How to select cannabis for exercise

Cannabis can play a role in exercise and recovery. The endocannabinoid system in our body is responsible for the euphoric feeling during exercise, similar to the feeling from cannabis. CBD and THC are both components of cannabis that interact with this system. CBD can improve mind-body connection and relieve anxiety, while THC can provide a buzz and alleviate soreness and pain. Choosing between CBD and THC depends on personal preference and desired effects, such as motivation, focus, or pain relief. CBD is particularly beneficial for recovery. However, research is limited due to federal restrictions on cannabis. Hi, my name is Beth, and you are listening to the Canna Fitness and Nutrition podcast where we are hanging out at the intersection of fitness, nutrition, and cannabis. First, I just want to say thank you for pressing play, thank you for listening in today. I really appreciate it, and as always, if you have any questions that you want me to answer or things you want me to talk about, I'd be happy to answer them, talk about it, educate, or do research if I don't even know the answer, because there's more to this plant than I think meets the eye, and when I say cannabis and exercise, which is what we're going to talk about today, I think there's a strong notion that I might be talking about just getting high while you exercise, and while that's fun, it's more than that. There's more facets to it than that, and there's exercise itself, let's say, there's the exercise itself, but then there's also the recovery aspect, which is huge, and cannabis can play a really important role in the recovery, and so we're going to talk about how that all works, we're going to talk about CBD and THC, we're going to talk about a couple strains, different consumption options, recovery, and how to select the cannabis that would work for you in terms of what you want to use it for. If you like to work out, you're a fitness enthusiast or an exerciser, just listen, just bear with me and see if there's anything in here that strikes a chord that might be helpful for you. So let's talk about cannabis and exercise. First of all, as always, there's not a ton of research because it's not legal federally, so there's not federal funding for research, but there is a little bit of research coming out. There was a recent study out of the University of Colorado, and they were measuring how participants felt while using cannabis while exercising, and they reported that they felt great, right? And actually, fun fact, the runner's high, which is what people typically get if they exercise for a period of time, stereotypically, right, it's the runner, and you run, and then you get that high kind of feeling, that is actually what's called our endocannabinoid system in our body. And that feeling of euphoria that people love in runners, if you're a runner, I was a runner for years. If you're a runner, you know you chase that runner's high, you love it, and it is so good. I think we've always contributed it to endorphins, but that's actually coming from what's called our endocannabinoid system, so it's the system in our body that works with these receptors that are the same receptors that are impacted when we use cannabis. And again, I always say this, when I talk about cannabis as a whole, I'm talking about both CBD and THC. CBD is the no-buzz, it's not psychoactive, it's just the plant. THC has the psychoactive compounds in it, so there is a buzz to it. But the plant as a whole has cannabinoids in it, and it interacts with our endocannabinoid system. So the feeling of euphoria when you exercise, the runner's high, that's why it's similar, it's not the exact same feeling of euphoria you get when you have a buzz from cannabis. So that runner's high is coming from the same system that we interact with, with cannabis. So if you've experienced that and you liked it, then you probably like cannabis. I'll just say that, how's that? Without getting too technical or science-y, because this is science-y enough, and I'm not a very science person, so I try to break it down for you in bites that are manageable, like I ingest it, small bites, small bites. So first thing you have to think about is how you want to use it and what you want to use it for. So that's the first question, if you work out, do you want to use it while you work out? Do you want to use it to get motivated to work out? Do you want to use it to recover? Do you want to have a buzz during all this, or do you prefer not to have a buzz and just have calm and focus? Because if you want a buzz, then you're looking for THC, if you don't want a buzz, but you just want some anxiety relief, some motivation, some calm, some focus, energy, then you're looking for CBD. So you have to decide first what you're looking to do, and this is 100% personal preference. Some people swear by having that buzz, and the energy they get from that helps to motivate them. But some other people will say that it's distracting to have a buzz and that they can't focus on what they're trying to do. And I think that also depends on what kind of exercise you're doing, whether you're lifting