If you are in search of a supplement to boost your health and athletic performance, then check out ashwagandha. Ashwagandha is Ayurvedic medicine that has had an outstanding track record for thousands of years. This plant powder is primarily taken to reduce stress and balance hormones in the body and has also proven to have excellent health and athletic benefits. Here are a couple of reasons you should consider adding ashwagandha to your supplement list.

Performance Benefits

Taking 300mg of ashwagandha a day for 12 weeks, based on its research, will successfully:

• Increase VO2 by 13 %.
• Increase strength by 15%.
• Improved muscular and nervous system recovery.
• Increase your testosterone naturally by about 15-20%
• Decrease body fat.
• Reduce inflammation in muscles.
• Enhance your immune system.
• Improve your quality of sleep.

So, how does ashwagandha help the body achieve so many different results?

Ashwagandha is an adaptogen plant. This means it helps balance and normalize hormones in your body to function properly and prevent harm. When hormone levels become imbalanced or too high, they have a detrimental effect on your health.

The primary way ashwagandha works is by regulating cortisol. Cortisol is essential for the body to function properly. However, the problem that practically everyone faces is, having too much cortisol released. For example, when you are stressed, cortisol gets released. If you are stressed all day, every day, then high cortisol is detrimental to your body. And the benefits previously mentioned above are all reversed for the worst.

Cortisol creates inflammation that makes your muscles and nerves tense, makes it harder to burn fat, disrupts sleep patterns, and inhibits the production and release of testosterone. As a result, you will feel tired, unhappy, and ill, instantly destroying your health, fitness gains, and athletic performance.

Another way cortisol becomes too high is from eating in an imbalanced way. For instance, consuming processed foods, meats, sugar, salt, caffeine, and alcohol. These foods cause inflammation and cortisol levels to rise above normal.

Here are a few more ways ashwagandha enhances your health.

1. Neurotropic Benefits

Ashwagandha helps relax your central nervous system. A relaxed nervous system results in better sleep, improved focus, enhanced memory, feeling good, preventing depression, etc. All these benefits can maximize your athletic performance and help you do well in school. In addition, Ashwagandha protects your brain against neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and dementia.

2. Boosts Energy, Enhances Stamina, and Extends Endurance

Ashwagandha is awesome to alleviate fatigue. It significantly enhances athletic performance by improving your cardiovascular and respiratory system function- affecting the heart and lung capacity to do more. In turn, endurance and energy improve

What are the downsides of ashwagandha?

Vulnerable populations, like pregnant and lactating women, should refrain from taking the supplement because it affects hormones.

Ashwagandha may negatively interact with many common medications, including immunosuppressants, thyroid medications, and sedatives.

Other side effects include an upset stomach, a drop in blood sugar, and a decrease in blood pressure. You should also avoid ashwagandha if you take heart medications or have IBS, diabetes, or a heart condition.

Autoimmune conditions, like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, should avoid taking ashwagandha. It could worsen the condition.

It is important to heed the warnings and understand the downsides because it directly affects your hormones. However, give it a try if you are healthy and don’t take medicines that counteract from taking supplements. The results are excellent.

Final Notes

Ashwagandha will help you feel relaxed, more productive, perform better, be more focused, sleep better, and repair your body faster.

Ashwagandha is legal, not banned anywhere, and available in powder or capsule form.

All you need is 300mg daily to reap the health and athletic performance benefits.

Remember, more is not better and will produce a countereffect. Balance optimizes function to produce maximal results. So, find the right balance for you.

For more information about nutrition, exercise, sport, and training, check out my YouTube channel- Balanced Body.