Can Cannabis Actually Make Exercise Easier?

304. Can Cannabis Actually Make Exercise Easier?

[00:00:05] Hilary Achauer: It’s interesting to me to think about how can we just get more people moving in any way? If someone has chronic pain and cannabis can give them relief to maybe even just go for a walk or do some yoga, that’s, that’s incredible because movement is so important, but it’s not something that’s available to everyone.

[00:00:25] Ellen Scanlon: Welcome to How To Do the Pot, the award-winning podcast, helping you feel confident with cannabis. I’m your host Ellen Scanlon.

[00:00:41] This September feels like a reset to me. School’s back calendars are filling up and it’s a natural time to think about new habits. So maybe it’s a good time to start thinking about a new routine around exercise. Finding the time or the motivation to stay [00:01:00] active can be tricky. So today we’re talking about the role of cannabis in breaking down barriers to movement.

[00:01:07] In the spring of 2024, journalist Hillary Auer wrote an article in the New York Times asking Can weed improve a workout? It turns out the answer is yes, especially for women. By fine tuning your dose, cannabis can lower anxiety, ease chronic pain, and even make workouts feel more joyful. Hillary is an active mom living in San Diego, and she got curious about this after reading a University of Colorado study that found cannabis consumers are actually more active than the general population.

[00:01:45] In today’s episode, Hillary talks about what she learned from that reporting, including stories of women who dramatically changed their relationship to exercise with the help of cannabis, she’ll explain why cannabis can make movement more [00:02:00] enjoyable, and she shares what she discovered from reading the comment section of her article.

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[00:02:59] The Mayo [00:03:00] Clinic and many health experts will tell you that health gets better with movement. Movement is not easy for a lot of people. The stats are that one in five people in this country are in chronic pain, and pain is a huge barrier to physical activity and exercise. Hillary explains more. 

[00:03:23] Hilary Achauer: Most Americans don’t meet the minimum CD, C requirements for exercise, which is 150 minutes of moderate intense physical activity a week.

[00:03:32] So that’s like 30 minutes a day, five days a week. And then on top of that, two days of muscle strengthening activity. So, you know, those are guidelines and. So most people don’t meet that, and we have to think about why people don’t meet that. What are the barriers? I do not agree that it’s a lack of willpower.

[00:03:47] You know? I mean, obviously there are systemic problems and structural problems, like if you’re a single parent, and, but pain could be one of those barriers. So it’s interesting to me to think about how can we just get more people moving in any way? And if this [00:04:00] helps, then I think it’s great. If someone has chronic pain and cannabis can give them relief to maybe even just go for a walk or do some yoga, that’s, that’s incredible because movement is so important, but it’s not something that’s available to everyone.

[00:04:14] Ellen Scanlon: As Hillary reported the story, she learned that eating disorders and anxiety were barriers to movement as well, especially for women. Cannabis seems to be a helpful tool for managing these issues. 

[00:04:27] Hilary Achauer: I realized after thinking about all the people I talked to that. Most of the women had either a history of eating disorder or some kind of anxiety about their body that prevented them from working out regularly or even working out at all.

[00:04:41] If we think back to the messages women get, and negative feelings they might have about their body, that’s gonna prevent you from dropping into your body and enjoying movement. One of the stories. That I interviewed was Morgan who started Stoned and Toned, which is this online membership gym essentially, where you [00:05:00] can access classes and the instructors start at the beginning, say what?

[00:05:04] They’re smoking. I think they’re usually smoking, and then they start the workout and they take little smoke breaks in between. It was super interesting. The woman Morgan who started it said she had an eating disorder and for most of her young life. Exercise was a punishment. It was something that she did to punish herself, you know, or to make herself look a certain way or feel like she can look a certain way.

[00:05:26] And she hated PE class. She hated moving her body. It caused a lot of anxiety. And it wasn’t until college that she started smoking weed. And she told this story about, she was in college, she was smoking weed on her fire escape, and she had a view of the college’s gym. And a thought came into her head, she said she hadn’t thought this for years, et cetera.

[00:05:45] She thought I wanna work out. And so she went across the gym and clicked into the spin bike and started working out. And she said it felt revolutionary and she didn’t have anxiety about what other people were thinking of her. And she just got [00:06:00] in the zone and, and started exercising. So now she moves four or five times a week.

[00:06:05] I mean, she has an exercise company. So that really, for her, transformed the way she approaches movement. 

[00:06:10] Ellen Scanlon: In her New York Times article, Hillary featured another woman whose confidence really improved when she discovered cannabis through the stoned and toned workouts. 

