Can CBD Improve Athletic Performance?

When it comes to CBD and athletic performance there are two basic areas of focus; anxiety and recovery.

CBD for Anxiety and Nervousness

As an athlete or competitor, have you ever experienced extreme nervousness before a competition? The feeling of your heart racing, palms sweating, legs shaking, stomach in knots. It can be written off as just nervousness. However, these are just a few of the, sometimes debilitating, symptoms of social anxiety. For athletes, it is crucial to be not only physically ready but mentally prepared as well. So much so, that in some highly competitive areas, drugs such as beta-blockers are used to block signals related to anxiety to keep competitors calm under pressure (6). However, with any synthetic drug, there are side-effects. Scientists have been trying to find a way to combat anxiety that arises in typical situations as well as in stressful situations while reducing or eliminating potential side effects.

A broad study was conducted with participants giving a public speech measuring the anxiety and stress levels. This test was a double-blind study involving patients with normal anxiety levels and naïve patients who were previously diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Participants were given either a placebo or a dosage of CBD (1). According to the Department of Neuroscience and Behavior, School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, SP, Brazil.

“Pretreatment with CBD significantly reduced anxiety, cognitive impairment, and discomfort in their speech performance, and significantly decreased alert in their anticipatory speech. The placebo group presented higher anxiety, cognitive impairment, discomfort, and alert levels when compared with the control group…”

CBD for Recovery

Recovery is used as a “catch-all” term that references a lot of aspects. For this article, we will discuss the elements of inflammation, pain, and sleep.

Inflammation

In the world of sports, inflammation often occurs as a result of physical trauma. For example, tweaking a particular muscle or rolling an ankle occur often in athletic training or competition. Ibuprofen and other NSAIDs have long been the pharmaceutical standard to help against inflammation. However, there have been recent studies and ongoing clinical trials that suggest Cannabidiols (CBD), a non-euphoric substance derived from cannabis, significantly reduce inflammation (2). Also, CBD may be a great anti-inflammatory alternative to mainstream synthetic drugs. In a study conducted in 2015, scientists applied topical CBD to the inflamed knees joints of rats to measure its efficacy for reducing inflammation. As represented in Figure 1 below, daily applications of 6.2mg and 62.3mg of CBD gel for only four days reduced joint circumference from 72mm to 65.6 mm and 30.9mm to 16.7mm, respectively (2). That is up to an astonishing 46% decrease in circumference after only four days of application.

Pain Relief

Whether its dull and achy or sharp and intense pain, pain related to injury, or just the physical demands of sports on the human body can be irritating.

Usually, with the reduction of inflammation, the pain will subside, at least a little, and there have been many pharmaceutical drugs to help. Once again, there is evidence of an alternative solution. There have been several studies testing the efficacy of CBD on non-cancer related pain. According to an article written on PubMed, the results determined a “…significant reduction in intense pain, sharp pain, cold and itchy sensations in the CBD group when compared to the placebo group. No adverse events were reported in this study” (3). The potential use for natural non-cancer pain relief with little to no side effects is incredible.

Sleep

Most people spend roughly one-third of their life asleep. But why is sleep so important, particularly for athletes? For an athlete to build muscle, it must be confronted with resistance, which causes small tearing of the muscle fibers (trauma). During sleep, your body goes into repair mode. The human body gets to work using protein and other resources to repair the damage and trauma inflicted during training or competition, resulting in a potential increase in strength and size depending on diet and intensity. So, as you can see, sleep is crucial. No sleep, no recovery.

The CDC estimates that one-third of Americans do not get enough sleep (4). This could result in inadequate recovery. Trouble falling asleep and staying asleep have been an increasing problem in recent years. According to the Harvard Medical School, several factors affect sleep the most, including diet, pain, depression, sleep apnea, and poor sleep habits (5). CBD has been proven to help patients with sleep disorders increase the chances of falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer, improving overall sleep quality.

CBD Limitations

The World Anti-Doping Agency

At one point, CBD was on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ban list because of its relation to the cannabis plant, which at the time was a plant that was considered not worth researching. Once the realization for possible benefits occurred and further testing was done, CBD was lifted from the ban list provided it contains less than .3 percent THC (the legal limit as dictated by the 2018 Obama Farm Bill). So as long as the CBD manufacture is a trustworthy and reputable source, it is ok to take. These legitimate sources should be able to provide a Certificate Of Analysis (COA) for each product, verifying the exact contents and THC levels of the CBD product.

Wrap Up

There is definite potential for an increase in athletic performance when adding a daily intake of CBD. A daily intake of CBD may help athletes reduce competition anxiety as well as help with the recovery process by reducing pain and swelling and increasing overall sleep quality.