Cannabis may make workouts more fun, but it doesn’t improve performance

A little weed before a workout can boost motivation and make exercise more enjoyable. But if performance is the goal, it might be best to skip that joint.

That’s the takeaway from the first-ever study to examine how legal, commercially available cannabis shapes how exercise feels.

The study of 42 runners, published on December 26 in the journal Sports medicinecomes almost exactly 10 years after Colorado became the first state to begin legal sales of recreational marijuana, at a time when cannabis users increasingly report mixing it with workouts.

“The bottom line is that cannabis before exercise appears to increase positive mood and pleasure during exercise, whether you use THC or CBD. But THC products can specifically make exercise more demanding ” said first author Laurel Gibson, a researcher at CU Center for Health and Addiction: Neuroscience, Genes and Environment (CU Change).

The findings, along with the team’s previous research, appear to defy long-standing stereotypes that associate cannabis with being “couch-bound” and instead raise an intriguing question: Could the plant play a role in inducing people to move?

“We have an epidemic of sedentary lifestyle in this country and we need new tools to try to get people to move their bodies in enjoyable ways,” said lead author Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and co-director of CU Change. “If cannabis is one of these tools, we need to explore it, keeping in mind both its harms and its benefits.”

“A unique study of its kind”

In a previous survey of cannabis users, Bryan’s research group found that 80 percent had used cannabis before or shortly after exercise. Yet very little research has been conducted at the intersection of the two.

For the study, Bryan and Gibson recruited 42 volunteers from the Boulder area who were already running while using cannabis.

After a baseline session, in which researchers took fitness measurements and survey data, they asked participants to visit a dispensary and collect either a designated flower strain containing primarily cannabidiol (CBD), i.e. a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) dominant variety.

THC and CBD are active ingredients in cannabis, with THC known to be more intoxicating.

During a follow-up visit, volunteers ran on a treadmill at a moderate pace for 30 minutes, periodically answering questions to assess their motivation, how much fun they were having, how hard the workout was , how quickly time seemed to pass, and their pain levels.

On another visit, they repeated this test after consuming cannabis.

Federal law prohibits the possession or distribution of marijuana on college campuses, so riders consumed it at home, before being picked up from a mobile lab, aka the “CannaVan,” and taken to the lab.

The runners also wore a seat belt on the treadmill.

“Not a performance-enhancing drug”

Overall, participants reported greater pleasure and more intense euphoria, or “runner’s high,” when they exercised after using cannabis.

Surprisingly, this heightened mood was even greater in the CBD group than in the THC group, suggesting that athletes may be able to benefit from some of the mood benefits without the impairments that can accompany THC.

Participants in the THC group also reported that the same running intensity was significantly more difficult during the cannabis run than during the sober run.

This could be because THC increases the heart rate, Bryan said.

In a previous study conducted remotely, she and Gibson found that although runners felt more pleasure under the influence of cannabis, they ran 31 seconds per mile slower.

“It’s clear from our research that cannabis is not a performance-enhancing drug,” Bryan said.

In particular, many elite athletes, including American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, have been banned from competing in recent years after testing positive for cannabis.

An NCAA committee recently recommended that it be removed from its list of banned substances.

A different kind of runner’s high

Why does cannabis improve exercise?

While natural pain-killing endorphins have long been attributed to the famous “runner’s effect,” more recent research suggests that this is a myth: instead, chemicals produced naturally in the brain, known as endogenous cannabinoids, are likely at play, manifesting after a prolonged period of physical activity. exercise to produce euphoria and alertness.

“The reality is that some people will never feel the runner’s effect,” notes Gibson.

By consuming CBD or THC, cannabinoids that bind to the same receptors as cannabinoids produced naturally by our brains, athletes may be able to harness this effect with a shorter workout or enhance it during a long workout. , she said.

Athletes considering using cannabis should be aware that it may carry risks, including dizziness and loss of balance, and that it is not for everyone.

For someone aiming for a quick 5K or marathon PR, it doesn’t really make sense to use it in advance, Bryan said.

But for an ultra runner just trying to get into a double-digit training run, it might be.

As a public health researcher, Bryan is particularly interested in the potential impact this could have on those who struggle to exercise, either because they cannot motivate themselves or because that it hurts, or because they just don’t like it.

“Is there a world in which taking a low-dose gummie before going for a walk might help? It’s too early to make general recommendations, but it’s worth exploring,” he said. she declared.