“It feels like gravity just got stronger.”
Famous first words immediately following my initial introduction to highness; Halloween, in the year 2000 (Grade 8).
Born and raised in Vancouver, I have come accustomed to activists, pot heads, haters, stoners, and those, indifferents. At my peak (high school), I smoked a little over a ¼ oz per day (think 5-7 respectable joints worth). I’ve also not partaken for months, and years at a time. You could say I have had my fair share of experiences. I don’t dive into this subject too much on the respiratory front with clients; primarily due to the fact, I don’t see it necessary to have the “why smoking is bad” conversation with a grown up.
Your opinions are just that, yours to share when the opportunity presents itself (here in the comment section).
Dr Jade Teta has tackled a few topics like this, and applies them to lifting. Take a read of 2 of my favourites:
http://www.t-nation.com/training/lifters-guide-to-marijuana
http://www.t-nation.com/diet-fat-loss/lifters-guide-to-alcohol
Here’s a few notes from the article:
- The Endocannabinoid System: controls pain sensation, appetite, temperature regulation, stress reactivity, immune function, and sleep as well as other processes. And perhaps even more interesting, muscle and fat tissue also utilize these receptors to control their processes.
- Research: Another confounding variable when studying marijuana is that very little research exists in the realm of randomized double-blind clinical trials with weight lifters. So, much of what you’re going to get from me here is extrapolation of research based on mechanism, animal studies and populations studies.
- Muscle & Performance Enhancement: Marijuana…
- Decreases reaction time
- Interrupts concentration
- Disrupts hand-eye coordination
- Reduces exercise capacity and time to exhaustion.
- These above effects have been shown to last up to 36 hours after usage.
- Affects Appetite & Recovery:
- This is interesting info for those who use marijuana and want to know which strains are most likely to send them on a 3,000 calorie midnight Taco Bell run. The hardgainer may love this effect, while the hard-loser may not.
- The two major strains of cannabis are indica and sativa. Indica has a lower level of THC compared to cannabidiol (CBD). Sativa is the reverse.
- Also, if you’re using marijuana to aid in overtraining and recovery, you may be interested to know that the high CBD strains have equal fatigue recovery merits as the high THC strains, but with much less appetite effects.
- So for a hardgainer looking to aid recovery and pack in the cals, high THC levels in the brain are best (i.e. sativa). For the person overtrained and wanting to minimize fat gain and lose weight, low THC and high CBD may be best (i.e. indica).
- There are some pretty striking difference in marijuana use and its effects between men and women:
- Men are more responsive to the appetite-stimulating effects compared to women.
- Men have lower sex drive and sexual behavior compared to women who have greater effects from use.
- Men get greater effects on energy homeostasis, which could mean greater chance of metabolic change in a positive or negative direction.
- Women have greater pain-reducing effects and more anxiety alleviation from pot.
At the end of all this, more research needs to be done, on everything. You know how things affect you individually. Weed is hardly something you should go out of your way to incorporate into your training/lifestyle; however if it’s something you are considering, or currently partaking in, here you go.
I approach it as I do cupcakes and scotch,
Chesty
Friday Lesson Plan
Preparation: 10 minutes
Coaches Choice
Strength/Skill: 25 minutes
A) Weighted Power Box Jumps 5×2
B) Backsquat 4×3
*Use same weight as Monday for both Jumps and Squats.
*Reminder: Do not allow weight to slow on route up.
Conditioning: 20 minutes
“Triple Up Relay”
Teams of 2. Trading off rounds.
8 Rounds:
250m Row
12 Front Squats 75/55
3 Muscle Ups
*Sprint
*Replace MU’s with 3 Burpee Pull Ups
Saturday Lesson Plan
Preparation:
A) Coaches Choice
B) Xiaopeng Forward 3×5/5
Strength/Skill:
C) Shoulder Press 5×5
*Use same weight as Tuesday.
D) Warm Up Power Clean
Conditioning:
“Power Elizabeth”
21-15-9
Power Cleans 95/65
Ring Dips
This post explains a lot...