Marijuana and Body Building
'Pumping Iron' is one of the famous documentaries with various great moments. Importantly, this documentary also features marijuana and body-building themes. In the story, the legendary actor Arnold Schwarzenegger smokes a marijuana joint while celebrating his Mr. Olympia win in 1975. The action got most individuals linking body-building and marijuana, as one of the great actors was smoking the joint. So, is there a relationship between body-building and marijuana?
Most viewers with sharp eyesight quickly noticed the expertise Arnold used to roll his joint. Studies show that cannabis and body-building have been going on hard for approximately a decade. This article provides a comprehensive view of whether marijuana enhances or hinders the body-building process. Furthermore, with numerous drug abuse cases, you'll learn whether it's legal to use marijuana in this industry.
Does Smoking Marijuana Affect Bodybuilding?
Studies show that marijuana has an immense effect or impact on body-building. Marijuana contains various cannabinoids, such as CBD and THC, that have various effects on the body’s endocannabinoid system, which are CB1 and CB2 receptors. The endocannabinoid system is a vital biological system that regulates pain, appetite, immune functions, sleep, and other processes. While building the body, fat and muscle utilize these receptors differently during the process.
With the above overview, the relationship between cannabis use and body-building should be a priority or matter of concern if you want to gain muscles. This article provides an in-depth discussion on the issue. Before proceeding to the discussion, below are some of the relevant considerations you must understand:
Testosterone - studies show an undeniable relationship between muscle growth and increased testosterone production. Does marijuana consumption harm or help an individual’s ‘T’ count despite the undeniable relation?
Appetite - when looking to build your body or get huge, you must battle the difficulties with the requisite calories or foods. Experts reveal that marijuana can help solve your calorie increase problem. However, choosing cannabis strains that enhance munchies or hunger will be good.
Recovery - body-building involves various steps, from working the muscles to allowing them to repair or heal. When working out, remember that after ripping the muscle fibers, it'll be important to allow them a chance or time to heal and recover. Experts reveal that adequate rest and recovery are vital for your muscle growth. Thus, marijuana could offer a boost in helping weight lifters get adequate sleep.
Relaxation - Like Arnold in the movie, smoking a marijuana joint enhances an enjoyable and good feeling. It’s the best way to let your mental and physical load off. Nevertheless, when using marijuana to ease your mental and physical load, ensure that you don’t choose a strain that'll make you lose the appropriate focus required for the next complete intense workout.
Experts say that it’s unhealthy and unprofessional to stone or take marijuana while training. But what about taking these products afterward, i.e., while relaxing and kicking back?
How Does Cannabis Affect Bodybuilding?
Weed and body-building have a huge discussion you must consider before using them to achieve muscle or strength growth. However, it won't be fair to start analyzing the relations by checking the effect of weed on testosterone. Testosterone is the primary hormone responsible for higher muscle development and growth.
Studies reveal that you're likely to increase your control weight and energy by building and achieving leaner body mass. Some individuals consider T-treatment to enhance and increase their muscle strength and size. Remember, increasing your muscle strength plays a key role in decreasing fat mass in the body, making it easy to enhance your body-building objectives. Getting a reasonable degree of T-treatment has various benefits. These benefits include:
● Enhances libido
● Improved mood
● Stronger bones
● Healthy heart and blood circulatory system
● Enhanced mathematical reasoning, spatial abilities, and increased verbal memories
Before using weed during your working or body-building process, it'll be vital to understand whether it impacts the T levels. Remember, marijuana affects the T-levels, then it's true that it affects your body-building process. Despite the effects of marijuana on T-levels and body-building, researchers are not interested in investigating the matter. Thus, experts have recorded a few trials to check or understand the impact of THC on testosterone. However, due to the mixed results and numerous assumptions, there is no consensus on the matter.
Experts advise that you use the products to achieve the best results, with fewer side effects or risks. For instance, experts warn that using Mary Jane when you aren’t used to it may lead to temporary T-levels. Nevertheless, regular users may not have such issues, as their systems are used to the product.
Block et al. 1991 performed a study on matter to check the effect of chronic cannabis use on hormone concentration. The researchers published the findings in the ‘Drug and Alcohol Dependency book. The findings showed that chronic consumption of marijuana didn’t have any significant effect on the different hormone concentrations in the body of both the female and male volunteers.
Furthermore, Fantus et al. also carried out another study in February 2020 on the matter and published the finding in the ‘World Journal of Urology.’ The findings also brought good news to bodybuilders as the researchers found that using THC-infused products resulted in small testosterone production and an increase. Nevertheless, testosterone production decreases with the increase, making it vital to consider smaller THC doses.
Despite the variations, testosterone production is usually higher with regular THC use than with non-users. Therefore, it’ll be safe to smoke products with low to moderate cannabinoids, especially THC. Based on the study, taking moderate cannabis amounts will help boost your T-levels.
Additional Considerations
Based on findings from different studies, it's true to conclude that marijuana might be key in body-building. However, before you incorporate cannabis into your body-building strategy, we've got various factors you must consider. Let's look at the factors to consider when looking at cannabis and body-building:
Appetite
Eating a good meal is vital if you’re looking to pile or build mass. However, you may find it hard to eat or have the appropriate urge for meals. Experts reveal that cannabis is the best alternative to alleviate your poor appetite and increase your gorge on healthy foods. Marijuana contains CB1 receptors in its endocannabinoid system to play a vital role in enhancing your appetite. Besides these products helping you alleviate your appetite and allow you to eat, it’ll be vital to police yourself and monitor your eating habits.