[00:06:22] Hilary Achauer: This woman, Alex, she’s 30 and she lives in Vancouver.

[00:06:25] She has a history with an eating disorder and she’s been in recovery for 11 years and she used to over exercise and then during COVID she got a trainer and she found it triggering. But then she began doing stoned and tone workouts, and she said it was like the first time she felt confident and healthy in her workout routine.

[00:06:45] And like the other woman said, she used to view exercise as a punishment. She just says she kind of, she feels free and she is more consistent than she’s ever been with working out. I feel a lot of sadness for the messages that women have [00:07:00] gotten, even this 30 year olds have gotten, and what has led to them being unable to enjoy that feeling of movement.

[00:07:08] And you know, I was just left with feeling grateful for her and for any person who’s able to find something that really ’cause movement is beautiful. And I wish for anyone to be able to. To discover that and to have that be part of their life. So if cannabis helps, then that’s great. 

[00:07:26] Ellen Scanlon: Hillary spoke to a man who is able to run 30 miles a week despite having some injuries that have caused him pain.

[00:07:34] Hilary Achauer: Your brain always quits before your body does usually, and you start to feel the pain. And he says he doesn’t experience that when he is under the influence of cannabis. It’s a very small dose, but that helps him keep going. Another person I interviewed who didn’t want their name used was saying, and they use cannabis.

[00:07:51] When they were working out, they were less likely to say, that’s too hard. I can’t do that. It’s, it’s just so interesting to me because I love hard workouts, but there may be people who have [00:08:00] some kind of barrier. We’re all different. And this person said they have pretty bad asthma as a, as a kid, and so they doubted their athletic ability and maybe this took away some of that, I don’t know, whatever the barrier was, this helped remove it.

[00:08:14] Ellen Scanlon: We’ve all heard of a runner’s high, that blissful feeling you get after a strenuous workout, and it turns out it’s a real thing. Recent science shows that endorphins long thought to be the source are not what is causing the runner’s high feeling. It’s the endocannabinoid system, a system in our bodies that is similar to the nervous system or the cardiovascular system.

[00:08:40] We all have one, and the role of the endocannabinoid system is to promote homeostasis or balance in the body. The runner’s high feeling relies on the release of endocannabinoids, which are chemical substances that are naturally produced by the body. Exercise increases the levels of [00:09:00] endocannabinoids in your bloodstream.

[00:09:02] Hilary Achauer: People always talked about like the runner’s high, and they were saying you get endorphins from exercising, but that actually has been disproven. And what happens is that your body can produce cannabinoids itself. Well, exercise stimulates that. So when you consume weed before exercise. For people who don’t exercise enough to stimulate their own cannabinoids, then THC or even CBD can stimulate that.

[00:09:25] So you get this quote unquote runner’s high, but our bodies have it within us. Maybe some people can don’t produce those enough on their own. I do definitely feel when I exercise a lot of feelings of wellbeing and really elevates my mood, maybe not everyone, and so maybe they need some help with that.

[00:09:43] Ellen Scanlon: You’re not alone if exercise and cannabis seems a little counterintuitive. Hillary bumped up against a fair amount of stigma and misconceptions about weed while she researched the subject. 

[00:09:56] Hilary Achauer: The biggest one was the couch lock thing. [00:10:00] You know, anytime I talked to anyone in my world that what I was working on, my husband was like, make sure you ask everyone about Couch Lock.

[00:10:07] So I did. And I mean, the thing is the most people I talked to were regular users, and so they kind of were like, this is not a thing. It’s, I mean, they all said it depends on the dosage. So they were using not a lot of it. I think there’s a stigma that you’re gonna be lazy and not wanna move. A lot of times I think people very much equate it to to drinking, and so they’re picturing someone.

[00:10:30] Drinking before working out, and those two are equivalent. So maybe that would be a stigma as well. I think people still have a funny reaction to it. There’s a little bit of a giggling or like it’s amusing. And when I interviewed people it was, everyone took it very seriously. They were all using it or in the world or or doctors who are prescribing it.

[00:10:50] But outside of interviewing for the article, I, yeah, I got a lot of laughing and jokes and talking about you’re just gonna sit on the couch. I think that’s a big misconception for, you know, those of [00:11:00] us who are not in in the industry of like the dosage matters so much. I think a lot of people, yeah, do have a misconception that you’re getting super stoned and then doing these activities.

