Since the passing of the 2018 Farm Bill CBD has triggered a boom that has been extremely huge. Consider that in the year 2017, the total sales from hemp-derived CBD were $190 million. Since that time, the CBD market has greatly expanded with it being legally accepted across all the 50 states in the United States. The total sales of CBD for 2020 are now projected to hit $2.1 billion!

In addition to people who commonly use CBD as a means for helping to relieve anxiety or promote better sleep, more and more athletes are adopting CBD as part of the workout routines as a way of helping to manage post workout inflammation, pain and muscle recovery.

What are Some Potential Benefits of CBD for Runners?

If you are a runner, you care about your health and you are generally interested in how your body functions, you may have heard about the endocannabinoid system in one way or the other. But if you are not familiar, the endocannabinoid system is responsible for maintaining balance in your body.

Cannabidiol (CBD) works by interacting with the endocannabinoid receptors in the endocannabinoid system to give a response to different stimuli in the body.

Your endocannabinoid system was named for the plants that led researchers to its discovery. Investigations into the effects of cannabis led investigators to a complex network of messengers and receptors responsible for regulating nearly every essential function in your body. Just a few of the numerous functions regulated by your endocannabinoid system include:

• Pain perception and inflammation
• Memory, learning, and emotional responses
• Sleep and sleep cycles
• Immune system function
• Energy and metabolism
• Neuroprotective and muscle movement
• Endocrine system function
• Thermal regulation and stress response

Many runners, whether running for fun, exercise, or contesting in a given tournament, do use CBD not only to boost their levels of energy, but also as a way to speed their recovery from long-distance runs and injuries.

CBD Helps Reduce Runners Ache and Pain

Pain is the most common challenge faced by many runners. As you know very well, running for a long distance or time can be quite a strain on the muscles in the body. Thanks to the anti-inflammatory properties of CBD, it may help in reducing this pain.

Also, due to the diverse side effects shown by the drugs that are commonly used by runners to treat pain such as ibuprofen, CBD has gained large followers since it has low risk to side effects.

CBD in the body binds itself to the TRPV-1 receptors. The TRPV – 1 receptors are responsible for the mediation of pain, inflammation, and also body temperature.

In addition to the oil form, CBD is also available as creams and salves. The advantage of using CBD topically is that it can be applied to target specific areas of the body. Topicals containing CBD can quickly soothe muscles and painful joints, thus making soreness more bearable.

CBD May Help Improve Focus

There has been some research done on the ability of CBD products to help people focus when they suffer from attention deficit disorders. Many CBD enthusiasts take these findings to mean that CBD is able to help with concentration even when there is no attention deficit present. Anecdotally, many CBD users do claim that their use of the product helps them achieve greater focus when they work out. When you focus, it can improve the effectiveness of your workouts.

CBD Helps to Regulate Sleep

Sleep is an essential requirement for any runner who is in dire need of excellence. Not only excellence in the tournament but also excellence in the body i.e muscle gain.

Let us look at it from this angle, the central nervous system in the body is responsible for the response to pain, this means that you will be experiencing pain after your intense run or workout.

If you are in pain then it means that you will not able to sleep well thus, as a result, your muscles will not gain and in the long run the next day you will wake up feeling weak because you didn’t have enough sleep.

CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid receptors in the endocannabinoid system to help regulate mood, sleep, and appetite. Thus, with enough sleep, a runner is assured of muscle gain and also as a runner, you will wake up psyched for the activities of the following day.

Closing Note

CBD is not the solution to all the problems that runners may experience, but might be worth a try. CBD is considered safe and legal. This is because it does not have the risk of side effects on its consumers.

However, it is always good to seek consultation from your doctor before you start using CBD. This is because CBD reacts differently to all of us thus you should not expect it to react to you the same way it reacted to your friend.

However, finding the correct CBD dosage is tricky because there are no measured standards and prescriptions for taking it, thus it is good to start with smaller amounts as you gradually increase it until you find the correct dose that works for you.

So if you are a runner or athlete looking for an edge in reducing pain, faster recovery and better sleep, CBD should be on your radar.