Marijuana and fitness: don’t think about playing marijuana and exercising

Today we will talk about marijuana, for many a medicine, for others a miraculous plant, for others a remedy, legal in some places, illegal in others, anyway …

The truth is that it seems to be more and more accepted, of course, a few years ago, few people heard about the drug use of marijuana, and today, for example, cannabis oil for the treatment of various diseases is what you are already talking about heard. ..

There are countries and states that have even legalized it, but hey, today we’re not going to talk about legalizing it or not, but what it has to do with fitness and how it might affect you!

From now on, we want to make it clear that we do not want to promote the use of prohibited substances in our country (Argentina) at all, we are only going to express our point of view and analyze some of the data on marijuana and suitability that over the years science has been recording for us.

Pros and cons of marijuana for fitness

Let’s start with the benefits that marijuana is said to have:

• relieves pain
• Reduces feelings of nausea
• improve mood
• Some athletes even use it to reduce anxiety and better tolerate pain so they can perform their workouts better

For negative parts:

• Many, on the other hand, claim to destroy motivation to exercise
• Another thing that makes them eat dorito while watching netflix on the couch instead of exercising or eating according to their plan.

Pros and cons of marijuana for fitness (what science says)

What is known is smoking or using marijuana:

• faster response time
• Impaired hand-eye coordination
• Visual perception deteriorates
• And promotes loss of concentration

And these effects can completely disappear up to 36 hours.

A study from 1976 compared the flying skills of pilots with or without marijuana use. Let’s be clear for doubts that were judged in a flight simulator and not in real life.

They performed various aerial maneuvers and it was found that pilots who had previously smoked increased the number of small and large mistakes they made and deviated more from flight patterns. they were prescribed compared to those who only smoked placebo cigarettes without marijuana (2) ..

Since we’re going to learn something, right? As the real reason for these problems for concentration;)

Cognitive impairment can be explained by changes in blood circulation in the brain. After smoking, there is a significant decrease in blood circulation in the temporal lobe (an important area responsible for concentration).

While it is also interesting how, at the same time, blood circulation is increased in other areas of the brain, such as the frontal lobe and cerebellum, in areas related to decision making, sensory perception, and sexual and emotional behavior.

And that’s why, if your sports practice or workout requires you to have good eye-hand coordination or maintain a high concentration, smoking marijuana was something that wouldn’t do you any good, but rather the opposite is yours. performance deteriorates and there may even be distraction injury.

And the truth is, any workout that you’re going to seriously train in requires you to stay focused for the entire time it lasts.

It is also important to remember that when smoking without vaporizers, vapors enter the respiratory tract at very high temperatures, which can damage them and even increase the risk of cancer. It also contains harmful chemicals such as nitrosamines and phenols, which, in our opinion, are not ideal for the athlete’s body, as they can directly affect your breathing ability (3).

And then we have a little more information that is not conclusive as there is no substantial evidence to actually show this to be the case, but we’ll let you know, just in case.

On the one hand, some studies have shown that it can affect muscle growth by limiting the effectiveness of factor MTor, which affects protein synthesis, but there is no concrete evidence to support this claim yet.

In addition, it seems that smoking marijuana can affect testosterone secretion, but at very low levels and there is no research to demonstrate its long-term negative effects on hormone production

And finally, many people wonder if marijuana makes you fat. Research done so far has not shown that smoking makes you fat as such.

Final Recommendations on Marijuana and Fitness

On the one hand, it should be borne in mind that when you smoke many times, you have trouble controlling your impulses while eating, moreover, it is so well known that it has its own name in English, and they say “snacks”, which translates here in Argentina, we call it “el bajón”. (If you are reading this from another country it would be nice if you comment below as they say there.

Therefore, if you feel or rather know that you will end up eating more every time you smoke (or in a very high percentage of cases), you should evaluate whether to continue to do so or not, or at least not as often as it is not ideal for your physical goals.

In addition, in such cases, you will benefit from healthier and lower-calorie foods, such as fruits and jellies already cooked and ready to eat, instead of a dozen fried empanadas or milanese that can damage your waist …

And as a bonus, it would also be good to see if smoking is energizing or not, because most of the time people who smoke tend to want to scream and the last thing that comes to mind is they all go out to workout and give their all. so if this is your case, this might be another reason you should think twice if you are thinking about smoking.

So now you know that so far it has been shown not to use marijuana to optimize the performance of your workouts, and no research has been found to promote muscle development.

While many people also find it helpful because it helps them deal with anxiety and stress, if you ask us it doesn’t seem ideal that you are dependent on a medication to increase stress levels, we admit that in fact , for many it helps them and possibly helps them achieve their physical goals.

Also keep in mind the problem of the recession, which could possibly play against you, and nothing more, we hope it helped you!