Smoking Pot & Lifting Weights

I have a new laborer on my job site who is a pretty jacked and we were taking about workout routines and such. He was saying that he like to smoke a joint before he lifts because it helps him focus and block out all the other people/distraction in the gym. This conversation reminded me of a guy I used to go to college with who could put up some big weight and he always would come to the gym high as a kite. He said that he felt “stronger” when he was high.

I have to think that smoking pot impeeds progress in some way, but based on the size of these two guys, I wonder how much.
I am curious if there any “evidence” behind smoking pot & lifting weights. Good or bad. Anyone know?

Depends on the person. When I used to smoke I had a lot of trouble getting motivated. Some people like to smoke and then go do a ton of stuff, but usually just sat around. It’s nice at night after a hard workout, but personally I couldn’t smoke before lifting and enjoy any kind of success.

Same as above, everyone is different. I know a guy who is absolutely brilliant academically, but he smokes so much pot he has become reliant on it. He can’t do homework, study, write a test, nothing without being high. I also heard of a guy from one of my old high schools rival basketball teams who was a phenom while baked but sucked balls if he didn’t smoke before a game.

How would it impede progress? It simply temporarily alters the way your brain works.

For me, if I’ve been active that day and have a sharp mind before I light up, I work/train much more efficiently. If I have been a bit lazy that day or feel a bit slow, I’ll just sit on my ass watching cartoons.

It all comes down to the individual. Obviously it worked for the two guys in the OP’s post, but that doesn’t mean it works for everyone.

it deff effects your w/os. just depends on how. just like sick rick said. if i have had a pretty lively day and i smoke before i lift some times i break throu plateaus. but if its been a groggy day. i might be really weak that day.

the only thing it will effect dramaticly over time is endurance. not as bad as ciggs but in the same ball park. just depends on how much you smoke.

Yeah I found if I just took it easy and didn’t go overboard, I would feel real good and would go to the gym and do many things.

Yet say I just get blown, I’d just want to sit there and watch movies or surf the computer looking at funny shit.

I used to have a training partner, but the guy is totally reliant on weed. He wouldn’t even workout really, but talk on his phone like a tool when we did go. He tried to drag me into his bullshit life of smoking insane amounts of weed, blowing cash left and right. It was just stupid to me.

If he felt depressed he had to smoke to forget, if he felt happy he had to smoke. I was like man get a life really and just never talked to him again after that. He was like a certified pot head but with a crackheads impulse to steal shit from people.
I almost beat him down one day, but refrained for some reason. Maybe I felt sorry for him?

I originally posted this in the Michael Phelps thread.

-I see no athletic benefit from it, strictly for recreation/recovery.

I don’t really do anything with it unless I’m free and clear for an evening (usually on a Saturday night) and simply want to get caught up in a Blu-Ray and get a good nights sleep.

It doesn’t make me more talkative or engaging, it doesn’t make me more focused or “in tune” with myself. It makes me sit, watch, and fucking relax for a while.

That being said, the only athletic experience I’ve had with it was golfing, and I found it to be too sunny, too warm, too green, and too much work to do anything but watch the wind blow the palm trees along the fairway. Doing that along with anything athletic, for me anyway, is counterproductive. I can’t fathom partaking before a workout, it’d be straight up dangerous.

However, the Planet Earth series on Blu-Ray is the shit.

Does anyone know exactly what chemicals are released in your brain that cause the “high”? I ask because I remember in the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know” a neuroscientist is talking about how your body can become chemically resistant to certain things just like you can become insulin resistant from too much sugar. EG. someone who is constantly depressed releases mass amounts of whatever the fuck chemical makes you depressed and the receptor cites on cells get all fucked up. Assuming that shit he was talking about is true and weed causes a chemical release in your brain/body that makes you feel “high” could the same effect of chemical resistance not occur?

I smoke and lift occasionally, and I have to say I like what it does. I wouldn’t recommend it for leg day, but for simple stuff it’s good. The pump is great.

My understanding of it too is that there are two main strains and obviously there are a bunch of mutations of these to make ‘brand name’ type of weed.

