While smoking or eating weed has long been thought to lead to the munchies and zoning out on the coach, a new large study presents evidence that marijuana may actually be a great way to help people exercise.
Think we’re just blowing smoke? Well, let’s break this down.
Researchers in Colorado, where weed is legal, sought people in their state and other places where cannabis can be consumed legally and began asking questions. About 600 people filled out a questionnaire, with one of the queries asking if people thought marijuana and working out mix well together. And that connection was overwhelming, according to this article:
…almost 82 percent of them said that they used cannabis around the time of their workouts.
This group tended to be younger, leaner and more often male than those who did not use marijuana in conjunction with exercise. They also exercised more often and imbibed or slathered on more cannabis.
And about 70 percent of them reported that using marijuana increased their enjoyment of workouts, while nearly 80 percent felt it enhanced their recovery, and more than half were convinced it motivated them to be physically active.
Did it also make them better athletes? That was more mixed:
Only about 35 percent, though, held that it actually raised their exercise performance.
Still, the correlation between getting high and then pursuing a cardio high is hard to ignore, even if this questionnaire was from self-reported fans of reefer.
We still have other questions; What exercises were they doing? Were they more prone to injury exercising while baked? Did being stoned prevent them from getting a more efficient workout? We expect all those questions and more to be answered in the near future as more studies like this start coming out.
