Objectives:

Recovery between physical efforts is essential to achieving optimal performance in sports. Dietary supplements have been proposed to facilitate recovery and performance optimization, including the phytocannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD). This systematic review aimed to: a) systematize the scientific evidence related to the study of CBD, b) associate the biomedical properties of CBD with those required for optimal fatigue recovery, and c) recommend a future research agenda.

Methods:

An integrative systematic review was conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Searches of PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar combined keywords cannabidiol, sport, and recovery from 1990-2022. Studies providing first and second-level scientific evidence were included. After screening 1761 articles, 70 studies were selected for analysis, including preclinical, clinical, and review/meta-analysis designs. Key data extracted included study aims, methodology, dosing, and main results.

Results:

The 70 included studies comprised 38.6% preclinical, 31.4% clinical, and 30.0% reviews/meta-analyses, evaluating various populations including mice, rats, epileptics, and athletes. CBD has demonstrated anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, anxiolytic, and analgesic properties, which are potentially beneficial for athlete recovery. Doses ranging from 5 to 600 mg have been administered orally, intravenously, and via other routes. However, rigorous confirmatory research in athlete populations is lacking.

Conclusions:

CBD appears to have beneficial properties for athlete recovery, but further randomized placebo-controlled trials are needed to test the acute and chronic effects of different CBD dosing regimens. Future research should focus on CBD’s physiological mechanisms of action and comparative effectiveness versus conventional recovery medications. Advancing the scientific understanding of CBD’s role in athlete recovery could provide new therapeutic strategies.