[00:11:09] Ellen Scanlon: New York based High Richards is the founder of Rage and Release a health and wellness community that empowers people to overcome adversity with a holistic approach. For many years, Ty has appreciated the benefits of cannabis and exercise, especially for running. He still doesn’t think enough people know about it.

[00:11:29] I 

[00:11:30] Thai Richards: was running cross country and playing basketball and running track, and I was also trying to play a little bit of baseball, doing all those things all year round. I realized the difference. When I did smoke, immediately I noticed a difference. Like, like, oh man, like I’m not a sore anymore. Or even just like the aspect of relieving yourself of that anxiety, right.

[00:11:50] When you have a little bit of the right weed before any performance, it kind of enhances it for sure. At least for running it does. I feel like for running, it’s a little bit more freedom to it [00:12:00] because it’s an individual sport. You don’t have the, the necessarily thought process of, I have to worry about an entire team.

[00:12:05] So it is, it is a little bit more liberating in that sense where you can just find yourself in your own world and kind of like moving at your own pace. But I did realize that it was. Such a powerful tool as an athlete because it could put me in the right state of mind. It could help me recover properly.

[00:12:19] It could help me meditate on the right things. So there were all of those positive aspects that I was like, why isn’t anybody talking about this enough? 

[00:12:27] Ellen Scanlon: When Ty realized that people he respected in the fitness community were secretly using cannabis, he decided to become more public about it. It hasn’t been easy, but he’s committed to sharing the benefits of cannabis for active people.

[00:12:42] Thai Richards: I was a part of all of those different gym openings here in New York and I was realizing a lot of the master trainers of these gyms and a lot of the head people of these industries, they, they smoke weed. And I’m like, so you guys are not gonna tell anybody that weed is awesome for what you’re doing and it actually helps you with your day to [00:13:00] day.

[00:13:00] You guys are scared of your, your reputation. You guys are scared of being labeled a stoner and all these different things. So I said, I’m gonna go for it. I’m going to take the brunt of all the punishment that most people are afraid of, and I’m gonna create something knowing that at some point in time.

[00:13:15] Not knowing when, because I started my business in 2015. I’ve lost so many deals. We’ve taken so many losses due to being affiliated with cannabis. ’cause people don’t take, um, fitness and cannabis seriously. You know, so understanding that that needed to be done, I was like, we’re gonna be gung-ho about this and we’re gonna lean into it as much as possible.

[00:13:36] I’m gonna do it in the most holistic ways possible, and hopefully I can convince some people that it is not what it all seems to be. 

[00:13:42] Ellen Scanlon: Being public about cannabis was a question I had for Hillary too. She was surprised to find that reader comments about her cannabis and exercise article were overwhelmingly positive and supportive.

[00:13:55] Hilary Achauer: There. All of a sudden this wave of people coming in saying like, listen, like this is [00:14:00] really, yes, I do this. And it’s not only young people, I don’t know if, I’m sure the readership is older, but certainly the commenters and my experience tend to be. 60, 70 ish. So there’s a lot of people coming in and saying, yeah, wake up.

[00:14:12] Like I’ve been doing this for many years and I’m 65, I’m 70. Or talking about their experiences. So it did surprise me how many positive comments that I got and how many people kind of pushing back on traditional reaction, which was like, oh, either laughing about it, you know, making jokes about it or saying This is irresponsible.

[00:14:34] Ellen Scanlon: If cannabis can help you move more, that is the goal. 

[00:14:38] Hilary Achauer: Most people are not exercising as much as they should, and so I kind of feel like my overarching goal or North Star is what can help people move more, so I’m in favor of whatever does that. 

[00:14:53] Ellen Scanlon: If exercise has ever felt like a chore, cannabis might be the thing that helps you enjoy it.

[00:14:58] Again, whether [00:15:00] it’s yoga, running on a treadmill, or taking a long hike, I hope this conversation helps you find more ways to feel good in your body and keep moving. Here’s something I’ve been thinking about as we head into fall. It’s not just workouts that people are rethinking. A new Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans that say they drink alcohol is at the lowest level in nearly 90 years for the first time.

[00:15:30] Most people believe even moderate drinking is bad for your health, and women especially are leading this shift. So over the next few weeks, along with more stories about cannabis and exercise, I’ll be sharing conversations about drinking less, trying new rituals, and how small swaps can have a big impact on your health.

[00:15:54] Stay tuned.[00:16:00] 

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[00:16:24] It really helps people find the show. Thank you to writer Joanna Silver and producers Maddie Fair and Nick Petri. I am Melon Scanlan, and stay tuned for more of how to do the.