Men’s Journal aims to feature only the best products and services. We update when possible, but deals expire and prices can change. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission. Questions? Reach us at shop@mensjournal.com. Sponsored content
As an athlete, your focus is built around staying calm, confident, and in control. Sometimes you have to dig deep to stay in the game but no matter how hard a training session is, you walk away from it feeling triumphant. Part of regular training to keep up with agility and keep yourself disciplined is inflammation. This natural response helps to protect your body but when it becomes chronic, your body becomes susceptible to disease. Below, we highlight the best CBD gummies for inflammation and include different types of CBD options, including broad-spectrum, full-spectrum, and CBD isolate. There are a variety of different flavors to choose from and each formula is slightly different, so you can decide which one is best suited for you.
These are some of our favorite picks when it comes to fighting inflammation and pain in your body.
CBDistillery is all about its distillation process. They focus on extracting the beneficial plant compounds and vital nutrients that improve your quality of life, creating a product for every athlete who suffers from pain; from inflammation in professionals to the elderly athlete. CBDistillery’s mission is to provide an alternative path to a healthy and balanced life.
Founded in 2016 by a team of Colorado natives, CBDistillery came to fruition to provide high-quality CBD gummies and other products to their customer base at a fair price. They pioneered the #CBDMovement, which has well over 1,000,000 mentions on social media.
CBDistillery follows extremely rigorous quality assurance and testing to ensure only the highest quality products make it to market. With each product, you can scan a QR code to see their third-party test results and confirm quality and potency.
These high-quality CBD gummies come in a 30-count jar and contain 25mg of CBD and 5mg of THC per gummy. They’re lightly sugar coated with a berry flavor that’s meant to enhance but not mask the natural terpene flavor that comes with CBD. These are designed to aid post-workout recovery, allowing you to get a relaxing and restful night’s sleep.
That terpene flavor is thanks to CBDistillery purposefully including terpenes in this formula. They do this so that you can experience all the benefits that the hemp plant has to offer.
Customers rely on this formula to help them relax sore muscles and enable a better night’s sleep. They find that they deliver rapid relief and are very calming and relaxing. They pair well with an active lifestyle, especially for athletes, who need extra support during their recovery periods. One customer uses these gummies as the perfect boost to keep CBD flowing through his system in between tinctures. Nearly all customers rate the product as highly effective and mention a great customer experience.
Driven by the passion to make plant-based wellness accessible to everyone, Extract Labs remains grounded in science. This company was founded by a combat veteran and has recently made the Inc. 5000 America’s Fastest Growing Veteran-Owned Business Vet100 list. His name is Craig Henderson. He developed an interest in cannabis when he realized that it had the potential to assist other veterans. However, he was more interested in creating products without psychoactive effects. He started in a corner in his garage, where most of our projects start. He was able to scale rather quickly and soon thereafter, Extract Labs was born.
These are the best CBD gummies designed for daily support. They contain 1000 mg of full spectrum CBD to relieve stress, keep your mood up, and improve overall wellness. The flavors are assorted and include lemonade, mixed berry, and orange cream. The nutrition facts are clearly listed on the bottle with each gummy containing only 15 cal. These are non-GMO ingredients that are manufactured in a cGMP facility. On the bottom of the lid, you can view the batch ID, which helps you verify the lab tests. Just below the image of the bottle, there is an option to “View Lab Test,” so you can verify the total cannabinoid content on the spot.
Customers love using this product for a variety of reasons. It helps to relieve discomfort, alleviates even severe pain like sciatic nerve pain, and it helps with sleep after a hard day of exercise. The benefits range from person to person and overall, the feedback points to the CBD gummies working in a tailored way to help each person with the ailment they’re struggling the most with. One customer used these CBD gummies for pain. They helped to reduce swelling after he had an ankle/foot surgery. Five stars all around for this product.
Birthed in the mountains of Evergreen, Colorado, Pure Spectrum is a company who lives and breathes nature — so they’re committed to ensuring that their ingredients are of the highest quality. With family farms spread out across America, Pure Spectrum prides itself on cultivating the best hemp derived products through rigorous third-party testing and state-of-the-art processing facilities.
