A study released by the University of Colorado Boulder found that not only can using cannabis before running improve motivation, but it can also make workouts more enjoyable and increase the euphoria known as “runner’s high.” Head below to learn more.
Running and cannabis: A dope mix for many
The study from the University of Colorado Boulder – published in the journal Sports Medicine – garnered 42 volunteers and comes exactly 10 years after Colorado legalized the sale of recreational marijuana. While the study found that weed is certainly not a performance-enhancing drug, it did find that for those using cannabis prior to a run, that run was more enjoyable as a result.
Laurel Gibson, an author of the study and research fellow with CU’s Center for Health and Addiction: Neuroscience, Genes and Environment:
Participants reported more enjoyment, positive affect, and more runner’s high symptoms when they ran for 30 minutes after using cannabis compared to when they ran for 30 minutes sober.
Researchers initially had a baseline session with their volunteers, where they gathered measurements and survey data – they then asked participants to go to a dispensary and buy marijuana that was heavier in either tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD), the two active ingredients in cannabis.
When it comes to the two ingredients, THC is known to be more intoxicating and has psychoactive effects, whereas CBD is known to have a heavier body high and doesn’t have the psychoactive effects that THC does. Indica CBD strains of marijuana are called – at least here in my corner of the Midwest – “in-da-couch” strains because ingesting or smoking them will often have an effect on people known more broadly as “couch-lock” – the perceived inability to move because of the high they are experiencing.
Volunteers were asked to engage in a sober, moderate treadmill run for 30 minutes, where they were asked questions periodically throughout the run regarding their levels of pain and enjoyment, their motivation, how hard the workout was feeling, and how quickly time seemed to be passing; on a later date, the runners went through the same process, but after they had used cannabis.
The study revealed that, on average, participants found more enjoyment and had a more intense runner’s high than when they were on their sober runs. The THC group of volunteers, however, said that running “felt significantly harder during the cannabis run than the sober run,” which researchers said was possible because of THC increases heart rate.
As for the CBD group of participants, the more intense feeling of euphoria during their runner’s high in addition to a heightened mood was more common amongst them than their THC-ingesting counterpart participants, which suggests that “athletes may be able to get some of the benefits to mood without the impairment that can come with THC.” Gibson:
The bottom-line finding is that cannabis before exercise seems to increase positive mood and enjoyment during exercise, whether you use THC or CBD. But THC products specifically may make exercise feel more effortful.
What does this study mean for you?
The volunteers involved in the study were already people who exercised regularly, which might weed out (I’m sorry!) the positive effects marijuana could have on a person who doesn’t exercise regularly.
Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience and another author of the study, said that she is most interested in how using cannabis for exercise could potentially impact or affect those who struggle to exercise at all because they can’t get motivated (via University of Colorado Boulder).
Bryan wonders, “Is there a world where taking a low-dose gummie before they go for that walk might help? It’s too early to make broad recommendations but it’s worth exploring.”
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