How Athletes Use CBD to Reduce Game Day Stress and Anxiety

It’s becoming well established that CBD provides a variety of therapeutic values, effectively dealing with things like pain, inflammation and anxiety. These same values are what make CBD such a valuable tool for athletes. Preforming as an athlete requires time, dedication and strong health, but arguably the most important element of being an athlete is having the right mentality. We’ve seen it time after time, athletes crumbing under the pressure, but what if I told you that CBD not only helps with various physical ailments but also helps improve your mental state, helping athletes stay mentally tough in big moments. Here we are going to look at how CBD can help with performance anxiety, does CBD affect athletic performance and everything else CBD can do for all the athletes out there.

We’ve all been there, it’s the night before the big game and your stomach is in knots, you can’t sleep and your keep bouncing your leg up and down. This is all pretty normal behavior, most sports related stresses and anxiety are pretty common before the big event and they usually wash away the minute the whistle is blown. But what if the anxiety stays, or even worse, it intensifies. This is what’s known as performance anxiety, it’s a crippling feeling that can have a huge effect not only on game day but throughout an athlete’s career. Performance anxiety has the ability to take the highest quality athlete and reduce their self-esteem and confidence down to nothing. This can cause the athletes to under preform or even worse discourage them from performing all together. Performance anxiety is almost always psychological, but it can also bring on a lot of physical symptoms such as increased heartbeat, dry mouth, nausea, diarrhea and rapid breathing.  This is due largely to the fact that your body misinterprets the fear of preforming as a threat to the body.  This leads many athletes to seek different types of relief such as therapy, meditation and prescription medications. But with the legalization of CBD athletes all over the world and turning to CBD to not only help manage their performance anxiety but to become an all around better athlete.

Maybe you’ve been feeling the pressure to preform for your team or can’t shake those butterflies in your stomach before the big event. You’ve tried everything under the sun to calm yourself down from essential oils to anxiety medications, but nothing is doing the trick. Now you find yourself here asking, can CBD help with performance anxiety? CBD for game day stress is still in the research stages but the signs are very promising that CBD oil for athletes on game day can help you preform at your highest level.

When we consume CBD for game day stress we have a psychological system that interacts directly with CBD, this psychological system also happens to be an important system that deals directly with how we respond to things like stress, anxiety and fear. This system is known as the endocannabinoid system or the ECS. All mammals have an ECS which is made up of cell receptors known as CB1 and CB2, it also contains endocannabinoids anandamide, 2-AG, enzymes and cells which do all the transporting of these compounds. Confused yet? Stick with us, it will all make sense!  When we consume CBD it directly interacts with mentioned receptors and communication channels within the ECS. CBD stimulates the ECS in a positive way and that positive way is what helps reduce anxiety and stress. The ECS can become dysregulated when the body feels under stress, when we take CBD it helps re-balance our ECS by stopping our CB1 receptors from becoming overstimulated and by increasing the natural endocannabinoids we already poses.

Many athletes who deal with performance anxiety are usually affected by the psychological effects and there is nothing actually wrong with their body, but when anxiety effects your psyche your fight or flight reaction kicks in and this is when certain symptoms such as increase heart rate, nausea and tremors  kick in. Here enters CBD for game day stress. Our body produces natural cannabinoids which is the main component we get when we consume CBD. Our endocannabinoid system (ECS) helps regulate functions in our body such as sleep, mood, appetite and memory. When we stimulate our ECS it can trigger anxiety, but when we consume CBD it indirectly stimulates our ECS effecting things like our GABA receptors which manage the communication between our brain cells, helping increase or decrease the firing of neurons in our brain. When we decrease neuron firing, our GABA provides a sedative effect, CBD is able to work with our GABA receptors which naturally increases the calming effect GABA provides to our body.

CBD has also shown to work with our brain to produce higher levels of serotonin which helps produce better moods, reduces stress and overall calms anxiety. When CBD actives the 5-HT1a receptors it increases the activity and presence of serotonin neurotransmitters in our brains, which brings forward positive effects in our brain. Pharmaceutical medications like Prozac and Zoloft which are used for dealing with anxiety and depression increase 5-HT1a levels over time to help mange symptoms for the long term, but they contain a long list of negative side-effects. CBD for game day stress preforms the same duties as the these pharmaceuticals but is in no means harmful for the rest of your body and does not have any side effects.