One of the most potent gummies on the market, each gummy contains 25mg of CBD, ensuring that post-workout inflammation will be fought right at the source. Made with natural flavor extract from mango, watermelon, green apple and lemon, each gummy is packed with deliciousness.
Customers rave about this product, with one verified customer stating that it’s the only product that’s helped with their back pain. It also helps customers get a deep, restful sleep — so no more tossing and turning after a hard workout.
FOCL has a singular mission and that’s to support your peak performance. Obviously, when you feel better, you can beat all your personal bests. That’s why they put together a team of passionate high performers who know what supplements a healthy life requires. They put together a list of products to support a healthy mind and a healthy body, so you can keep your focus on everything that’s important. Every time you show up feeling your best, you can make it to the next level both at the gym and at work.
These CBD fruit chews come in assorted flavors that include orange cream, strawberry, and wild berry. There are 30 gummies per bottle with 10 mg of CBD per gummy. These are designed to help your mind and body relax so that you can relieve everyday stressors, keep your focus, keep a stable mind, and relax to fall asleep more quickly. When you’re dealing with injuries, you need proper rest to recover. With a daily dose, you can enjoy higher quality sleep for faster recovery.
Customers comment on the consistency of these fruit chews. Some take them in the morning to start their day while others prefer to take them in the evening when they’re ready to wind down. They love the flavors and have to keep them hidden away from their kids and spouses, so no one takes their CBD away from them. Keep these in your gym bag or your medicine cabinet to make sure sneaky hands don’t get at them.
CBDfx was founded by Ali Esmaili and Jameson Rodgers in 2014 when they realized that there was space in the market to create the finest, purest, and most effective CBD products. They started in San Fernando Valley, California, and are now recognized as the second largest privately held CBD company in the world. Talk about overachieving. They figured out their formula just like you figured out yours.
These CBD gummies with turmeric and spirulina come in a bottle of 60 gummies total. The bottle contains 1500 mg of broad-spectrum CBD, with 50 mg of CBD per serving. Each serving also contains 50 mg of turmeric and 20 mg of spirulina. You get the benefits of CBD alongside antioxidants to keep your health up. The anti-inflammatory properties help to make this product more potent, especially if you’re dealing with chronic pain.
Customers rely on these high-quality CBD gummies to manage chronic pain like back pain and arthritis. Although often debilitating, chronic pain conditions don’t have to stop you from keeping active. One customer shares that these gummies have been effective in reducing pain and stiffness and allowing him to tackle his days the way he did before the chronic pain. He’s 73 years old and not ready to stop being active. His only complaint is the texture but because they work so well, it’s not enough of a deterrent for him.
Green Roads was founded by Laura Fuentes, who spent over 20 years as a licensed compounding pharmacist before she made it her personal mission to focus on CBD products. From the start, she was creating unique formulations to help people like you find the healthiest version of themselves through the power of plants. Green Roads focuses on consumer advocacy, and they push for stricter requirements so that you have greater transparency when it comes to the CBD products you ingest. Whenever you purchase a product from Green Roads, you can trust that it is safe, pure, and tested.
These extra-strength CBD gummies come in a bear shape and in an assortment of different flavors including green apple, orange, lemon, cherry, and blue raspberry. Each bear contains 25 mg of CBD isolate, which is more than two times the strength of the original formula. When you spend your time lifting heavy weights, you need support for recovery. These “relax bears” deliver exactly that.
Challenging your body daily means that you also deal with pain and discomfort. Customers love that they can rely on a natural product like these relax bears to relieve pain and keep them on track with their goals. One customer suffered an injury, and his physical therapist recommended these specific CBD gummies. Not only did they taste good, but they took the edge off, kept him fully present, and focused on full recovery.
Founded by a naturopathic doctor, MaryAnn Stanger, Zatural is focused on delivering therapeutic natural products to its consumer base. MaryAnn’s interest in CBD came after she went through a midlife crisis and decided to study everything she could about health and nutrition. She went back to school and focused on a variety of different modalities until she received her naturopathic doctor’s degree in 1997. Although she recognizes that CBD is certainly not a cure-all, she Knows firsthand how miraculous it is. Her hope is that she can bring a little relief to you or to those you love.
