Weed and Training | Exercising while high

I’ve been going in and out of the Ballpark of Fitness since quarantine. You know the ballpark—even the most conscientious of you have spent time there. Close your eyes and pretend it’s 2020, on the edge of summer, when we thought the consequences of eating like life was a six-week BBQ could be easily addressed. I was way out in the fitness parking lot, heavier than I had been in five years.

But better nutrition — and opening up most places — at least got me back in the building and 10 pounds off my goal weight. The pitches aren’t far from the field and I dream of being on the field.

And these days I’ve been going to the gym on Sunset Boulevard in LA with a small bottle of Care by Design’s full-spectrum CBD tincture – the Peppermint 1:1 Max Drops. With 1,000 milligrams of both CBD and THC, it’s the most potent stuff legally available in California. This makes my cannabis fitness program a living, breathing program.

How I dose when training with weed

As a far too young teen cannabis user, I blew up trees and trained for high school 5Ks. And usually pot is in play before I play a pick-up game. As I’ve aged, the fortified gummy candies that accompany my hikes have become a dynamic mainstay. Even so, in the past, much of the plant’s potential gifts for training was wasted on me because I overdid it before training.

But seven years ago, the era of legal weed began in the Pacific Northwest. That’s when I started reading the labels on dispensary cannabis products. This information was applied to the gyms, yoga studios, and basketball courts I visited from Portland to LA. And in the last seven years, I’ve lost and maintained 50 pounds, mostly through cannabis-powered exercise.

Not only does weed get me into that gym or on that hike—a cannabinoid carrot on a stick—the plant deepens my physical engagement throughout the experience.

It’s pretty easy to have a bad training trip when I’m mindlessly dosing cannabis. Once, early in my experiments in the Pacific Northwest, I puffed too much of a stronger than usual sativa-dominant flower minutes before spin class. I pushed harder than my conscious mind realized and saw my heart rate soar faster than ever. I panicked and jumped off the bike before running out of the room.

So, in my experience, starting low and taking it slow is the way to go.

Set up your weed and training program

Nothing like this has happened to me in years. It’s now much easier for me to have a consistently excellent experience with cannabis in any training context. The following worked for me:

Find your fit

Know that finding your tailor-made, optimistic strain is the never-ending story of cannabis fitness.

Take the Spin class as an example. I prefer to be “up” for a spin session, but strong sativas overstimulate me, so I avoid them and instead opt for a Hi-Ball Energy drink or Red Bull – Bang when I’m feeling wild.

Whether you smoke, eat cannabis, or use patches, keep an open mind to the strain that suits your level of fitness. When it comes to trial and error learning projects, this kind of thing is pretty fun.

Find energetic strains

Find your level

As I mentioned above, “start low and go slow” is a cliché to remember. The tincture I use would blow the lid off my day if I was dosing while distracted. Each drop contains 1.5 mg of THC and CBD, so I put the equivalent of what I would consume on edibles on my tongue or energy drink.

While it’s arguably more interesting to consume cannabis edibles and tinctures gradually and throughout your workout, the effects can linger for hours post-workout.

Find a tincture

timing is everything

Say I decided to go bowling instead of going to the Sunset Gym. The idea certainly isn’t to have Mary Jane bang in that window when I’m trying to tie those weird shoelaces in the bowling alley; Euphoria in an athletic context is best harnessed in the throes of activity. Golfers enjoy waves of calm while lining up a put, not so much when parking at the club. The bowler is enjoying an improvement in his strike and I feel like a champion after hitting my third set of kettlebells.

My personal preference for the timing of my use is that the cannabis waves build on my tendency to break up my training into actions. I take 15 drops prior to my arrival, then add 15 more to the energy drink I plan to drink in the next hour or so.

After 15 minutes of elliptical training, I had about 50 milligrams of THC and CBD, which is a lot for me. Know how much THC and CBD is a lot for you before you start training so you can properly assess your limits.

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Plan for the future

Between the high of completing a workout and the goodness of cannabis, post-workout life won’t feel routine. You may have a hard time finding the bus or your Uber driver. So to avoid this frustration, build some downtime into your fitness schedule.

Post-workout stretching, for example, never feels better than when assisted by cannabis. Do you have access to a sauna, jacuzzi or steam room? I don’t need to tell you how satisfying this can be – and mind clearing.

Remember we are all different

My goals include making the most of my intellectual and spiritual life while wrecking a workout, so I typically consume between 25 and 40 milligrams of THC per 90 minute session. For many, a quarter of that is the maximum you’ll want to consume — maybe a lot less.

If you’re new to cannabis, experiment in your home before venturing into your gym or park. Take a few hits of a joint or drops of a tincture before doing a yoga session or stretching to see what feels right for you.

Who knows, you might find out that weed makes training more compelling.