Ashwagandha to aid modern life and physical performance

In this article we are going to look at the herb Ashwagandha and whether it can help support your health and performance goals. Ashwagandha has been used to help with a whole host of conditions and symptoms, and for that reason it has been known as the King of herbs in Ayurvedic medicine.

Ashwagandha’s role in managing stress and anxiety

One of the main areas that Ashwagandha has shown benefits is that of stress and anxiety. Modern day life pressures have added to the load on our mental health, with many people suffering with anxiety on a regular basis.

Using only pills to try and manage stress and anxiety is certainly not what we recommend here at Fit For Films. Mental health is a serious and growing area of concern, likewise we are becoming more and more aware of the physiological effects of stress on the system. If you feel stressed and overwhelmed, then you should look to speak to someone about this and consider working with a professional who can help in this area.

In addition to that, I believe that Ashwagandha can play a supportive role in helping you to manage stress, lower anxiety and improve mood.

In this study, it was demonstrated that 300mg of Ashwagandha extract taken for 60 days, in those with chronic stress, was able to improve all tested parameters and also lowered one of our stress hormones cortisol by 27.9%. Another study demonstrated that a total of 600mg taken daily, resulted in over a 50% reduction in anxiety symptoms. This study saw significant improvements in both depression and anxiety symptoms when using a total of 500mg daily.

For males, an area that is rarely spoken about is the impact of stress on male reproductive health, both sex hormones and the sperm health. Ashwagandha, because of its stress reducing and potentially antioxidant effects, has been shown to improve male fertility in infertile stressed men.

As a practitioner, I have seen Ashwagandha work particularly well, especially with those will chronic stress and anxiety.

Ashwagandha and Physical Performance

Another reason we at Fit For Films really like Ashwagandha, are the physical performance benefits that have been noted as well.

500mg dose has been shown to improve power output, speed of sprints, reducing time to exhaustion as well as improving VO2 max. These are all key players in understanding ones physical performance and performance potential.

In another study, a group using Ashwagandha vs a group using placebo demonstrated improved muscle recovery & muscle size.

One of my personal favourite stacks is combining Magnesium with Ashwagandha. This works particularly well to support those with sleep issues, especially sleep issues associated to stress and anxiety.

You can read more about magnesium specifically here.

This article was written by Steve Grant.
You can read more of Steve’s articles and learn about his specialist areas and experiences using the link below.
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