These full spectrum CBD gummies come in a 30-count jar that contains a total of 600 mg of CBD. They are sweet with a natural berry flavor, and you can purchase higher count jars up to 90 gummies. These are formulated with vegan ingredients and are specifically for easing discomfort, improving mood, improving sleep quality, and helping you relax after putting your body through the special kind of hell only cross-fitters enjoy.
When you’re constantly putting your body through rigorous activities, discomfort becomes a part of your life — both when you’re in the thick of a WOD and during the aftermath, as your body works to recover. One customer loves that these are great tasting. He suffers from chronic pain and uses this product daily to keep his pain level manageable. This allows them to keep going out to enjoy his life. Although he doesn’t train as hard as he used to, with these gummies, he’s able to keep up with his active lifestyle.
Koi CBD has been setting CBD quality standards since 2015. They are proud members of the U.S. Hemp Roundtable Board of Directors, Hemp Industries Association, and the California Hemp Council. They sourced their hemp extract through a very strict vendor validation process. That means all their products are infused with hemp that is both grown and extracted in the U.S. These processes they have in place allow them to provide their customer base with the finest CBD oil available on the market today. Each batch of their CBD offers full traceability, from where it’s grown to how it’s produced. They are proud to call themselves ambassadors of responsible farming, extraction, and distribution.
The Koi complete full spectrum CBD gummies are available in a 20-count jar that contains 500 mg of CBD and 100 mg of THC. You can select from three popular flavors, including pineapple, pomegranate, or grape. These gummies contain Delta-9 THC along with other minor cannabinoids to create an even stronger entourage effect. They are designed to keep you balanced day-to-day and provide you with the relief you seek post-workout.
One of the first things customers comment on is the flavor of these gummies. They seem to love the grape gummies the most and share that they’re excited to try the other flavors. Some people take them at the end of the day when they’re ready to wind down and get some good rest. After running for miles in the evening, one customer includes these in his nighttime routine to ease him out of runner’s high and into the sweetest sleep.
Cheef Botanicals believes in going back to our roots. This includes the incorporation of natural, healthy alternatives to support wellness. They believe in the healing power of safe and effective cannabinoids, which are found in the hemp plant. They acknowledge that we’re in a huge health crisis and that the pharmaceutical industry has been at the forefront, misleading the public for years. Cheef Botanicals strives to only share the truth about natural alternatives, and they prioritize education, so consumers know exactly what they’re getting. Your body is meant to have equilibrium and that’s why they focus on delivering CBD products to help you reach and maintain homeostasis. This company was founded by a group of health-conscious cannabis enthusiasts and together, they boast 25 years of experience in the organic food industry.
Cheef Botanicals offers two different types of gummies. The first is their gummy cubes, which contain full spectrum CBD oil and come in assorted flavors, including elderberry, kiwi, guava, blueberry, and strawberry. The bottle contains 30 gummies with 10 mg of CBD per gummy. You can always choose a more concentrated option because they have these gummies available in concentrations up to 1500 mg of CBD. The other gummies they offer are similar, but you can get them in a concentration as high as 3000 mg of CBD. Each option is 100% organic and natural and if you’re not completely satisfied, they offer a guarantee.
Customers are excited to have found a product that works. Even first-time customers are pleased with how soothing this formula is and with how awesome their customer service experience was. From quelling anxiety to alleviating pain related to sore knees, these CBD gummies are doing what they’re supposed to.
When you’re pushing your limits so frequently and exerting yourself to the point of exhaustion, you need those rest days to help you recover. With Just CBD, your physical and mental stress become a lot more manageable because you’re able to relax and let your body do what it’s designed to do to get you back on track and ready for the week ahead. This company offers free shipping on all orders over $35, they always third-party lab test their products, and they derive their CBD from organic and domestic hemp.
You don’t indulge often but every once in a while, a champagne brunch is an order. Even if you don’t drink alcohol, these gummies give you that easy-on-Sunday-morning vibe because they’re strawberry champagne flavored and contain 300 mg of CBD per bag. They’re formulated so that you can enjoy six to eight hours of total relief on your rest day.
Customers love these CBD gummies because they help them get the rest they need so that they can wake up refreshed and ready to tackle their goals for the next day. They also comment on how great the taste is because it has a soft, soothing texture and the aftertaste is pleasant.