Monitoring your eating habits during this period helps to reduce cravings or eating unhealthy junk meals. Experts reveal a wide range of ways you can use to avoid succumbing to unhealthy or junky meals. Stacking your cupboards, food stores, and fridge with bodybuilder-friendly and healthy meals is the best alternative to prevent you from consuming unhealthy meals.
Despite the advantages that the use of weed offers for your body-building goals, it's worth understanding that chronic or prolonged marijuana use may have adverse effects. Studies show that overindulging in marijuana results in decreased appetite, which may affect your muscle growth process. Studies link decreased appetite after chronic marijuana use to the CB1 receptor activity downregulation, which occurs gradually with continuous marijuana use.
Inflammation
When having your weightlifting journey, inflammation is a part of the process. It’s an essential body process or procedure that enhances the growth of muscles. Nevertheless, inflammation becomes a matter of concern when you’ve chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation is a matter of concern when on a weightlifting journey. This condition hinders or denies the body and muscles the chance to restore and achieve the appropriate balance.
Studies show that the endocannabinoid system plays a vital role in your body's inflammatory response. The involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the inflammatory responses makes marijuana key in the process, as it helps to stimulate it. With marijuana vital in stimulating the endocannabinoid system, smoking marijuana will help you when body-building. These products will help ease aches and pains that result after an intense workout session.
Relaxation
Relaxation is an important aspect when pushing for your body-building goal. Weed plays a vital role in relaxation after your work to prevent hurting the performance or prevent recovery. However, weed can hinder your body-building progress as it may :
● Reduce focus
● Decrease reaction time
● Lower exercising capacity and stamina
● Impaired hand-eye coordination
Nevertheless, the above adverse effects only occur when smoking marijuana before training. Cannabis will be useful and help enhance positive results if you use it when you're about to start a slower low cardio session. Experts advise that you steer clear when you're about to start an intense body-building session to avoid the adverse effects of interfering with your goals. In 2018 Ware et al. conducted a study on the matter and published it in the ‘Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine.’ This study concluded that using marijuana before working out didn’t improve performance or output.
Is Cannabis Legal in Bodybuilding Competitions?
Statistics reveal that very many bodybuilders use marijuana. This number includes all the vastly experienced bodybuilders with many years of experience in hard and intense training. Besides the experience, you can also include amateurs or beginners in the statistics.
Experts reveal that most individuals in the body-building circle prefer cannabis to alcohol. Unlike weeds, trainees and bodybuilders understand that the drawbacks of using alcohol outweigh the benefits of performance. More so, alcohol also affects your feeling during and after the workout session.
Some weightlifters admit that they prefer little ‘Mary Jane’ prior to the workout. Nevertheless, some admit that taking the product before working out leads to gassing out quickly when having exercises like the bent-over barbell rows. Due to the above results, cannabis bodybuilders prefer to use the products as recreational substances, which is different from the other athletes. It’s not a priority as it doesn’t contain calories and comes with a hangover, providing that you don’t overindulge.
The Federal government in the United States considers cannabis illegal. However, the main question that lingers in most bodybuilders' minds is whether marijuana is legal in body-building competitions. Some organizations, such as IFBB, consider steroids illegal, while most of their competitors allow steroids. Marijuana is unlawful in most competitions; like in WNBF, the authorities prohibit the use of drugs. Surveys show that most organizations and competitions follow the WADA policies, which consider marijuana illegal in competitions.
Remember, the different organization and competitions provide a list of banned or prohibited substances. Due to the long list of prohibited substances, you feel bad and even dizzy. For instance, for WNBF, the participants can only use natural bodybuilders. The organization has more than 7000 urine samples and tests during its first five months in operation. Thus, the competition or authorities won't allow you to even use marijuana before the competition.
Wrapping Up on Cannabis and Bodybuilding
Marijuana and body-building have a deeper connection and relation than what many individuals see. Many individuals believe that no bodybuilder would want to use any substance or thing that'll harm their body or negatively affect their performance. Enhancing energy and muscle growth is the dream of all bodybuilders. Therefore, it's hard to believe or imagine that experienced, and hard training experts can risk their body-building gains by using a substance that counteracts their efforts to build muscle mass and strength.
Regardless of the numerous benefits, there has been limited research into the relationship between cannabis and body-building. Furthermore, little research hasn't brought appropriate or definite conclusions. However, it's important to understand that using moderate marijuana quantities boosts an individual's testosterone levels. More so, using the right cannabis strains helps stimulate appetite to enhance an increase in muscle mass and strength. Remember not to smoke your joint before the training session as it may gasp your air faster during the process.
Unfortunately, bodybuilders like Mary Jane and pump iron may find it hard as most reputable competitors consider them illegal. Experts advise that you should avoid WNBF if you’ve smoked cannabis prior to or closer to the competition time, as it'll be shameful to break the rules by failing the drug test. Despite the numerous rules, it hasn’t stopped experienced and all-time great bodybuilders from enjoying their bluntness. Arnold Shwazznerger once said that cannabis isn’t a drug but a leaf.
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