Fitness Recovery

The podcast discusses the importance of exercise recovery and how cannabis, specifically CBD, can aid in the recovery process. It emphasizes the need for rest and proper nutrition to allow the body to repair and build muscle. CBD's anti-inflammatory properties can reduce soreness and speed up healing. It suggests adding CBD to recovery drinks or finding pre-made products that include CBD to enhance the recovery process. Hi, my name is Seth and you are listening to the Canna Fitness and Nutrition Podcast where we are hanging out at the intersection of fitness, nutrition, and cannabis. Thanks for pressing play today, I appreciate you joining me. On today's topic, we're going to talk a little bit about exercise recovery because this is an important topic when we're talking about fitness. Really important topic. And then we're going to talk about how cannabis can help that. So when we talk about fitness, it's all about, all you hear is move more, move more, do this, move more, exercise a lot, right? And it's hard enough to get started, but once you get started, it can be tricky to stop, right? One thing that I hear a lot is from people that have been struggling to get started is that once they start, they're afraid to stop. Yeah. And so if you felt like that, hang on here because we're going to talk about that. Because it can be so hard to get the motivation to stop and then when you do start, it feels so good and you feel so good about yourself that you're doing it finally, you're working out, you're walking every day or whatever it is, you're hitting a class every day or you've gotten into a routine, you get up and do it or you finally found time in your day to get into this routine that you love or take a class that you love or whatever it is and you feel so good about it and now you're starting to see your body change and all of these exciting things. So I get it. It can be intimidating to think about having to take a break. And if you tend to be on the high achieving side, which is now what we call our type A personalities, it can also be tempting to think more is better. A lot of times I'll start out helping a client, okay, let's try to implement something three times a week and the next thing I know, they're like, oh, well, I'm going to do it every day. Which is fine for most things, but more is not better. We did a whole podcast about this, about the high achieving personality type, where it's so easy to think more is better. If some is good, more is better, right? And I showed this before, but again, if you didn't hear this one, I used to have this personality type, type A for sure, high achieving. It always just seems like, yeah, if some is good, then more is better, right? More, more, more. I learned the hard way, so if you want to take advice from me, from my experience, when I was a runner, again, I thought, oh, running feels so good, I love the way my body feels, I love that I can run fast and far, so if this is good, then more must be better, right? So eventually I just kept adding more and more, and then eventually I just kept getting hurt and hurt. So that's the downside, and that's why I want to talk about recovery, because recovery is so important. Our bodies are not designed to go, go, go, go, go without adequate rest. Why? Because our body does all of its recovering and repairing when our bodies are at rest, and if our bodies don't have adequate time to rest, then it's not going to, they're not going to repair itself, your muscles aren't going to repair, you're not going to get stronger, you're not going to get faster, you're not going to get leaner, your body's going to be basically going into survival mode, which is just trying to stay alive. And this could be a clue, too. If your body's really struggling, like I've had clients before that come in and it's like week after week, they're just not getting stronger, they're constantly exhausted, maybe their schedules are insane, or they're not getting adequate sleep, and they're not taking enough days off, they're just pushing, pushing, pushing, class after class, workout after workout, walk, run, all the things, their bodies aren't getting a chance to recover. So if you're seeing that, and you're seeing like, I'm not getting stronger, why am I not getting stronger, or I just don't have the energy I used to have or when I started, look at your week and look at how much recovery time you're giving yourself. You know, everybody's going to be different, I'm not going to be able to recommend a specific amount of recovery for each person, because everybody's going to be different, but in general, if you're not feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, then you need more recovery. Start with a day, start with a day where all you do is stretch and maybe a light walk, and just let your body kind of rejuvenate and see if that refreshes you enough to get back into your more intense workouts, your lifts, or your more intense walks or runs or whatever you do, your class. But recovery is super important, and I'm going to talk a little bit about how cannabis helps that, because cannabis can really help relieve that soreness that we feel afterwards, especially when it comes to aches and pains. Muscle soreness is probably the number one reason why I hear people choose cannabis after a workout. But if you have painful joints, if you have arthritis, then