Since the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was founded in 1999 to fight against doping in sport in all its forms, the prohibition of cannabis in sport has been one of the controversial issues debated by the scientific and political anti-doping authorities. Prior to 2004 and the establishment of the World Anti-Doping Code (Code) by WADA, cannabinoids were prohibited only in certain sports.
Certainly one of the most famous marijuana related suspension is the just expired Nick Diaz 18 months suspension.
From his interview with High Times:
“If I’m at home and I’m training — doing my same things every day — then I’m definitely going to want to use cannabis. It’s gonna help. I’m trying to stay focused on what I’m doing. I don’t want a whole lot of things going on — people to call back, or text messages or whatever. I chill out, relax a little bit, and then I don’t have those issues. If I’m going to train all day, when I get done, I’m gonna want to smoke. If I have to go and train all day, before I go, I’m gonna want to smoke. If I wake up in the morning and feel beat to shit, and it’s going to take me forever to wake up, I smoke some weed and I wake right up. Then I have breakfast and I go do a workout.”
Majority of people associates smoking weed with lazy behavior, munchies and general couch potatoe antics. And those people often shrug off reports of marijuana related suspensions… However some research has surfaced that indicates this couldn’t be further from the truth!
Namely, endurance athletes are currently proving this stereotype is less than valid. There’s a wide spread belief that “runner’s high” was the result of endorphins but this is not the end of it. While the brain does release its own forms of opioid chemical during exercise, it also releases endogenous cannabinoids called endocannabinoids.
Unlike endorphines, these substances cross the blood-brain barrier and act on same receptors that receive THC from cannabis.
So with the brain’s endocannabinoid system responsible for natural euphoria similar to what cardio can help induce, does it mean the weed enhances performance?
Some anecdotal evidence from athletes would strongly suggest it does. And in addition to that the Founder of the Lifetree Pain Clinic in Salt Lake City Lynn Webster agrees suggesting marijuana use can block pain and reduce nausea.
“There’s good science that suggests cannabinoids block the physical input of pain,” Dr Webster told the Wall Street Journal.
As cannabis has been proven to deepen concentration, increase tissue oxygenation, and decrease muscle spasms before, during, or after athletic performance, this might hold merit.
Joe Rogan certainly agrees that weed is a PED – performance enhancing drug.
“I think it (marijuana) is a performance-enhancing drug. If it wasn’t, a huge majority of jiu-jitsu guys wouldn’t be using it before they train,” he said on The MMA Hour.
” They don’t do it because it hurts them; they do it because it helps them.” – He also claimed to have seen the benefits first hand.
“I like to smoke pot and work out,” he wrote on his blog. “Getting high and working out is one of the least talked about and least appreciated pleasures of fitness. Lifting weights is fun when you’re under the spell, cardio is cool too, but for me, nothing compares to getting really high and hitting the heavy bag.”
Assistant professor of biology at Eckerd College Gregory Gerdeman agreed weed could help performance.
“The most obvious potential benefit to an athlete is controlling inflammation and some of the aches and pains that relate to injury. If you lower inflammation, you will raise the pain threshold,” he told Runner’s World.
Catlin and Murray indicated that cannabis could be performance enhancing in sports that require greater concentration. Iven noted that athletes use cannabis for relief of anxiety and stress, and perhaps to reduce muscle spasm.
Marijuana is also endorsed by UFC’s Jake Shields:
“It is a big crossover between jujitsu guys, MMA guys and cannabis,” he explained. “I would say half, if not more of the guys smoke, a lot of them not openly. I think more guys feel like they can come out about it now with the climate change” in favor of legalization. “It is a big part of the training for a lot of people. I definitely don’t smoke every day, but sometimes it is a good way to go in there and smoke a little bit and be a little more creative — like sometimes when you are in a big training camp before a competition, it really makes training fun again.”
And of course it’s no wonder Eddie Bravo student Denny Prokopos loves it as he told Fight Magazine:
Prokopos shares his instructor’s pro-marijuana stance. And for all the negative attention each position attracts, Prokopos has a counter. “I know we get a lot of positive [attention] but I know we get a lot of negative [attention], but I focus on the positive,” he says, citing results are all that matters. “I’ve learned that from Dr. Pete. I’ve learned that from Eddie too.”
Cannabis induces euphoria, improves self-confidence, induces relaxation and steadiness and relieves the stress of competition. Cannabis improves sleep and recovery after an event, reduces anxiety and fear and aids the forgetting of negative events such as bad falls and so forth. Cannabis increases risk taking and this perhaps improves training and performance, yielding a competitive edge. Cannabis increases appetite, yielding increased caloric intake and body mass. Cannabis enhances sensory perception, decreases respiratory rate and increases heart rate; increased bronchodilation may improve oxygenation of the tissues. Finally, cannabis is an analgesic that could permit athletes to work through injuries and pain induced by training fatigue.
Although much more scientific information is needed, based on current animal and human studies as well as on interviews with athletes and information from the field, cannabis can be performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines.
Do you believe marijuana use should be more or less regulated in bjj/mma?
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