To keep our focus on CBD gummies for inflammation in athletes, we had to identify three primary factors to help us put this list together.
Quality is everything. You know exactly what you’re putting in your body every day and hitting your macros requires precision. We weren’t going to recommend any shady products with vague ingredient lists. We’re talking to athletes, so we chose the best CBD gummies on the market. The companies that make them are transparent when it comes to their lab test results. CBD companies don’t have to conduct third-party lab testing and they don’t have to make those results available. However, those that do follow through with these protocols do so because they want you to know they are dedicated to creating honest, trustworthy, and effective products.
If the CBD gummies aren’t working, you may as well just be chewing on traditional candy. We took a look at the effectiveness of each of these CBD gummies and considered who they may be best suited for. We highlighted nine different types of CBD gummies, each one geared toward a specific purpose. We thoroughly reviewed the ingredients, highlighted any other beneficial components, like superfoods, and made sure that each product had a long list of raving reviews.
You know not to buy anything without first checking reviews. Before, it used to be primarily word-of-mouth but now we have a star rating system for nearly every product—and honest people are not afraid to tell it how it is. The reviews section is where you find specifics that aren’t included in standard product descriptions. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re extremely telling, and sometimes they make you so excited that you’re ready to click “buy” right away. We selected products that have an overwhelming number of happy customers who expressed their genuine gratitude for the benefits these CBD gummies bring into their lives.
Simply, athletes should consider CBD gummies because they promote balance in your body. You’re already working to keep your protein intake up, to make sure that you’re following up leg day with upper body exercises, and you always have a jug of water alongside you. Your entire life is a balancing act and it’s not just because you’re an athlete.
You might be a parent, an uncle, a boss, and a husband. There’s a lot going on in your life and achieving balance when you have so many things pulling at you is difficult, no matter how much of an expert you are at handling it all. CBD gummies help to restore homeostasis in your body to keep you healthy and ready to keep tackling whatever each new day brings. Below are just some of the benefits that athletes experience when they choose CBD gummies as part of their supplement regimen:
CBD has both anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is an appropriate response when you’ve put your body through a lot of stress but with excessive inflammation, you can end up with more damage than you anticipated. To prevent chronic inflammation from leading to disease, you can enjoy natural products like these CBD gummies, which clinical studies have confirmed reduce inflammation.
Pain is just part of the deal when you’re working hard and challenging yourself to reach new levels. But it doesn’t have to stop you when you have forward momentum. High-quality CBD gummies for pain help to reduce inflammation and they’re also known to significantly alleviate pain, both when it’s acute and chronic. If pain is part of your journey, pain relief should be too.
Discomfort can prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep—so can pre-workout when you take it too late in the day. It’s happened to the best of us. To help you relax, wind down, and get some good shut-eye, you can incorporate CBD gummies into your nighttime routine. CBD has been extensively studied and research shows that it promotes better sleep.
If you’re new to CBD, you should know upfront that it may take a little bit of trial and error before you find your perfect dose. The best way to start is with a consistent routine. Whether you choose to take your CBD gummies for pain in the morning or prefer to take them in the evening, it’s important that you remain consistent. Pair them with another one of your favorite supplements, so you don’t forget during those first critical few weeks. The best place to start is with the manufacturer’s recommendation. Each CBD formula is different, containing broad-spectrum, full spectrum, or CBD isolate. Additionally, the concentration of CBD is different from product to product so it’s always best to take heed and start with the recommended dosage.
Keep consistent and if after a week, you notice that you are not experiencing the relief that you need, increase your dose by a few milligrams. If your body requires it, you can keep going up in small increments over the next couple of weeks. Once you find that sweet spot, when you feel like the inflammation has gone down, your discomfort is fading, and you’re feeling better overall, mark that as your ideal dose and keep up with that new dose every week. You may find that the recommended dosage is perfect for you but feel free to make small adjustments over several weeks until you arrive at a dose that feels right for your body.
If you’re just getting started in the world of CBD, there are a few things you might be wondering. We’ve covered some of the basics for you.
There are three types of CBD. The first is full spectrum CBD, which includes all minor cannabinoids along with terpenes and a small percentage of THC. The second is a broad-spectrum CBD, which does incorporate some minor cannabinoids but leaves out any traces of THC. The third is a CBD isolate, which completely removes any minor cannabinoids, to create a pure extraction of CBD only.