In 2018 the World Anti- Doping Association removed CBD from their list of prohibited substances, meaning athletes can use as much CBD as they want without being labelled a cheater.  This largely means that CBD definitely has its benefits but it’s not going to give you that ultimate edge over your competition, the World Anti-Doping agency stated that “there is no direct evidence of performance-enhancing benefits when taking CBD”.  To date the research on CBD is limited, however it is showing very positive signs of helping with pain and inflammation, hence why so many athletes are drawn to the appeal of CBD, as the only saying goes “No pain, no gain”. One of CBD’s most promising features is its ability to help athletes recover, especially from injury. CBD does have a direct impact on the human body, it however might not have a direct effect on your in-game athletic performance, it will though have an effect on your recovery which indirectly influences your in-game performance. So does CBD affect athletic performance? Yes it does and so far the research shows that CBD’s effects are nothing but positive.

Reduces Inflammation

One of the main benefits CBD can provide is reducing inflammation in athletes. If you are performing at a high level several days a week inflammation can wreak havoc on your body, causing both pain and mobility issues. This slows down an athlete’s ability to recover and leaves them unable to fully engage when it counts the most. CBD has strong anti-inflammatory effects and is able to target specific receptors in the brain and throughout the body to reduce and eliminate pain and inflammation at a much faster rate then normal rest and recovery. Unlike other anti-inflammatories that can harm stomach lining and increase the risk of strokes, CBD has no underlining side effects at all.  CBD can be applied topically or ingested, both with similar anti-inflammatory effects and can speed but recovery time to help bring athletes to their best for their big moments.

Weight Management

CBD has been known to help deal with appetites which in turn helps with weight management. Weight management is important for athletes, when you consume CBD it interacts with your endocannabinoid system, regulating CB2 receptors. When these receptors are regulated it influences the body to balance out, this includes both appetite and weight. CBD has also been known to boost metabolism by interacting with the body’s mitochondria, which is what helps with your metabolism, slowing down the production of fat cells.

Better Sleep

Sleeping is vital for an athlete to preform at their best, it aids in the full recovery on the mind and body. CBD is known to inhibit the absorption of something called adenosine. Adenosine is an organic chemical we have in our brain that burns carbs for energy and accumulates within the brain. Adenosine binds with neurons in our brain which inhibits neurotransmitters, this slows down brain activity and helps the body feel calm and eventually induces sleep. CBD binds to the same receptors adenosine does which inhibits adenosine reuptake, this helps adenosine accumulate in the brain which makes you fall asleep faster. As we’ve mentioned above, CBD can also help reduce anxiety which has a direct correlation to having a better sleep. Those who have anxiety tend to lay in bed overthinking scenarios, CBD helps ease the overthinking and puts people to sleep faster. This leaves you fresh and alert for the big event the next day!

Witch CBD becoming federally legal throughout the United States, many professional athletes are coming out with their support and love of CBD. Many who are even entering the CBD business space to produce their our CBD products, from former NFL players, MMA superstars, golfers, hockey players and Olympic athletes, there is a long list of professional athletes getting the word out about CBD.

Bubba Watson who is a two time Master champion and all around golf fan favorite is a leading athlete on the benefits on CBD. Watson uses CBD for game day stress, pain management, recovery and most importantly, injury prevention. Watson who recently turned 40 says using CBD will help him prolong his career while also making sure his body doesn’t deteriorate along the way. Watson recently spoke about CBD and how it has helped his golf game and keeping his body finely tuned. 

Nate Diaz who is an MMA fighter employed by the UFC has been an advocate for cannabis and it’s effects it can have on recovery and pain management Diaz has been seen multiple times smoking CBD during post game interviews and pre fight workouts.  Diaz uses CBD to help recover after fighting and if you’ve seen a fighter after a MMA fight you know they need all the recovery help they can get. 

There are dozens of retired NHL and NFL players who have also got behind the CBD movement, mainly for the recovery of their brain and body’s after decades of playing sports at the highest level. Many of these retired athletes have chronic pain from not only playing but from countless surgeries as well, they are also using it as a substitute for other harmful pain killers which can become highly addictive. Many of these retired athletes are also supporting the use of CBD for helping deal with CTE. CTE is neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated head injuries and has rocked the NFL over the last decade, with many of their former players developing this disease due to repeated blows to the head. CBD can help protect the brain, in both preventative measures and for longterm health and wellbeing.