ending "Stoner" Stigma

Women are busy. After a long day of working, running around kids, or running a company it’s hard to find the motivation to head straight to the gym. For many women, self-care ends up being the easiest thing to put on the back burner. So often we’re faced with the question, relaxation or working out? A smoke session or the gym? Both are forms of self-care serving very different purposes and it turns out a relationship between cannabis and exercise may be closer than we think.

Less than thirty percent of all Americans achieve the recommended amount of exercise each week. With numbers this low and cannabis legalization happening around the country – questions began to circulate around a possible link between the two. Researchers found quite the opposite of what many would assume. A relationship between cannabis and working out yielded better results – working out more often and most importantly, actually enjoying it.

The generalization of cannabis users is of course the couch potato, overeating, and unproductive. While there isn’t much scientific literature regarding cannabis and exercise, there have been a few relative studies proving this theory absolutely wrong. Some like, the research published in Frontiers in Public Health, have shown that cannabis users are actually linked to lower BMI’s and increased levels of exercise. Out of the 600 individuals that were surveyed, more than 80% reported using cannabis within an hour of beginning a workout or within four hours of ending one.

Many people tend to shy away from weekly exercise for the obvious reasons – it’s
uncomfortable, the treadmill is boring, or they flat out just don’t like it. However, people that used marijuana within four hours of a workout reported feeling more motivated and felt higher levels of enjoyment during their workout. According to researchers, this could potentially be caused by the activation of pathways involved in feeling reward and pain response in the brain.

Is anyone else beginning to think joints may need to be added to your workout regimen? After all this is your self-care, it should be catered to you. Knowing a perfectly rolled joint is waiting for you post-workout will leave you feeling motivated and rewarded. While few puffs prior to working out will help you feel more relaxed and will definitely help cure that gym boredom. It may even push you to go the extra mile on the treadmill, literally.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00099/full