weights, or you're dancing, or you're jogging, walking, or if you're stretching, that also has a role to play. So the first question is always, what are you looking to use it for, for part of your exercise, or what part of your exercise could it complement? And then how comfortable are you with the buzz versus the no buzz? So CBD improves our mind-body connection, which makes all exercise and really all activities easier and better. And the more we can connect our mind to our bodies, the better results we're going to get. When you're performing a bicep curl, for example, what are you thinking about when you do a bicep curl? Arm goes up, arm goes down, you bend at the elbow. Are you thinking about squeezing the bicep muscle while you do it? Are you thinking about your arm position? Are you thinking about your wrist being straight? Or are you thinking about what you're going to wear later? Or are you thinking about what happened at work earlier? Where's your mind? The more you can put your mind into the form of your exercise when it comes to lifting, the better results you're going to get. And that is something that they can actually measure now. So this is becoming proved with research. So you want to be able... And CBD does that. And it does... THC actually does that too. CBD and THC can relieve and remove anxiety and stress, which can be a huge deterrent to exercise. So if you're looking for motivation and you tend to get bogged down by anxiety or stress, like you're so stressed about everything that's going on that you just can't find it within yourself to exercise or find the time because you're so gone up in stress about something or so anxious. I mean, I've had anxiety my whole life, so I know that it can be debilitating. You can go into freeze state and be unable to move. And if you've experienced that, then I just want you to know that there's nothing wrong with you. You're experiencing anxiety and that this can be overcome. But it can be a huge deterrent. If you're trying to get yourself to exercise, but your anxiety is telling you no because you're stuck in a freeze, then this could be an amazing tool for you to have the anxiety removed or at least alleviated by CBD or THC. And then it would open up a whole world for you of being able to finding that motivation again. I get that. CBD and THC, both of those can relieve soreness. So if you tend to get really sore, first of all, I tell you to drink lots of water. Second of all, if you tend to get sore from workouts, which happens if you haven't done it a lot or if you do new things or if you went harder for some reason, then it can alleviate soreness because soreness can be a deterrent to working out too. I mean, it's uncomfortable. If you've ever done a hard workout or done like a new workout and then just been having a really hard time walking up the stairs or sitting on the toilet or turning around in the car, if you've ever been really sore, it's a deterrent, I'll say. It does not make you want to exercise more. The truth is, it means we need to do more because we need the blood flow to help stretch it out. But in order to get that, sometimes we need to relieve a little bit of the soreness. And so THC and CBD can both do that and relieve the soreness. Reduce pain, right? The same thing, especially if you have chronic pain. So maybe you have like kind of a wonky shoulder because I like to say, we all get something. Everybody gets something wonky. But if you have a wonky joint, for example, and it just sort of bothers you from here and there, like you're not going to want to go and do a bunch of pushups probably because you're like, well, it's going to hurt my shoulder more. My shoulder already hurts, so I don't want to make it hurt more. So having some assistance with chronic pain can make you a lot more motivated and willing to work out, right? So THC and CBD can both do that. So it also helps you to maintain focus. And this goes back to what I was saying earlier with that mind-body connection, just staying present while you're moving. It is fun to let your mind wander if you're on a jog or a walk or something, that's nice. But if you're, say, you're in a spin class, right? You kind of need to focus on what you're doing because you need to listen to the instructor. You need to pay attention to your legs and your arms and you're up or you're down. If you're lifting weights, you need to pay attention. If you're in a Zumba class, you need to pay attention to which direction they're going and what the move is. You need to be able to focus. And if you have trouble focusing, which a lot of people do, and a lot of us have brains that go in like a thousand different directions, then it would really help you focus and it would make that Zumba class a whole lot more enjoyable if you can actually focus on what's going on instead of worrying about what you're going to eat later or what happened at work earlier or what happened at home, things like that, right? So it allows us to focus instead of being caught up in external distractions. So some things to consider, again, THC versus CBD, of course, again, what's going to be helpful for you? Do you need it for motivation? Do