Cannabis and Muscle Mass: Is Pot the way to New Gains?

If you have been lifting weights for any amount of time, you understand how important it is to push yourself in training, to eat the right amount of food, and to rest and recover in order to come back to the gym stronger than before. What’s more, by now you understand how important it is to live an overall healthy lifestyle if you are to achieve your long-term physique goals. Provided that you’re constantly looking to up your game in the gym and achieve better results over time, you’re probably wondering how healthy cannabis habit can help you achieve your goals faster. The truth is, there is a number of ways you can combine marijuana with a bodybuilding lifestyle. Let’s take a look at some of the fundamentals of building muscle, and how marijuana can take your fitness game to the next level.

Proven ways to build muscle mass

First and foremost, let cover the basics to give you a foundation upon which you can build your healthy muscle-building cannabis lifestyle. There are several key principles of hypertrophy (muscle growth): training volume, intensity, frequency, recovery, and nutrition. These fundamentals will play a vital role in shaping your physique. Cannabis, of course, is a part of nutrition, but it affects everything from training and weight management, to sleep and recovery. If you want to maximize your muscle-building potential, you will need to optimize all of these variables. Let one slip through the cracks, and the results will suffer. Most importantly, you should know that proper eating will be instrumental. This is where marijuana comes in.

Complementing a bulking diet plan

To build muscle effectively and efficiently, you will not only need to train hard, but you will also need to complement your exercise program with adequate nutrition. Particularly, you will need to eat a lot. How much is a lot? It depends on a number of physiological factors, but the general rule of thumb is that you need to consume more calories that you expend on a daily basis. That said, eating large amounts of foods can be quite difficult. This is your golden opportunity to stay on track with your diet by taking advantage of the munchies. Indulging in recreational marijuana consumption will allow your appetite to rise, and thus help you stay in a caloric surplus. Be wary, though, you will need to watch what you eat. After all, an increased appetite is not an excuse for indulging in unhealthy foods.

The best way to recover after a workout

Post-workout recovery is by far one of the most important elements of a thriving fitness lifestyle. Weight training is extremely stressful for your muscles and central nervous system, which is why you might find it difficult to hit the same weights week after week. This is probably because you’re not recovering properly workout to workout. The key here, along with consuming enough healthy supplements and micronutrients such as vegan protein is to let your body relax by using cannabis as an aid to relieve muscle tension and total-body fatigue. Combining marijuana with a protein-rich diet is one of the best ways to maximize your recovery potential, repair damaged muscle tissue, and banish fatigue along with muscle soreness. This way, you will be able to come back to the gym ready and willing to set new records and make more gains. Cannabis and performance anxiety There is no denying that training with heavy weights can be daunting. This problem becomes even more apparent if you’re going for a new personal record, if you’re prepping for a particularly grueling workout, or worse, if you’re preparing for a competition. These are the debilitating scenarios that can make you nervous, scared, and even make you lose focus. And focus is what you need the most. As a powerful relaxant, marijuana can have numerous profound benefits for your psychological and emotional well-being, especially during periods of chronic or acute stress. By taking a low-to-moderate dose of CBD prior to a training session, you can effectively ease your troubled mind, banish anxiety, and get your head in the game for those big lifts.

Improve your results by hacking your sleep cycle

And finally, as a lifter, you should understand that proper sleep plays a vital role in your long-term health, progress, and success. Quite simply, if you’re not sleeping enough or if your sleep schedule is completely out of order, your performance and results are going to suffer. To prevent this, you need to go to bed at the same time every night, and sleep a solid seven-to-nine-hour cycle. This is a difficult goal to achieve, especially if you’re leading a hectic lifestyle, so use pre-bed cannabis to empty your mind of stress and anxiety, and to relax your entire body for a rejuvenating night’s sleep.

Final thoughts

There are many benefits to combining marijuana with exercise, but nobody seems to be talking about the profound impact cannabis can have on your muscle-building journey. Use these tips to optimize your time in and out of the gym, and pave the road to new muscle gains in the future.