Cannabis for Fitness | How medical marijuana helps athletes of all abilities

In recent years, several professional athletes have made headlines for their marijuana use and the suspensions they’ve received from their respective leagues. By portraying these athletes as undisciplined or foolish, the vast majority of these headlines continue to advance the stigma of cannabis that blur the line between fact and fiction and make it difficult for some of our patients to come out to their friends and family as cannabis users.

The fact is, cannabis has many benefits that can help athletes of all abilities to train harder, recover faster, and perform better in all kinds of physical activities. Athletes with reputations as winners and top performers like professional basketball player Matt Barnes have shared how cannabis made them better athletes. In this post, we’ll share some of the ways medical marijuana and CBD can help you reach your fitness goals while leading a healthy life.

Let’s start by discussing how cannabis has been reported to relieve chronic pain, which is something athletes of all abilities deal with after they’ve pushed themselves.  No matter what your favorite sport is, the physical act of doing it damages your muscles, causes them to swell, and makes you feel sore and uncomfortable. Since cannabis is known to be a natural anti-inflammatory, it can potentially help to ease that soreness so you not only feel better after your workout, you sleep better at night and recover faster as a result. This fact is supported by several former professional football players who recently appeared in a public service announcement to share a message with the commissioner of the NFL that cannabis is not a drug, it’s a medicine:

If you’re not a football fan, ask someone you know who is about the guys in that video and how great they were in their playing days. Those are some solid endorsements from top-performing athletes who had access to the most advanced medical care available and found the best relief for their pain with cannabis.

Recovering from pain is one thing, but what about using cannabis to increase focus and reduce anxiety so you can push through mental boundaries and reach new levels of physical performance? Our Senior Wellness Consultant Sarah-Jaana has some helpful advice on this subject based on her personal experience and the dozens of Revolutionary Clinics patients she’s helped.

For athletes seeking the ability to focus their physical energy for bursts of intense activity such as team sports or running, Sarah-Janaa recommends sativa cannabis strains. If you’re doing sports that require consistent rhythm and/or a relaxed state of mind like yoga, swimming, or cycling Sarah-Janaa will steer you in the direction of indica strains of cannabis that foster a sense of calm. Aptly named hybrid cannabis strains meet in the middle where you need a combination of intense focus and sustained activity for sports like kayaking or CrossFit.

In addition to the different cannabis strains we mentioned in this post, we also have dozens of CBD products that can decrease your recovery time without the psycho-active effects.  To learn more about how Revolutionary Clinics can help you reach your personal fitness goals, contact us today!