you need it to help connect mind and body? Do you need it for focus? Do you need it for pain and soreness? Let's talk about that because there are, when it comes to recovery, this is where CBD really shines. CBD has been well-known and well-researched for pain, for inflammation and recovery, restoration, cooling down, all of those things. CBD is really, really promising in that respect and mostly, I'll say, through topicals. You know, the topicals, when I say topical, that's just the word we use for like creams and ointments and lotions and things because the way it absorbs through the skin very easily and gets right into localized pain relief or localized recovery and you can use a topical right on a joint or muscle group and whatever and it can really help relieve that. So when you're in your recovery process after a workout or the next day or on a routine basis, if you have kind of a, like I said, if you have a wonky joint, then it just may be part of your normal routine and that might allow you to be able to do more. So topicals can be used prior to a workout to reduce the inflammation or pain and that will help you get better mobility and be able to move better and more freely and have better form while you exercise. So it can be an important part of your daily routine and it can be for after as well to reduce the inflammation and reduce the pain and it helps your body cool down and recover and give your muscles, your muscles need to relax in order to repair and that's really, really important. So there are THC topicals as well. So kind of what's been noticed and I guess what the kind of rule of thumb is, if you will, is that the CBD is more effective at keeping the inflammation down where THC is better for pain. So when you have inflammation, you feel the inflammation, but sometimes that inflammation is so much that it causes pain and again, that's where the THC really shines because it dulls that pain, whereas CBD brings down the inflammation. Now exercise naturally leaves us with some inflammation. In fact, fun fact here, this is how the body works when you exercise or more specifically when you lift weights. You are using the muscles. The muscle, when we use our muscles, they break down slightly. They actually create little tiny microscopic tears in the muscles and then what happens is then we eat and we drink water and then we sleep and when the body uses your food and your water and during your sleeping process, it goes through and it repairs those muscles. But during that whole process, the increased blood flow, the whole process itself, it does create some inflammation and actually, if you have been around the bodybuilding world or a gym, you may have heard people talk about the pump, the pump that you get. The pump, they call it, is the blood flow to the area because as you tear down those muscles, again, it's very microscopic, but you're tearing down those muscles so that they can rebuild stronger. Blood and water rushes to that area and that's, it gets, the other word you might hear a lot of is swole. Swole. I'm swole. That swole or the pump is the blood and the water rushing to the muscles to help start that recovery process because it's breaking down. So some, my point is, that's a little science-y, but my point is that, you know, exercise does leave us with some natural amounts of inflammation. So having, taking CBD or THC on a regular basis is a great way to just keep your inflammation down in general, right, because it helps keep that at a reasonable level, right? We're never going to be completely without it because we need some of it, but to keep it at a reasonable level so that it doesn't prevent you, right? So it can be a daily maintenance, you know, it can be daily for aches and pains. So topicals. Topicals, so again, we're going back to how to select it. So it's, again, it's what do you want it for? Do you need it to help focus? Do you need it for anxiety? Do you need it, do you want it for during your workout for better connection, better focus? Do you want it for daily use? Do you want it for motivation or do you want it for your recovery? And any of those ways, any or all of those ways are acceptable. It is 100% personal preference, just as it's your personal preference how you want to use it, consume it. So that's more of like how you want to use it with your exercise. But how you want to consume it is going to be more like, do you prefer an edible? Would you like to have a gummy every morning? You know, is that good for you just to keep you focused and keep your inflammation down? Would you, do you like to smoke joints or dry herb vape like I do? You know, that's a faster acting. So if you wanted to focus a little bit during a workout or on a walk and you wanted to have a couple of puffs before you went on a walk, then it would hit quickly and you'd be able to have some nice focus and calm while you were on your walk, right? With a gummy or an edible, you have to time it a little bit more just because they take longer to hit your system. So they go through your digestive tract, which means it could take 30 minutes, it could take two hours. So if you're looking for some relief