There is no quick fix to fitness, consistency is what makes change. But adding CBD oil to your physical fitness regimen can be a game changer. CBD oil is a natural pain inhibitor and antioxidant that decreases inflammation of the body assisting in the development of greater mobility. Here in the challenging times of 2020, we have newfangled seniors to high performance athletes delving into CBD oils.
A regular work-out routine, in addition to a good diet and healthy lifestyle habits, are certainly the main ways to get and stay fit. Adding CBD oil can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your physical activity regimen for better performance and recovery, regardless of the type of exercise that you do.
Read below to learn how CBD oil enhances a regular Pilates program of two classes per week. This is an adapted article originally from Acaria.co blog post from June 9, 2020.
1. Lower pain and inflammation
Lifting too much weight or overdoing any form of exercise can result in pain and discomfort. This can prevent you from exercising and affect your progress going forward. In addition, choosing to take a painkiller or anti-inflammatory can result in a number of unpleasant side effects,
However, CBD oil for fitness is a natural pain suppressant that works to promote healing from within. The way CBD binds to receptors in your endocannabinoid system alters how you perceive pain and works to lower inflammation. Therefore, you can feel better while also doing something good for your body. Read more on pain and inflammation after this list.
2. Reduce muscle soreness
Exercise physiologists refer to the gradually increasing muscle discomfort that occurs 24-48 hours after physical activity as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). It is perfectly normal, a regular part of working out and is often a good sign that your muscles are adapting to the fitness regimen.
It happens due to exercise that “stresses the muscle tissue beyond what it is accustomed to”, says David O. Draper, professor and director of the graduate program in sports medicine at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Small microscopic tears occur in the muscle fibers. Scientists believe this damage, coupled with the inflammation that accompanies these tears, causes the pain.
To be more specific, Draper states that “DOMS occurs when the muscle is performing an eccentric or a lengthening contraction.Examples of this would be running downhill, the lengthening portion of a bicep curl” or when you resist the carriage returning on a reformer or resisting the shortening of a flex band. Working out on a reformer or other Pilates equipment with springs provides plenty of eccentric contractions. DOMS can slow you down on your fitness journey and be somewhat uncomfortable.
“The aches and pains should be minor,” says Carol Torgan, an exercise physiologist and fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, “and are simply indications that muscles are adapting to your fitness regimen”. The soreness usually disappears within about 72 hours, yet can be alleviated with any measure that increases blood flow to the muscle, such as low-intensity activity, stretching, massage, hot baths, or a sauna, immersion in cool bath or icy water are all ways to reduce or eliminate the soreness. Stretching helps break the cycle which goes from soreness to muscle spasm to contraction and tightness. Torgan suggests to take it easy for a few days while your body adapts or try some light exercise such as walking or swimming. Keeping the muscle in motion can provide relief. Combining Pilates with a walking routine is highly beneficial.
Additionally, CBD oil has been shown to improve blood flow and reduce the tension from arteries. This allows your muscles to get more oxygen and helps prevent soreness later on. CBD also stays in your system long enough to also help lower any stiffness following your work-out.
3. Recover faster between sessions
The very last thing that anyone wants to deal with is an injury, but these are often a natural part of life, work or sports with repetition of similar movements. Simply by being more active you are putting yourself at more risk of injuries from the constant impact.
However, CBD oil for fitness could be an amazing option for you if this seems to be an issue for you. CBD can assist with the repair process by lowering pain and inflammation, in addition to working on epidermal, perhaps even the fascial, tissues. It can also help you relax more at night so you can recover while you sleep.
4. Perform better when it counts
Are you nervous, stressed, or anxious before going to work out, attending a big event or competition? It can be quite common for athletes to feel the pressure to perform. It can also affect your confidence levels and your performance as a result.
The good news is that CBD oil is a natural solution to this very problem. CBD helps promote a state of calm and relaxation and works to reduce anxious thoughts and feelings. Therefore, this can help boost your performance and help you focus on the present when it really matters.
5. Boost energy levels
This is, of course, is an important aspect of not just maintaining fitness levels, but also of daily life. It can become a vicious cycle when you do not exercise because you do not have any energy even when you know that exercising would give you an energy boost.
CBD oil helps to naturally improve energy levels by relieving stress which can be incredibly draining. In addition, CBD can also work to increase testosterone which is needed for muscle growth t occur from doing strengthening exercises on the reformer or mat. While testosterone is primarily a male hormone, women also have it in smaller amounts. Therefore, CBD can give you that extra energy boost so that you can perform better and achieve the gains you are looking for. Please more information on how CBD provides an energy boost after this list :).
