Looking back at the stereotypes associated with marijuana use, it is no surprise that some people abstained from it. Ideally, weed was connected to lazy individuals who didn’t actively move around. But what about all these athletes, confirming their drug use while maintaining their active lives?
Research shows that marijuana isn’t as intoxicating as some commonly used drugs. That way, individuals can smoke up and go about their daily activities unhindered. Athletes using marijuana have received several criticisms, with claims of the drug enforcing high performance and others.
If you are an athlete or a fitness buff interested in how the body gets affected by weed, you can rely on the US National Library of Medicine, which confirms it does not act as a performance enhancer. It does more behind the curtains, pushing the individual to feel and be at their best.
How Marijuana Influences Performance
Does cannabis influence athletic performance? The Anti-Doping Agency and other corporations in the field have widely analyzed this question. The main agenda is to decipher the exact influence of the compound on the body of athletes.
Studies have revealed the influence of weed use is more healing and relaxing and not performance enhancing. The following are the major ways how weed can make you a better athlete.
Packed with Anti-Inflammatory Properties
As an athlete, you may find yourself at the harsher end of exerting yourself on the field. A sprained knee here, a dislocated joint there, and others would result in intense pain and inflammation. Weed is a treatment option because it targets those kinds of pain.
Using weed combats joint and muscle inflammation, which may be frequent for athletes. Rather than play with aching muscles, you can use small amounts of marijuana to alleviate inflammation.
Helps with Stress and Mood Issues
As opposed to using anti-depressants and mood-altering medications, weed offers athletes the option of an organic compound. Internally, it reacts with the concerned chemical compounds, resulting in a general feeling of relaxation. At the end of a long, tiresome day, you can take marijuana and enjoy its soothing properties.
When it comes to mood, the product helps in alleviating depressive symptoms as well as anxiety. It helps players focus on their play rather than the people watching and their general performance. Studies show that weed promotes general wellness where the individual isn’t riddled with an array of mood-related impairments.
Influences Sensory Perception
The internal reactions of THC and chemical compounds in the body have been proven to heighten the sensory reception of athletes. This means that certain sensory receptors are enhanced under the influence. Isn’t this an unfair advantage for those employees?
Contrary to common belief, heightened senses do not result in improved performance. What it does is offer its user an immersive experience of their game. They are, at that point, fully in tune with their role in the field and the sensory stimuli leading to the same.
Athletes would then be able to concentrate on their playing without worrying about the external environment surrounding them.
Are there Negative Effects of Athletes using Weed?
With the understanding of how marijuana can make you a better athlete, there is the question of how the same can negatively affect you. For decades, the belief was that weed, and its compounds are as harmful as tobacco and other drugs.
Since it is not as addictive as tobacco and neither does it impair one’s overall judgment, weed is safer than most drugs. But it doesn’t come without its share of negative effects. To begin with, smoking marijuana results in damaged lungs. Since the inhalation will have you taking in foreign compounds into your lungs, they degrade over time, causing health issues.
Another negative impact is that you get an increased risk of suffering from a heart attack. As part of the reactions in the body, cannabis causes an increased heart rate. This could, in the worst-case scenario, turn into a heart attack. Especially with the consideration that frequent smoking results in clogged arteries.
What to Consider Before Using for Athletes
Athletes want to be in the best shape for all their activities. Considering this, it is important to gauge the effect of marijuana before one starts using the drug. Some things you need to consider have to do with the use and how you react to weed as an individual. Here are a few key points to evaluate;
- Method of ingestion- Are you eating edibles? Smoking? Using tinctures?
- Frequency of taking the cannabis
- Amount taken with each ingestion
- Strain and Potency levels
Conclusion
Every athlete wants to be at their level best at competitions. What if I told you there was a natural way to help with that? Rather than offer more strength and abilities to players, cannabis effectively relaxes the body while heightening sensory perception to make a better athlete. With weed, you can decide how much to take and how frequently. Like many other components, there are negative consequences, but with proper use, you can beat them.