during your workout, then you're going to want to time that. So if you're going to work out at 10 a.m., you need to make sure that you've eaten your edible by at least 8, right, or between 8 and 10 so that it has time to kick in. So how you want to consume it, again, tinctures are also a great kind of alternative. They're in between because they go a little bit faster than edibles because you can stick it under your tongue and there's like a big ol' vein in there where it can absorb sublingually. So that acts a little bit faster than an edible, even though the rest of it goes through your digestive tract. But it's not smoking or vaping, which not everybody's comfortable with. So it's a little bit faster onset for a tincture. So that's another question, is how do you want to consume it? What's going to be the best for you and your schedule? Do you want to plan ahead or do you want to just be able to have a couple puffs before you go out for a walk, right, or for a jog, you know, depending on what you like? So because the smoking and the vaping is quite fast acting, so it's a little bit more in the moment. Recovery, we talked about that. Again, that's more of topicals, although same thing, you know, a lot of people will, they like to smoke a joint at the end of their workout because, again, it's fast acting and they will, it helps them cool down and relax and then they can just chill out and stretch while they do that. And that's a beautiful way to use it for exercise. So again, it's really personal preference, but if any of these things sound enticing to you, then I recommend you try it. And if you want my help, I'm happy to walk you through it. This is what we do. This is what I do. You know, my Canna Fitness Program is this and more. It's what you need to be your best, healthiest, fittest self, whether that means you need behavioral help with your nutrition and using cannabis to aid in that, whether you need it for anxiety relief to keep you motivated in order to work out and eat better, or whether you need it because you don't sleep well and that's causing you not to exercise because you're too tired. You know, there's a lot of ways. And so my job is to figure out, really figure out what the barrier to your fitness is, barrier to your weight loss. And then if there's a way that cannabis can help, which a lot of times there is, then we implement that and work on that alongside of it. So using cannabis while you exercise can be a great way to overcome some of those barriers and really get the most out of your workout. Again, I love the mind-muscle connection because you get so much more out of your workout when you feel what's going on. And I love that. And if you've worked with me, you know that I'm always like, do you feel that? Do you feel that? Do you feel that? You know, I want you to feel the muscles working. So another thing to think about though, too, or play with, I should really say, is experiment with is dosage and timing. If you're new to cannabis, it's really important that you start small and just work your way up. If you remember one thing from anything I ever say, it's just start small because when it comes to cannabis, even CBD, there's no psychoactivity to it, but just for your own comfort level, always start small. If you need to take a bite of a gummy or a half a gummy, that's fine. It's better to just try it, see how you feel, give it a day, and then just make sure it agrees with you. You know, because everyone is different. Every body is different and if you haven't used it before, there's no way to know how you're going to feel. Chances are you're going to feel great because that seems to be most people's experience, but you just never know. I mean, here's a fun fact. Every time I take Tylenol, I get a nasty rash and I get inflamed, so apparently I'm allergic to it, which is odd, right? But that happens. So I like to use that example because it's not common, but it's possible. And again, you know, so with cannabis, it may not agree with you. It's not common, but it's possible. So always just, so again, the thing to remember is to always start small, always start small. The other thing to remember, and I think I'm going to do a whole podcast on things to remember, but that if you're trying THC, especially if you're new to THC, you know, if you accidentally take too much, CBD counteracts it. CBD counteracts the psychoactivity of THC, right? So if you took too much THC, if you're too high, you're uncomfortably high, it's really a great idea to have CBD on hand that you can take to help reduce that effect. It will make you feel better, whether it's an edible, whether it's a similar sort of inhalation or a tincture, you know, it might take a little while to kick in and to reduce it, but it will reduce that overall effect and make you feel so much more balanced. So CBD reduces the psychoactivity of THC. And again, timing is going to depend on how you choose to consume it. So again, the inhalation is the fastest onset, edibles are the slowest onset, and tinctures are a little bit faster than edibles. So you know, again, it's so personal, and that's really the gist of this, is that it's very personal. So