June 10, 2022

Can CBD Improve Your Performance in The Gym?

With the popularity of CBD on the rise, you might be itching to try it.

Although it's true that nothing beats a healthy diet and quality sleep, CBD may have some benefits that you'll find interesting.

Before trying, an important thing to consider is seeing how CBD may affect your workout, especially if you're an athlete or an avid gym-goer.

What Is CBD?

CBD is one of the chemicals found in Cannabis, along with the more-famous THC. While THC has psychoactive properties, CBD doesn't have them at all. Some forms of CBD oil might contain a bit of THC, but most supplements are made from industrial hemp, which has a really low percentage of THC.

It comes in many forms: from pills and capsules, oils and edibles, to creams and vape pens.

You should probably be aware of the fact that the CBD industry is mostly unregulated, meaning that the dosages on the label might not be correct. Your best bet is to find a reputable manufacturer and stick with them if everything is fine.

It’s reported that CBD helps with anxiety, ADHD, schizophrenia, PTSD, and sleep problems.

CBD As a Pre-Workout

Taking CBD before a workout is probably a really bad idea, and here’s why.

While certain blogs may tell you that it lowers blood pressure and how that’s a benefit, it’s bad to lower your blood pressure during a training session.

To get any benefits from working out, we must stress our bodies. Our blood pressure going up is a natural process that helps us pump blood to our muscles faster. So just like breathing heavily during a workout session is expected, increasing your blood pressure is too.

If you’re suffering from hypertension, exercising can potentially help lower it, but getting a personal trainer and consulting your doctor is the best thing you can do.

CBD For Recovery & Post-Workout

Using CBD to recover from a hard workout session can actually be great for some people.

According to Kimberly A. Babson and colleagues, preliminary research shows that CBD supplements might help with insomnia, excessive daytime sleepiness, and even REM sleep behavior disorder.

All of this means that CBD may improve the quality of your sleep, which is a fantastic thing if we consider how big of a role sleep plays in making gains.

Along with nutrition, getting quality sleep is most important when it comes to recovering from a workout. The body rebuilds itself the most during sleep. Therefore, it’s obvious that a sleep disorder will affect the quality of your workouts and impact the quality of your whole life.

CBD supplements also have an anti-inflammatory effect on your body. You can use it to treat joint and muscle pain, the best forms of CBD for such a task being topicals and tinctures.

This might be useful for athletes who aren't looking to gain muscle mass, but it's not ideal for the regular gym-goer.

If we aren't talking about an injury, inflammation is a normal and healthy response to training. Since we basically damage our muscles and connective tissues during the workout, our body calls for inflammation to start the healing process. The inflammatory process increases the blood flow to the affected muscles and joints and therefore clears out the waste from our muscles and fuels them with more energy.

Although a vital process in building muscle, it’s a great idea to reduce inflammation if you’re an athlete. Most athletes don’t want to gain too much muscle (bodybuilding-like size) because it may have the potential of slowing them down.

Using a natural anti-inflammatory supplement like CBD, you can reduce the damage done to your muscles and head into your next sports competition or training more recovered.

Conclusion

A lot more research needs to be done for us to fully grasp the effect of CBD on our training. While this is true, our knowledge of exercise physiology can give us insights into how this type of supplementation may affect us.

The World Anti-Doping Agency removed CBD from its banned substance list, so we are seeing many athletes start to use it instead of artificial anti-inflammatory drugs or other recovery aids.

Its anti-inflammatory properties aren't ideal for someone doing bodybuilding, but if you're training for strength or explosiveness, it can be another tool used for recovery.

CBD might help if you're suffering from sleep or anxiety problems, ADHD, and everything else mentioned in this article.

As mentioned before, it's important to note that the CBD supplementation industry isn't regulated. Along with dosage mislabeling, other cannabinoids might be present in the supplements, even though the label doesn't say so.

This can be a huge problem for athletes competing in tested federations.

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When Average Training Habits Limit Your Progress

June 6, 2025

Discover how five common training habits limit progress—and what to do instead. Coach Jim, a leading personal trainer in Nashville, shares expert insights for smarter fitness results.

