Cannabis and Fitness

Most people are already thinking, how can cannabis be helpful or useful for fitness? Well, with more legalization comes more acceptance, with more acceptance comes the era of experimenting with cannabis and exercise! More people are trying cannabis, and even more, are using it in some way to help with their exercise and fitness goals.

This initially sounds counterintuitive because of the very outdated belief that stoners are lazy and more so that being “stoned” hinders activities. Turns out, they are HIGHly active people, there is even a study to prove it! A meta-analysis published in Preventative Medicine just last year in 2021, is one of the first studies to analyze the relationship between cannabis use and exercise. What they found is that cannabis users tend to work out more than people who don’t.

Experimenting with cannabis and fitness has been growing so fast, that a new label has already emerged, with this group of people called “stoner-cisers.” Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder were recruiting last December for people who like to run while stoned for a study. The name of their study is SPACE, which stands for Study on Physical Activity and Cannabis Effects. This will be so exciting to see what their research reveals!

Cannabis is already known for having mental and health benefits, so it makes sense that it would also help during physical activity. Many people have been reporting that cannabis use before exercise helps them concentrate better, stay more focused, and relieves anxious feelings. Many also report that the relaxed feeling that comes with using cannabis help with breathing, being more in tune with their body, and additionally helping them to better control movements.

The physical benefits are what most stoner-cisers are raving about. The main benefit is people are reporting feeling less pain. We all know cannabis is a wonderful alleviator of some aches and pain, but people using it for exercise, they feel they can do more exercise and sometimes for longer periods of time. This is especially true for some exercises that involve impact, like when runners are coming down on their feet with each step, less pain is felt throughout the feet and legs. People are reporting this to also be true with stretching and weights, as less pain is being felt they feel they can run longer, stretch better, and lift better.

Topicals that contain CBD, THC or a combination of both are, yet another way cannabis can be an aide to exercise. As mentioned, cannabis helps alleviate some aches and pain when inhaled or eaten, but the same is true when applied topically to the skin. Topicals can help alleviate muscle soreness and tenderness.

Some exercises can cause inflammation, especially in the joint areas. The topicals can penetrate the skin, whereas the cannabinoids can utilize their anti-inflammatory properties. This all can help with faster recovery and many athletes have begun using cannabis topicals within the last few years.

If you need more proof that cannabis may help or enhance your workouts, here it is! The U.S. anti-Doping Agency formally states on their website, “based on current animal and human studies as well as on interviews with athletes and information from the field, cannabis can be performance-enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines.” However, since one of America’s top sprinters, Sha’Carri Richardson failed for marijuana just before competing in the Olympics, WADA announced they would review cannabis’ status on the list of banned substances. In 2018, WADA removed CBD from their banned list.

Word of caution on how much cannabis is used and what method of consumption is best for exercise. Most people do not get super stoned before going to the gym unless they already have a tolerance built up. If you are new to experimenting, go low and slow.

Start with a few puffs, then see how your workout goes, increase, or decrease as you feel needed. Generally, edibles are not recommended because sometimes they take too long to kick in and their effects can be so unpredictable! And to the iron lung smokers with insane tolerances, you keep doing you.

So, is cannabis a performance enhancer for exercise and sports? Most likely not, but as more people are experimenting with it in different forms and diverse types of exercise there is a conclusive agreement that cannabis helps with some minor pain relief, quietens the mind for better focus and concentration, and lastly there does seem to be evidence that it can help with faster recovery.