5 Reasons You Should Consider Making Cannabis Part Of Your Fitness Routine

With the legal use of cannabis on the rise, many people are looking into how cannabis might be able to help them improve their daily routine. One thing you might not have considered is what cannabis can do to help you out with your work-out and fitness routine. There are a lot of recent studies showing cannabis can have some great benefits for fitness conscious people. 

Because it’s taken a long time for the stigma surrounding marijuana consumption of any kind there is still a lot of misinformation out there. One of the biggest things people get wrong before looking into things further is that marijuana use will only have negative effects on their physical fitness. We know now that’s simply not the case. 

The benefits of cannabis are becoming more and more obvious. There are many ways you can consume cannabis from vape pens to edibles now. With that increased availability researchers have been able to study what cannabis can do for physical fitness routines more easily. If you haven’t considered using cannabis before now, it’s time to dig a little deeper. Here are five reasons you should consider making cannabis part of your fitness routine.

1. It Reduces Inflammation

Both CBD and THC have been linked to reductions in muscle and joint inflammation. Studies have shown that this is something that can benefit anyone who is working out regularly. If you’re healing from a past injury or have arthritis-related pain this benefit can be especially helpful. 

In fact, CBD has been shown to be so helpful in muscle recovery that some professional organizations, like the World Anti Doping Agency, have removed CBD from the list of banned substances altogether. This move alone shows that even professional athletes and clinicians have realized that there are major benefits associated with CBD for athletes.

Think about the last time you completed a work-out where you knew something was swollen. Chances are you didn’t get as much done that day and probably felt like your work-out was less effective. Using cannabis to treat muscle inflammation is something you should consider. 

While other types of anti-inflammatory medications may be hard on your stomach or have ingredients you don’t want in your body, cannabis doesn’t present those same issues. If you haven’t considered using cannabis to treat your muscle inflammation it’s worth considering. 

There are topical cannabis application options that would be especially helpful to reap the rewards of this benefit without super strong psychoactive effects. You can choose from lotions, balms or salves to find what works right for you. No matter how you choose to use the benefits of CBD and THC in this manner you’re likely to see very positive results.

2. It Reduces Pain

This has been one of the longest-running and most common themes for why cannabis should be legalized everywhere. The pain treating properties in THC are well-documented by now. Having the chance to relieve pain without turning to opioid based medications is especially enticing to many people who would otherwise be stuck with no other choice. 

While this can sometimes be interpreted by some people as the same benefit as inflammation reduction it’s actually an entirely separate thing. For athletes and fitness-minded people this means they can think about working out in more meaningful ways while still recovering from an injury. The inflammation reduction may help with pain as well but not all pain is related to inflammation. It’s worth understanding these as two different benefits for that reason alone. 

You may have to adjust the way you consume cannabis to get the most out of this particular benefit. If you’re looking for pain relief that isn’t targeted at one spot you would want to consider vaping or similar consumption methods instead. Topicals target one area while other methods will target your entire body. 

3. It May Increase Your Motivation To Exercise

This feels like a counterintuitive benefit for anyone who has grown up thinking marijuana will make them lazy. It’s a common belief and there are definitely strains that will make you feel more tired than others so that’s worth considering before using cannabis to motivate yourself.

In a recent study of 600 adults using cannabis as part of their work-out routine across the states that currently have legalized cannabis, many of them reported feeling more motivated to work out after using cannabis products. They stated it made working out more enjoyable and made them dread the work out less. 

This is a great benefit for anyone who is struggling to get back to the gym after a day or two off. Sometimes you just dread that first day back. Having the chance to know you won’t be absolutely miserable could be all you need to get off the couch and hit the gym again. 

4. It Helps With Muscle Spasms

Depending on how hard you worked out and what you’re focusing on as a goal, muscle spasms can be a regular part of life after a work out. Cannabis has been shown to help treat muscle spasms in patients with multiple sclerosis or even Parkinson’s Disease. These benefits are likely to transfer to athletes without those diseases as well. 

Using cannabis to treat muscle spasms can help reduce the amount of post work out pain you feel that’s specifically related to muscular issues. This is another situation where you’ll want to consider the consumption method and think about whether you need to target specific areas or if you need to treat your whole body post work out.

5. It Can Help You Sleep Better

Anyone who loves fitness knows how important a good sleep routine is to your body. Sleep is how you recover and get ready for the next day at the gym. Your body needs to rest properly to make sure you’re not running yourself ragged. Without the proper sleep routine you take some risks that your work-out routine won’t go well the next day. 

The fact that THC helps with sleep is a pretty widely known fact. Just keep in mind that while you may have used a different strain during the day to help you focus or enjoy your work out more, you probably won’t want to use that at night. You can talk with your local dispensary to see what they recommend for both situations.

Conclusion:

The benefits cannabis has for working out may be able to change how you approach things like treating pain to getting ready for a hard day at the gym. Remember that cannabis should still be considered a medication even though it’s not quite the same as other medicines out there. 

If you have concerns about your medical conditions and/or how current medications will interact with your cannabis use you should talk with your doctor first. They can help advise you about anything you should be watching for since they know your health conditions best. 

Just keep in mind that you don’t have to ignore the benefits of cannabis for your fitness routine. The stigma of the past is slowly being rectified and the usefulness of cannabis in fitness plans is undeniable at this point. Giving it a try could completely change how you do things at the gym.