A man and a woman are sitting on a bench in a gym talking to each other.

What Does Functional Training Actually Mean (If Anything at All)?

May 2, 2025

A Guide from a Personal Trainer in Nashville Functional training originally focused on improving real-life movement patterns like lifting, climbing, and carrying. Today, however, the term is often misused. In this guide, Coach Jim—a leading personal trainer in Nashville —breaks down what functional training really means, clears up common myths, and shows you how to build workouts that truly improve strength, mobility, and everyday performance. The Real Origins of Functional Training Functional training started in rehabilitation settings. Physical therapists needed to help patients regain the ability to perform daily tasks—getting up from chairs, climbing stairs, carrying groceries—safely and independently. From there, the concept moved into strength and conditioning , especially for athletes. Coaches began designing programs that mimicked the movements, speeds, and forces encountered in sport, believing that exercises should reflect the demands athletes face outside the gym. It made sense: real-world movement is multi-planar, integrated, and often performed under load or fatigue. Training that mirrors those challenges better prepares people for life outside the gym—a philosophy I bring to my personal training Nashville programs. Where It Went Wrong Fast forward to today, and "functional training" is so watered down it’s almost meaningless. You'll hear it attached to bootcamps, TikTok trends, and group fitness classes that may or may not have any real connection to improving real-life function . Here’s the problem: ➔ Functional for whom? ➔ Functional for what purpose? A competitive powerlifter needs a different kind of "functional" than a 70-year-old wanting to garden pain-free. A baseball pitcher needs different movement skills than a new mom recovering from back pain. Without context, "functional training" becomes vague, subjective, and often misleading—even for people searching for fitness training in Nashville today. Principles Over Buzzwords Rather than asking is this functional training?, it’s better to ask: Does this follow good training principles? Here’s what matters: Specificity: Does it target the movement patterns, energy systems, and qualities the person needs? Transferability: Will the adaptations carry over to real-world tasks, sports, or injury resilience? Progressive Overload: Is it challenging enough to promote strength and adaptation over time? Movement Quality: Does it reinforce good mechanics, posture, and control? Individualization: Is it tailored to the person’s needs, abilities, and goals? If a program checks these boxes, it's functional —no matter what it’s called. This is the exact approach I use with my Nashville personal training clients —focusing on principles that deliver real-world results, not gimmicks. Common Misconceptions About Functional Training Let’s clear up a few myths that still float around: Myth #1: Machines aren’t functional. Machines can be incredibly useful, especially for early rehab or hypertrophy-focused phases. They allow targeted loading without high stability demands—which can support real-world function depending on how they’re used. Myth #2: More instability = more function. Training on BOSU balls and wobble boards has its place (think ankle rehab or proprioception drills). But constantly destabilizing exercises? Not necessary. Most life (and sports) happens on stable ground. Stable surfaces allow better loading, strength gains, and neuromuscular coordination—what I emphasize in all my personal training Nashville TN programs. Myth #3: Functional training avoids heavy lifting. Quite the opposite. Functional training often involves lifting heavy—because strength matters for almost everyone. Farmers need grip strength. Athletes need power. Older adults need the ability to carry groceries or get off the floor. Load isn’t the problem. Poor application is. So, Should We Keep the Term "Functional Training"? The term can still have value—if it's clearly defined and applied correctly. At its best, it reminds us that training should serve a purpose beyond just aesthetics. It emphasizes integrated movement patterns, core control, joint stability, and real-world carryover—principles central to Nashville fitness training done the right way. But without that context? It's just another buzzword. The smarter move: Zoom in on function for the individual. A mother managing back pain needs different patterns than a CrossFitter chasing PRs. A retiree rehabbing a knee needs different strength work than a semi-pro athlete. Good training doesn’t chase trends. It meets the person where they are—and builds from there. Final Thoughts Functional training started with a powerful goal: ➔ Help people move better , live better , and perform better . But over time, its meaning has been blurred by trends, marketing, and misapplication. Today, smart training isn’t about chasing trends. It's about asking better questions: Is this training functional for the client’s real-world needs?