CBD comes from the hemp plant, which is considered a cousin of the marijuana plant. CBD is primarily extracted from the flower of the cannabis plant and then it’s mixed with a carrier oil, such as MCT oil, which is derived from coconuts.
Yes, CBD is legal in the United States. This is because the 2018 Farm Bill allowed for the legalization of CBD products. This bill removed hemp as one of the controlled substances in the Controlled Substances Act. This change allowed for hemp and CBD to be legally cultivated throughout the United States. There are some different regulations from state to state, so be sure to double-check your state’s laws to confirm that CBD is okay to purchase and consume.
Sometimes, yes. Full spectrum CBD does contain minute traces of THC. If you’re looking for CBD products that don’t have any traces of THC, your best bet is to stick with broad-spectrum and CBD isolate products.
High-quality CBD gummies for pain are fantastic for a slow release of CBD’s medicinal properties that offer pain relief. They stay in your system for longer, but they also do take a little bit longer to take effect. You also have other options if you’d like to try additional CBD products to help with inflammation. They include:
Topicals are a great way to get targeted pain relief. If you have a specific area of your body that’s just killing you after you’ve killed it during training, you may want to reach for a topical that has either a cooling or warming sensation and that delivers CBD straight to the part of your body that needs relief.
If you’re feeling like you need to garner the benefits of CBD right away for pain relief, the most fast-acting CBD product, aside from vaping, is ingesting CBD sublingually. A CBD tincture is excellent for when you need relief right away. The effects don’t last as long as CBD gummies, but they do kick in a lot faster.
CBD gummies for pain travel through your digestive system, so they may take some time before you feel any pain relief. Typically, you can expect effects anywhere from one hour to two hours after you’ve adjusted CBD gummies.
This is a matter of personal preference. CBD gummies are effective whether you take them before your workout or after. If you choose to take CBD gummies before your workout, you’ll notice that you get a boost in your energy and a sense of relaxation throughout your muscles. If you choose to take it after, you can tackle the post-workout inflammation you normally experience. Some people prefer to take a small dose before and a small dose after—it’s all up to you.
On average, you can usually take between one and five CBD gummies per day. This is also dependent on the potency that you select. There isn’t a universal dosage because CBD works differently for different bodies. However, if you do take too many CBD gummies, you may experience side effects like gastrointestinal upset, nausea, and diarrhea. If you experience any uncomfortable side effects, try lowering your dose or discounting use.
That depends on the formula. Most CBD gummies have a sweet flavor that is usually associated with some type of fruit. Some of them are sweet while some can be a little bit sour. Some include terpenes, which gives them that earthy, herbaceous flavor while others may be CBD isolate products, which means there is a very little aftertaste.
No, CBD is not psychoactive. Even if you purchase CBD gummies that contain full spectrum CBD, the traces of THC are so small that they are essentially imperceptible. Some formulas, depending on the state you’re in, may incorporate higher amounts of THC. If you’re in a state where marijuana is legal for recreational use, then you may be able to purchase a CBD product with stronger concentrations of THC. If this is the case, you may get a slight buzz after ingesting a CBD plus THC product. Be sure to double check the THC concentration, particularly if you live in a state where marijuana is legal, just to be sure you don’t experience an accidental psychoactive effect you weren’t expecting.
Drug tests don’t typically look for CBD. They look for the psychoactive component of the marijuana plant, which is THC. There’s always a slight chance that if you ingest a product that contains THC, it’ll show up on a drug test. However, for most people, the THC content is so minuscule, that a drug test doesn’t pick it up.
CBD gummies for pain and inflammation may just be the supplement you need to keep you strong and going, even when you want to quit. As an athlete, that word isn’t even in your vocabulary. You can always slow down when needed, take recovery breaks, and then get right back at it. CBD gummies are formulated to keep you on the edge of your limits, ease discomfort when it flares, and keep your body balanced so you can handle the next big challenge. Are CBD gummies for you? Try them out and let us know!
Men’s Journal participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. Prices valid at time of publication but are subject to change.
Men’s Journal has affiliate partnerships so we may receive compensation for some links to products and services.
A360 Media Active Lifestyle Group