Picture this: you wake up on a Saturday, ready to work out so you put on your gym gear and fill up your water bottle. Then you roll a joint and light up...Desn’t sound right, does it? We know, we’re baffled by it too. But according to science, smoking weed before you work out can make you more focused and in the zone, distract you from the pain of a dreaded spin class, and help you stay in the zone if you’re one of those people who gives up after four minutes and 25 seconds (aka, us).
San Millan, a director of sports performance at the University of Colorado Boulder told Shapemagazine that weed can help act as a distraction from pain. So essentially if all you can think is ‘what the hell am I doing spending my Monday night sat on a bike that hurts my ass so much I won’t be able to walk tomorrow,' smoking beforehand could act as a painkiller. And if you’re one of those people that feels physically sick from exercise too (we feel ya), remember weed is prescribed to cancer patients to treat nausea, so there’s that too. Tempted to go get that joint yet?
Clifford Drusinsky, an elite triathlete told Mens Journal that when he wakes up at 3am to train (what the actual hell), he doesn’t drink a sports drink but has 20 milligrams of THC in a marijuana energy bar. The weed not only relaxes him, but allows him to go into a controlled, meditational state which makes him train smarter and focus more on form.
It’s a bizarre concept, and we're still not 100% sure, but if an elite athlete is doing it, then there must be some method to the madness, right?
*Disclaimer: We’re not suggesting you go and pick up every single time you want to workout, because that would be hell on your lungs and obviously you need them to do any form of exercise. But maybe test it before a circuits class and let us know how you get on? Answers on a postcard, please and thanks.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.