The two are Indica and Sativa though. One has higher levels of THC and lower levels of CBD (Cannabidiol) and the other is the opposite. CBD is associated with the stony sort of effects, feeling groggy, lazy, stoned. THC is more about the high and wantign to do stuff and chat and that.

I’ve had weed that when I smoked it I wanted to clean the house, do work, go for a walk, talk for hours. I’ve had other weed that just made me want to sit and be a zombie for hours.

Apparently THC can degrade to CBD over time through oxidation too. I guess like Creatine to Creatinine. The effects become different if the weed is left for too long.

So maybe it is partially the person, but also it would be the type of weed and the age of it.

I got real high and did triceps and biceps a couple weeks back. The feeling was amazing, great pump and everything, but it’s not something I’d want to do every time. Especially on the big lifts.

IN the gym you need to be sharp. Outside you can enjoy a little weed.

Don’t smoke.

Vaporize.

Hear me now!

Sometimes I wonder if other gym members can smell it on me. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to the gym straight.

I don’t get the giggles, the munchies, talkative or sleepy. I become very focused and motivated, I can either kick back or kick it up!

I find it to be absolutely priceless when I’m out speed blading. Having to stay focused and hard driving for long periods of time (3-4 hrs) is very difficult. Smoke some pot and you can’t get me off my skates until exhaustion has set in.

I can and have preformed without the use of pot. I don’t think I did better, I just totally enjoy myself when I do it high.

Lots of people I know can only use it for recreational purposes. I’m not sure if I trained myself to react the way I do or if I’m weird.

Fact in just over an hour, weather permitting, I will be chasing cyclist on the Galloping Goose Trail. Stoned out of my tree and having the time of my life.

Works for me, so I’m a happy camper!

Cookies and brownies are the only healthy way. May your space cakes be delicious.

Sod motivation, dope lowers testosterone. And apparently it ups your risk of testicular cancer (BBC News website, last week). Probably best not to do it if you value your man juice.

[quote]Sick Rick wrote:

IN the gym you need to be sharp. Outside you can enjoy a little weed.[/quote]

I think you can be just as sharp even after smoking.

Lifting high is so much fun I end up doing more weight usually after blazing up.

[quote]ElbowStrike wrote:
Don’t smoke.

Vaporize.

Hear me now![/quote]

haha, vaporize is the way to go!

Vaporize & lifting weights!!

There really needs to be a pot T-Cell.

“THC Nation”, natch.

[quote]Cal Jones wrote:
Sod motivation, dope lowers testosterone. And apparently it ups your risk of testicular cancer (BBC News website, last week). Probably best not to do it if you value your man juice.
[/quote]

No offense, but can you cite a reliable study that demonstrates that pot lowers T? It’s something that everyone seems to know is fact, but I have never seen solid evidence. I’m not being facetious, just skeptical. If anyone knows of a study, I truly want to know about it.

As far as ball cancer is concerned, keep in mind that is a statistical measure: it does not imply causation, it only measures correlation.

Drug use is a complex phenomenon, perhaps some hormonal factors are also mechanisms behind development of testicular cancer, that would give the exact same result. I’m not implying that cannabis doesn’t have health risks, just that “pot causes ball cancer” is not the only explanation.

It makes me feel weaker and less confident on the powerlifts, but it really helps my mind-muscle connection, so it’s perfect for relieving the tedium of assistance exercises. It’s certainly not something I would do every session though… or even weekly.

Yeah the marijuana-testicular cancer connection could simply be due to the fact that most MJ users are smoking it and not vaporizing or eating it.

Thanks to its “raw”, “pure”, unfiltered nature, one single marijuana joint is roughly the toxic equivalent of twenty cigarettes.

Inhaling the offgasses of any burning materials tends to cause cancer. It’s why welders tend to die young.

In terms of marijuana and lifting, I’d much rather take one of those “5-Hour Energy” drinks on account of the low caffeine content as I can’t have too many drugs of any kind without completely wigging out.

ElbowStrike