mind-muscle connection refers to the ability to focus on tension created on a specific muscle or region of muscles in the body during exercise. European Journal of Sports Science published an article about how concentration impacts muscle change in workouts. The result reveals that you can actually gain more muscle strength If you intentionally focus on muscle activation during strength training. The study also shows that practicing mind-muscle connection is particularly beneficial in upper body training – keep this in mind on your next arms and back day.
So, what does CBD have to do with better mind-muscle connection? According to Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research and Brain Sciences (2018), CBD improves attention control in psychological symptoms. This is why taking CBD before a workout will make you more awake, alert and focused, and help you concentrate your mind on feeling that muscle tension.
Fast track to hitting your fitness goals
Ever wondered why you wake up stiff and sore the day after an intense session at the gym? This has to do with what happens to our muscles when we train. Weight training causes microscopic damage to muscle fibres, leading to inflamed muscles and triggers our bodies to respond and repair.
Supported by a review of 132 original studies published in Frontiers in Neurology (2018), anti-inflammatory properties in CBD effectively relieve post-workout muscle-soreness. Therefore it takes less time for your muscles to recover, so you can hit the gym again sooner and reach your goals faster.
Dr. Murdoc Khaleghi, an emergency medicine physician, points out that athletes are limited by the extent to which they can train and how much time their muscles need to recover. Post-workout muscle soreness is never pleasant, but it is a signal our bodies send to tell us our muscles are recovering and building stronger fibres to become more resistant to damage. When we start adding CBD to our training routine, it will accelerate recovery and shorten the time it takes to recover. It is the perfect tool to enhance the intensity and frequency of our workouts and help us reach the full scope of our physical capabilities.
With the ability to enhance mind-muscle connection and allow shorter post-workout recovery time, it is no wonder top trainers around the world are adding CBD to their fitness regimes.