6. Improve appetite
Again, energy is going to be a key component of having an effective and successful work-out. A proper diet and hydration can go a very long way in supporting your fitness goals. However, if you are finding that you are not able to eat much you can try boosting your appetite with CBD oil.
CBD has been shown to increase metabolism meaning that your body can digest food and turn it into energy much faster. This can also be very useful if you are looking for support with weight loss. In addition, CBD works to balance the hunger and satiety hormones and signals so that you will feel hungry sooner and you will eat more as a result. If you are very active, you need to be sure that your caloric intake is sufficient in order to prevent muscle wasting.
7. Assist with coordination
You definitely need a strong and healthy relationship between mind and body for effective physical activity. Your brain and muscles need to work together for a successful work-out to happen and in order to reduce chance of injury.
Taking CBD oil for fitness can help to get you into the zone by limiting distractions and enabling better focus and concentration. Please read more about CBD and mental focus below. A major component of exercise is the mental game and so if you can heighten your senses and relax your muscles then you will be more coordinated. With increased cognition and coordination, you can also expect to perform a lot better.
8. Stimulate weight loss
Like we already mentioned previously, CBD oil can help you reach your body goals by increasing your metabolic rate and balancing your hormones. It allows your system to accurately distinguish between hunger and satiety signals, so you only eat as much as you need. It also helps boost fat burning by speeding up your metabolism so you can shed a few extra pounds.
This effect can be further amplified in combination with an effective and consistent exercise routine and proper diet. Of course, CBD is not a magic weight loss pill and is simply a helpful addition to supplement a healthy routine. Other lifestyle habits like getting enough sleep and stress management also play a critical factor, which conveniently CBD oil helps with too.
Fianal Thoughts
CBD oil is an amazing tool for athletes and fitness enthusiasts. It offers a number of wonderful health benefits and therapeutic properties. In particular, it helps improve rate of recovery and level of performance by working on appetite, inflammation, soreness, and energy. It can also help you push for longer sessions at the gym, or your sport, increase mental focus, and reduce the time in between training sessions. Therefore, you can reach your body and health goals much faster with the help of a natural, safe, and effective solution.
I hope you are convinced of the benefits of using CBD oil. Pilates Equipment Shop – Hawaiian Sands Fitness recommends pure, full spectrum CBD oils. Visit the Hemptuary in Waikiki, talk with Sunny or any of the other CBD experts. They can assist you in adding therapeutic CBD oils without THC to your daily routine 🙂
Pain, Inflammation, Energy, Stress and Hormone Balancing with CBD Oils . . .
Pain: Experiencing pain is absolutely natural: it’s simply a signaling mechanism within your body that tells your brain to pay attention. While some pain can be very useful, other times pain can be debilitating and even counter productive.
When experiencing pain, we often go straight for pharmaceutical drugs which do help but have side effects like being toxic for your liver, irritating your stomach, or having addictive properties. One of the major side effects of these drugs is that sometimes they work too well and completely numb the pain so you don’t feel it. This could result in further damage to your body.
Inflammation: Inflammation is something that everyone experiences on a regular basis whether you know it or not. Inflammation comes in different forms. It can be external resulting in uncomfortable symptoms or can be internal with no symptoms being felt outward.
Some common signs that you could be dealing with inflammation include issues like asthma, chronic pain, heart problems, peptic ulcers, rheumatoid arthritis, dental problems, sinusitis, digestive problems, eczema, psoriasis, obesity, diabetes, colon cancer, and the list goes on and on. Inflammation is at the root of many if not most illnesses.
Inflammation occurs when we get an injury, wound, or infection. It is an immune response from the body in an effort the protect the affected location. It is a defense mechanism of the body and the attempt to begin the healing process and remove the irritant or problem. While short-term acute inflammation serves a purpose and is of general benefit to the body, long-term chronic inflammation can be detrimental to our health since it can result in damage to tissues and pain within the body.
CBD is A Safe and Effective Option for Pain
Using CBD oil for pain can be an effective treatment without major side effects like pharmaceutical drugs and helps in the healing process by reducing inflammation. This also applies to using it for supporting your physical exercise regimen.
First, CBD is analgesic which means it will almost instantly reduce pain, if taken under the tongue, and it works for up to 8 hours. Second, CBD has anti-inflammatory properties which don’t just help decrease pain short-term but also long-term.