this could also help with that. If you're the type of person that gets so sore that your next workout suffers, then this is something you're going to want to pay attention to, because recovery is resting. Recovery is resting, but recovery is more than just resting, it's letting your body repair correctly, and that's where the cannabis comes in, because your body needs proper nutrition and water and nutrients and oxygen to be able to recover those muscles and repair them. So when you exercise, a little bit of science-y background here, when you exercise and use your muscles intensely, let's say, because everybody's exercise is different, you actually break down the muscles microscopically, microscopic little tears in the muscles. So this is what happens when you use your muscles intensely, and then what your body does is it takes the fuel you've given it, the nutrients you've given it, water, oxygen, and all those things go to the muscles, your body's a pretty cool machine, go to the muscles to repair all of those little microscopic tears and build the muscle back stronger. And that generally happens overnight, because that's when our body does its best machine work, and so your body's repairing itself, but how do we make sure that that happens optimally? Well, first, number one, is our nutrition, making sure that we're giving our body the nutrients that it needs, but how do we do that? The best way is to eat food. The best way to do that is to have a little bit of carbs and a little bit of protein after you work out. They used to really encourage us to get something in our bodies, ASAP, but they've kind of backed up on that, as long as you get something in your body within an hour or two, that seems to be sufficient. Food is ideal, food is ideal, but recovery drinks, meaning like a protein shake or something with a BCAAs in it can help, those are amino acids. If you're into any of those, even just electrolytes can help with that hydration level and keeping you hydrated and making sure that your body is getting ready and has everything it needs to be able to recover optimally. There's plenty of protein drinks out there, but just an important note, they are meant to supplement our nutrition, so they are meant to be a quick and easy way to get something in your system to help your muscles start the process of repair. A protein shake is not a meal, it's not supposed to be a meal, it's supposed to be a supplement, but what's cool now is because cannabis can actually help with all of that, cannabis has anti-inflammatory properties. In this case, I know I use the word cannabis a lot, and in this case I am talking about mostly CBD, which is the non-psychoactive type of cannabis. THC can also do this, but it has the psychoactive properties, so that brings another element to the whole thing. But CBD, with its non-psychoactive component, is really, really great for anti-inflammatory needs, so it helps come in and it helps your body do a better job of reducing the inflammation, which reduces your soreness. It speeds up the healing process and reduces your overall inflammation and soreness. One of the cool things that I've found is adding CBD to your recovery, meaning if you have a shake you like, or if you make a drink that you like, or if you like to have electrolytes after you exercise to help with hydration, so electrolytes basically just help keep the water in your body, because you don't want to drink a whole bunch of water after you've exercised and then just pee it all out, because then it's not going to your muscles, so electrolytes and a little bit of sodium, usually, helps your body maintain that. So you want to have a little bit of electrolytes, but you could add CBD to that. Now, the cool thing is there's actually some products out there that already contain CBD with the recovery electrolytes and protein and carbs that you need, so you can find some already produced things, packages and shakes and supplements out there that include CBD with your protein, carbs, and electrolytes. You can make your own, because you really can eat ... Again, nutrition is important, so whether it's a recovery drink specifically, or it's you making your recovery nutrition, again, a little bit of carbs, a little bit of protein, but you could add CBD. You could add, if you have an oil that you like, you could mix it in. The tinctures and drops are super, super popular right now. They've formulated special kinds of drops to put in drinks, so you could put some of those into your recovery drink. You can add that to your nutrition to help speed up the healing and reduce the inflammation, and that'll alleviate some of your post-workout soreness. I hadn't really thought about that I was doing this specifically, but I tend to work ... I work out in the morning before I do anything so that I don't get the day swept away from me. Then, as soon as I go inside is when I take my CBD for anxiety. Not putting that together, but now that I think about it, that's why I'm never sore. That's probably why. I mean, I also eat. I take CBD to reduce ... I take it for anxiety, but it's reducing the inflammation from the workout I just did, and then I eat nutritious food. I eat fruits, I eat protein, and so that is my recovery process. Again, it's really amazing. I'm hardly ever sore unless I do something extremely intense or something new, and I really feel like the