Marijuana is a helpful PED

[DanaWhitesButler]

I may catch some shit for this, but I just felt compelled to share a personal experience that has changed my view a bit on training and recovery. About 4 or 5 months ago, I decided to increase my BJJ training volume from 3 days a week to 6 or 7 - basically every day or a few doubles when I take a day or two off. I'm 35, and my body felt utterly fucked for the first month I was doing this. I knew some people my age train even more so I knew it was possible to find a solution. I even made a post on here asking for advice, and some people were helpful to give it to me. A small number of people told me I'm too old and to give it up. I ignored them and made some changes lol.

First, I improved my diet. It wasn't garbage before, but now I'm eating more wholesome foods and a few more carbs.

Second, I stopped drinking completely and switched to Marijuana. This helped the most. This had two benefits. First, the drinking drained me, so cutting that out helped. I would have half a bottle of red wine 3 or 4 nights a week. Now I drink once or twice a month. The Marijuana also helped me sleep 8 to 9 hours a night. Previously, I would sleep 8 or 9 hours but wake up intermittently and never felt truly rested. Now, my body has time to recover. I've stopped smoking marijuana as an experiment, and my sleep has worsened. So, I know that's the cause of my improved sleep. So, in that way Marijuana has helped me train MORE similar to how other PEDs like steroids would. Obviously, the biological affects from steroids and marijuana are very different but both have lead to me being able to sustain more training volume.

Anyone have similar experience or different perspective?

 

[Poochie]

This is bad science. You might have had the same results if you just improved your diet or maybe it's just that alcohol inhibited performance and by eliminating alcohol your performance improved. There are too many variables to just determine that marijuana was the performance enhancer.

 

[DanaWhitesButler]

This is bad science. You might have had the same results if you just improved your diet or maybe it's just that alcohol inhibited performance and by eliminating alcohol your performance improved. There are too many variables to just determine that marijuana was the performance enhancer.

I made these changes incrementally, so the variables were isolated to a degree. But yea, obviously it's not great science, and I can't exactly publish this in some peer reviewed academic journal.

 

[kenetics]

I could never recommend smoking pot to my students.

 

[cardkid]

I would not compare cannabis with steroids. It's apples and oranges.

 

[jack36767]

Don’t compare using Weed, sorry cannabis to steroids, it totally blows up your argument before we take into account things like diet and sleep

 

[chubbman]

People will deny it but find the quote from that Cynthia vai cavalo chick about what the weeds does for her, she straight up mad it sound like gods personal medicine

 

[yetanother]

Judging what effect weed has on my training partners who smoke weed heavily (like 4 times per day) not smoking that crap is a bigger advantage then all the steroids that have been invented thus far.

 

[biscuitsbrah]

Marijuana is a medicine/drug. So it has the potential to help your recovery or anxieties or a myriad of things.

I personally love weed for motivational purposes and introducing new perspectives but it definitely doesn’t directly speed up my recovery.
(It indirectly helps because I stretch and foam roll for hours when I’m high)

Cannabis has also been proven to inhibit REM sleep and decrease sleep quality if smoked before bed

 

[Woldog]

This is bad science. You might have had the same results if you just improved your diet or maybe it's just that alcohol inhibited performance and by eliminating alcohol your performance improved. There are too many variables to just determine that marijuana was the performance enhancer.

Aside from the fact that this week a decade long study on marijuana was released and it showed that while it doesn't help your pain it helps your body sleep and that full rest helps the pain.

What TS is saying is the same findings that the study found. So I'm not sure what your qualifications are but your "Bad science" remark is simply "Uninformed opinion".

 

[Which Doctor]

I could never recommend smoking pot to my students.

You let the smell of the burning joint do the talking for you.

 

[JagRoss]

Marijuana impedes your REM sleep.

 

[shunyata]

It's no secret that many Brazilians and Americans use cannabis regularly including before or after training.


I will give you this advice though. While some do enjoy partaking before grappling sessions, I would not recommend cannabis use before kickboxing or mma sessions with live training.

My fluid balance would be better and I could flow and better control my heart rate and thus endurance while grappling but the ability to parry / dodge / block strikes in time is reduced and that is not good for performance when strikes are involved.

 

[berimBOWLoh]

It's not a performance enhancer lol

 

[AdrianT]

I feel like a few puffs combined with a beer post workout help my muscles and mind relax and that's all I need to train every day. I definitely wouldn't overdo it though.