CBD A Solution for Chronic Pain Conditions
CBD interacts with the two main cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2, which regulate the release of neurotransmitters within the central nervous system and immune cells to help manage pain levels. CBD has been found to be effective at lowering pain levels associated with:
- Headaches and Migraines
- Back Pain
- Arthritis
- PMS Cramps
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Some Cancers
- Athletic Injuries
- Other acute pain and chronic pain conditions
CBD and Energy Boost: In our busy society, most of us could use a little extra energy boost throughout the day. A lot of people reach for caffeine, sugar, and a number of other stimulants to keep them going. However, they then end up paying the price later. The good news is that CBD oil can give you more energy both safely and effectively. This is done without any nasty crashes, side effects, or further depleting our body.
There are a number of mechanisms by which CBD works in the body to boost energy throughout the day. While you can’t expect to get a quick jolt like you would from drinking a cup of coffee, CBD works on a more subtle level. This allows for steady and sustained energy over a longer period of time. A few of the reasons CBD does this would be by helping with stress reduction, blood sugar regulation, and increased concentration.
CBD and Stress Reduction: The main reasons that CBD oil can give you more energy both over the short-term and the long-term is that it helps lower stress levels in the present which can further help to prevent burnout. By decreasing stress quickly when needed, we can certainly experience higher energy levels. This means we are not scattering our focus in a number of different directions. However, if our stress levels are left unchecked for a longer period of time, this results in much more dramatic health effects and depletion within the body called burnout.
Once someone gets into the state of burnout it can be very difficult to get out of it. Therefore, prevention really becomes the key to stress management. Burnout can contribute to a number of devastating effects on the body. One of the biggest symptoms becomes low energy since the body simply cannot produce cortisol in sufficient amounts.
Cortisol is the hormone that is responsible for wakefulness. It should be highest in the morning and lowest in the evening. When someone enters burnout, also called adrenal fatigue, the adrenal glands that sit on top of the kidneys become exhausted. They can no longer keep up with cortisol production since they become depleted. This occurs from constantly pumping out cortisol in response to constant stressors in the environment.
Luckily, CBD works on the hormone cortisol and can help to promote a sense of relaxation. While in the short-term this is great, in the long-term this becomes even more important. By minimizing stress on the body as much as possible now, we can avoid reaching burnout in the future. This is critical to maintaining consistent energy levels.
CBD oil and hormones: Hormones are chemical messengers that tell organs and cells throughout the body what to do, how to do it, and when to do it. There are over 50 known hormones that are responsible for thousands of bodily processes. Hormones work together and if you change one hormone the rest get influenced similar to a domino effect. Hormones are made all over our body, some in organs such as the pancreas and ovaries, some in glands such as the pituitary or thyroid gland, and some in cells such as fat cells. We should never underestimate the importance of hormones and the powerful influence they have on our body particularly related to metabolism, mood, sleep, pain, and stress.
CBD oil can help balance some hormones such as Cortisol, the stress hormone and melatonin, the sleep hormone. We can manage stress by meditating, doing breathing exercises, not drinking too much coffee or alcohol, and taking CBD oil. The hormone Ghrelin is the hunger hormone and leptin is the satiety hormone. Intermittent fasting and using CBD oil can help control appetite. To read more about CBD oil and hormone regulation or balancing click here.
CBD oil and Productivity – Mental Focus: The biggest hurdle to productivity that most of us experience is remaining focused throughout the day. The great thing is that not only has CBD been shown to boost brain function and memory, it can also assist with processing speed, attention, and cognitive ability. The best suggestion is to take CBD oil right in the morning with your cup of coffee or tea to keep you relaxed and focused at the same time. This also acts as a source of prevention helping to tackle any stress before it fully manifests and kicks you off track.
This blog article has been adapted from ICARIA, WebMD and Wikipedia websites.
I thank ICARIA for providing such great information on physical activity and CBD.ICARIA is a Vancouver based company loved and supported by the local community. It has been named Top 5 New Cannabis Products by Beatroute Magazine and featured as a female-run business in Her(b)Life Magazine. Their main goal is to empower and educate women about the health benefits of CBD oil.
The name ICARIA represents the Greek island which is one of the 5 Blue Zones, places in the world where people live the longest and are the happiest. In the Blue Zones people live a holistic lifestyle, eating healthy, avoiding stress, moderately exercising, having a community and a purpose in life. But we don’t have to live in those places to live that life. The Blue Zone can be inside of all of us.