you have to figure out what is going to work for your workout. Just as your workout is going to be different than my workout, and it's going to be different than your sister's workout and your brother's workout, you know, everybody likes different things, and that's great. So the way you use cannabis with your exercise is going to be unique to you too. Although, again, I've ran through some of these common scenarios. So if any of these things intrigue you, I suggest that you try it. And if you want my help with that, I'd be happy to help you, because it's interesting, it's fun, it's safe, there's no harm involved, you know, there's no way to overdose on cannabis, there's no, no one's ever died from it, it's a plant, and it's safe. And I just want, again, with my education emphasis, I just want to emphasize that it is really very safe. But I do encourage you also, again, the educator in me, I also would like to encourage you, if you're going to try it, which I encourage you to, to keep track, just keep track. I mean, you can get a fun-looking journal, or you can keep a note in your phone, or you can make a spreadsheet, whatever floats your boat in terms of keeping track. But keep track. Just write down what it was, right, what kind it was, it was THC, CBD, what the strain was, what the name of it was, or what the product was, if it was such-and-such gummy, or such-and-such tincture, whether you smoked it, or whether you ate it, what time, what you did, and then how you felt. So, for example, so say you took a gummy at 3 o'clock, you went for a walk at 4 o'clock, and then, so then afterwards, you know, I would assess, and be like, you know what, I took a gummy at 3, went for a walk at 4, by, you know, 4.30, I felt like I could keep going, so I went for, I went to 5, you know, it's an hour walk, you know, and then you could write down, okay, felt motivated, felt energized, felt good, you know, or, or, you know, maybe it's, maybe you're, you did a 30-minute lifting session, where you did some upper body, and then afterwards, you felt a little, started to feel a little stiff in your shoulders, so you used some cream on it, and then in a couple hours, you weren't feeling very stiff at all, or you used it before bed, and you wake up, and you weren't stiff anymore, you know, keep notes, because it helps you, it helps you decide and remember what is working for you. Now, if you like to get really in-depth with the strains, especially if you're inhaling, or if you're really into the strains, then I'm going to run through just a couple of things that I found that are really helpful for, for working out, so if you do like to, these are mostly for flour, if you like to inhale it, then you'll be inhaling the flour. Popular strains for strength training, now, some of these are sativas, and some of these are hybrids. Sativas tend to be a little more energizing, and hybrids tend to have a little bit more of the both energizing and the relaxing, but what you really want to look for, and again, if you're in, if you're in this in-depth, then you want to look for terpenes. I would start to explore sativas, but really look for the terpenes, alpha-pinene, limonene, or beta-carophyllene. Okay, that's alpha-pinene, limonene, limonene, or beta-carophyllene. Those are going to be your most energizing terpenes that are in these strains, and the strains like green crack, great white shark, sour diesel, OG kush, white widow, durban poison, and sour cheese, so those are just examples. Now, another popular way to use it is for the relaxing, right, so the recovery and the cool down, or maybe like a great yoga session, where you're stretching and you're relaxing, it's more of a mindfulness, you know, recovery type of aspect, and in that case, you would want a less, probably a less energizing strain, but a more relaxing strain, so these are indicas and hybrids, and the popular strains for yoga and stretching include blue dream, granddaddy purple, OG kush, train wreck, sour diesel, white widow, and pineapple express. So I got these from Leafly, so Leafly's a great app if you're new to cannabis and you don't know about Leafly, download Leafly on your phone, and you will learn a lot, it's great. So I just wanted to run through some of those in case you're interested in those, but again, if you have any questions or want more help personalizing this, please reach out, this is what I do, and I absolutely love it, I'm super passionate about it, especially if it's going to help you exercise more, if it helps you overcome a barrier to your fitness, then I'm all for it, because everybody needs to be moving, the more we move, the better we feel, and the healthier we are. So I can be reached, my email is Beth at Cannafitnessnutrition.com, I'm on Instagram, it's Beth underscore Cannafitnessnutrition, and I believe you can reach out right through the podcast if you're on your podcast app, and hit me up and let me know what you need help with, or if you have any questions that I can answer, or if you have any other suggestions for things that you'd like to hear me talk about. So I hope that was informational and helpful for you, and I will see you next time.