inflammation in my body is way, way down, and that's what CBD helps to do because CBD, what it does is in the body it interacts with our endocannabinoid system. Our endocannabinoid system is a system throughout the body that helps all of the other systems come into balance. Think of it as a tank, and the fuel in your endocannabinoid tank goes out to all the other systems to help them do their job, but if your tank of cannabinoids is low, then the other systems aren't getting any help, and they may be struggling for various reasons. We fill up that tank, and it can help all the other systems that may be struggling. You want to keep that cannabinoid system full by keeping cannabinoids in your system. Another way that you can help recovery, and this one is quite popular, a lot of people I've learned have already tried this, is topically. Again, it's mostly CBD, although you will see THC from time to time, although topically the psychoactivity won't affect you at all, because it can't get into your brain through your skin. Topically, there's a lot of creams and rubs and salves and balms, whatever you want to call it, out there that contain CBD, and then when you apply it externally onto whatever body part is inflamed, it can help that area, reduce the soreness, the pain, the inflammation, and help from that perspective. You'll see that those are actually quite, quite popular, and you may have even tried it. It can help with muscle relaxation, so if you have a really tight muscle, a chronically tight muscle, you might want to try some CBD cream on it and help it relax. It can help with, again, inflammation. If you have something you suspect is a little bit inflamed from a really intense workout, or maybe you did a lot of yard work, like I did, and certain things are screaming because they don't get used very often, then that might be a place you want to apply a CBD topical for recovery. Again, the benefit is it's not psychoactive. Even if it's THC, it can't get to your bloodstream or into your brain like that through your skin, so you don't have to worry about that, but both CBD and THC have anti-inflammatory properties, and they're very well known for pain relief. In fact, one of the more traditional ways we've heard about THC is through helping people who are going through chemotherapy, because there's quite a bit of discomfort when you go through chemotherapy between the nausea and the pain, and just general discomfort. It's been shown to help with that, and now we're applying it to all the other areas of our life that we experience discomfort, and exercise can be one of those, and I don't want that to be the reason why you're not exercising. Again, if you're so sore from your workout that you're not able to do the next day's workout or you're struggling to function in daily life, then you need to look at your recovery. We need to look at how much sleep are you getting. We need to look at what are you eating afterwards, how quickly are you eating. Can we get CBD into you quickly after you work out and see if that helps, because there's a lot of factors, and as I always say too, cannabis is a tool. It's an exceptional tool, but it's just a tool. There's lots of ways and reasons that we could recover better. Sleep is huge. If you're not sleeping, then your body doesn't have time to recover and repair, so sleep is huge. That's probably the number one thing I would look at, but then number two is what happens if we add CBD, and if you're already taking CBD, then you're already getting the benefits of this, so exercise recovery, just to kind of sum it up, is super, super important. More is not better. More is not better. More is just more, and sometimes more is less, because if we're not recovering, then we're not going to get the gains, and if you're on a weight loss journey and you're trying to exercise every day because you think more is better, then you're probably going to find out that it does the opposite, and you're not going to lose weight because your body's going to be in survival mode, and it's going to think that you're struggling to survive, and it's going to keep all of your weight on you, so it'll actually have the opposite effect. It'll keep the weight on you, so learning to recover is important. Learning how to optimize your recovery with your nutrition and adding CBD, and some people, if you enjoy smoking your cannabis or inhaling your cannabis, I'll say, some people love to have a joint or a vape after they work out, and that's another way to get it into your system, so everybody is different, and if you want to put it in a drink, that's great. If you want to inhale it, that's great. You do you, what feels best for you, but all in all, make sure that you're optimizing your recovery as part of your overall fitness program. So, that's it for today. If you have any questions or if you need help recovering from your fitness, let me know. Reach out. Send me an email. Get in touch. I'd love to chat about it. I'd love to help. I can be reached at Beth at Cannafitnessnutrition.com is my email, and on Instagram, I am Beth underscore Cannafitnessnutrition, and if you know someone that needs help recovering, then share this with them. I would love that. Let's help other people, and let's make the world a better place, a healthier place, and let's have us all feel better. So, have a wonderful day, and I will see you next time.