Pre workout supplements give you the most productive, explosive workouts you could ever imagine. But what would happen if you mixed pre workout with weed? Would it enhance performance or ruin the strength and stamina upgrade you get from your supplement?
There’s an increase in the number of people thinking about adding marijuana to their pre workout stack – particularly since the increase in legalization across various states.
But there’s never really been much research into using the two supplements together.
Will combining weed with your pre workout make your workouts even better?
Or will it leave you red eyed, red-faced and covered in junk food?
In this article we take a look at the link between weed and pre workout.
Relax… and read on…
Weed and Workouts
Marijuana has always been known for its calming, relaxing and euphoric effects.
Known as weed, dope, pot and bud, the leaves of the help plant are dried and shredded to provide you with a product that’s high in bioactive compounds.
Weed contains a number of active ingredients that affect your body. They attach to receptors in your brain and chemically alter your mood, appetite, sleep patterns and memory.
Weed contains:
- Cannibinoids – a group of chemicals that trigger neurotransmitter changes in your brain. There are over 60 of these.
- Delta-9-tetrahydro-cannabinol (THC) – a psychoactive cannabinoid compound that has multiple hormonal effects such as on adrenal glands, gonadal hormones, growth hormone and your thyroid.
The buds and leaves of the marijuana plant have the highest concentration of THC, with the seeds and stalks having a much lower amount.
The endocannabinoid system
The endocannabinoid system is a biological system that includes all receptors and the neurotransmitters that attach to them.
These chemicals include THC and other cannabinoids that attach to receptors in your brain, a little like a key fits a lock. Some chemicals fit certain receptors and others do not.
- CB1 receptors are mostly located in the brain and central nervous system.
- CB2 receptors are found mostly in peripheral organs and cells associated with your immune system.
When triggered your endocannabinoid system switches on a number of physiological and psychological effects.
And it’s these have an effect on your body.
The effects of weed on your body, brain and nervous system
When you ingest the chemicals of the weed plant they enter your bloodstream. From there they stimulate regions of your brain that have cannibinoid receptors attached.
The effects vary from person to person, but common effects include:
- Relaxed, calm and increased sense of well-being
- Change you perception of time
- Increased feelings of anxiety or fear
- Elevated heart rate
- Heightened senses
- Colors seem more vibrant or lurid
- Pain relief and possible therapeutic effects
Key Point: Weed contains a number of bioactive compounds that effect your body and nervous system.
Could Weed Enhance Performance?
Over the last few years, enthusiastic lifters have experimented using weed before workouts as a way of trying to improve results.
After all, if it was to give an athlete any advantage whatsoever, some would take it.
And at face value, it kind of makes sense.
If exercise performance is inhibited by pain, fatigue, mood and perceived exertion, weed could help. Weed could blunt the effects of time perception while at the same time offering pain relief, meaning hard and long workouts would be easier.
But at present no-one really knows if that’s the case.
The performance and weed link is understudied
Because there’s no real scientific research into pre workout mixed with weed, science can’t tell if it’s a good idea or not. The only studies that are available are on rats, mostly because weed is a schedule 1 drug therefore can’t be clinically researched in the context of athletic performance.
Some athletes have reported a decrease in pain when mixing weed and pre workout.
But without measuring performance under strict conditions, research hasn’t shown any performance enhancing effects.
Potential negative effects
Some athletes have suggested that weed makes them feel ill after intense exercise.
Their motor skills were poor and reaction times were slower. On the whole, the drug made them perform much less optimally than using just a pre workout.
And instead of being motivated to train hard and make gains, they’d rather just at home with a family bag of corn chips and a pizza while watching old episodes of Family Guy.
Key Point: Weed has been used by athletes in an attempt to decrease exercise-induced pain, discomfort and exhaustion. Currently though, this has never been trialed and the evidence from rat studies seems controversial, with many athletes suffering side effects.
Can You Combine Weed With Your Pre Workout?
A premium pre workout such as 4 Gauge boosts exercise performance using all-natural nutrients.
Not only does it enhance your stamina, endurance and drive, it also ramps up power output, maximal strength and time-to-fatigue.
As sports supplements go, nothing has the immediate, potent effects that a pre workout has.
- Blast through the fatigue barrier and slash your run times in half.
- Bend barbells and smash your your way to new PRs.
- Feel unrelenting power and motivation. There’s only one winner in the gym.
- Never give up and never back down with a great pre workout.
Weed probably doesn’t offer any benefit to your pre workout
You don’t need to add anything to your pre workout to guarantee an optimum workout.
Taking a clinically dosed pre workout containing nutrients such as caffeine, creatine, red beet and L-citrulline has been proven to enhance the way you train.
Weed hasn’t.
And the bioactive compounds of the marijuana plant don’t trigger any of the pathways you need to enhance performance during periods of hard training.
Whether pre workout mixed with weed is a good idea or not is kind of irrelevant.
A pre workout on its own is enough to break the barrier and develop a leaner, stronger, fitter physique.
Weed could reduce muscle building potential
Studies have shown that weed decreases growth hormone, which may blunt muscle building effects of exercise [1].
It’s also been claimed that because marijuana down-regulates the CB1 receptor it could also stop another pathway of muscle growth called the mToR pathway.
You just can’t guarantee the effects of weed during exercise
One person under the influence of weed could feel energized and motivated to workout.
Another might feel sluggish and tired.
Even the type of weed you take can make a difference when it comes to exercise performance, with THC properties differing massively across different strains.
There’s also not enough research into whether smoking weed or ingesting it as an edible is best. Let alone, the dose and side effects of chronic use.
Weed is actually banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA
Another thing to consider is if you’re a competitive athlete, weed is on the banned substance list set out by WADA.
So even though more and more states are looking to legalize the drug, you can’t use it as an athlete or you’ll be facing a lengthy ban from competition.
Summary – Is It a Good Idea to Mix Pre Workout With Weed?
Weed comes from the hemp plant and contains a number of psychoactive compounds that affect your body, brain and nervous system.
Pre workout supplements optimize your physiology and improve everything from strength and power, to stamina and endurance. Weed has such an individual effect that it’s hard to know whether it’ll decrease exercise pain and improve tolerance at high intensities, or completely ruin your concentration, co-ordination and motor skills.
We suggest that for the best workouts possible, you stick to 4 Gauge.
Not only is it a premium pre workout, expertly dosed to clinical levels, you can rest assured that it’ll give you the best workouts time and time again.
4 Gauge is an exhaustively researched, all-natural pre workout designed to rip the lid off your gym sessions, sports games or workouts.
Packed with performance-enhancing nutrients such as caffeine, L-theanine and creatine, 4 Gauge will take your training to a completely new level.
- Smash your workouts – feel your nervous system firing on all cylinders
- Cell-splitting muscle pumps – harness the power of vasodilation and deliver more nutrients to your muscle cells
- Determination like never before – feel unparalleled focus and motivation
- Relentless energy – train for longer without fatigue
References
- Benowtiz, NL et al. Depression of growth hormone and cortisol response to insulin-induced hypoglycemia after prolonged oral delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol administration in man. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 1976; 42(5): 938-41