Educational Feature ►
Terps and Sports
How Can Cannabis Take Your Game Up a Notch ?
by Rocco Scarcello , contributing writer
As the Show-Me State heads into the warmer months and people get back outdoors , more Missouri athletes have access to legal cannabis products than ever before . Regardless of whether you ’ re playing slow-pitch softball , basketball , volleyball , or speed walking , you are still an athlete and should put as much effort into your recovery as you do into your performance !
In the not-so-distant past , cannabis stigma led people to wrongly believe it would hinder recovery time for athletes as opposed to helping them , which has scientific and research backing . Let ’ s look at what research says about cannabis and athletic recovery and a few different terpenes athletes might want to try to combat their aches and ailments .
First and foremost , make sure your team or league isn ’ t drug testing for cannabis . This might not be of concern to recreational pickleball players , but it is to college athletes in almost every instance . Multiple professional sports leagues — notably including the PGA , NBA , NHL , NFL , and MLB — have eliminated cannabis testing or relaxed its testing or punishment considerably in recent years . However , while the NCAA may have raised the positive test threshold from 35 to 150 nanograms per milliliter , a college athlete should still be careful not to break their individual team or institution ’ s internal policies . As a former college athlete , my team saw preventing cannabis use for recovery ( or at all ) as a priority , and so will other teams , so stay diligent !
A study published in the Journal of Cannabis Science ( Pinzone , A . G ., Erb , E . K ., Humm , S . M . et al .) 1 in August 2023 examined people who engage in athletic activity and use CBD or THC as a recovery method . While more research is needed and will begin to receive funding as the government continues the march toward federal cannabis descheduling and legalization , peer-reviewed studies such as these are instrumental in finding the need and justification for said research .
In the study by Pinzone , A . G ., Erb , E . K ., Humm , S . M . et al . section “ Results : Cannabis for recovery ”: “ Twenty-two participants ( 20 %) reported using CBD for recovery from aerobic exercise , and 25 participants ( 23 %) reported CBD use to recover from resistance exercise . Sixty-eight participants ( 61 %) reported using THC after aerobic exercise for recovery . Similarly , 67 participants ( 60 %) reported using THC after resistance exercise for recovery . When participants were asked , ‘ Do you feel that cannabis in the form of CBD aids in your recovery ?’ 93 % stated ‘ yes ’ while 7 % stated , “ I ’ m not sure .’ When asked , ‘ Do you feel that THC aids in your recovery ?’, 87 % of participants stated , ‘ yes ’ while 13 % stated , ‘ I ’ m not sure ’. No participant answered , ‘ no ,’ for either of these questions . All of the participants felt that use of cannabis was low risk regarding health outcomes .”
While the study looked at a plethora of topics , including how cannabis aids in sleep and pain relief and how the intensity of the consumer ’ s performance varied with CBD and THC consumption ( concluding that the survey essentially finds a correlation between CBD / THC and recovery , despite a clear need for additional research ), one sneaky-butimportant aspect to consider here is the last sentence of the quoted section . While the vast majority of participants felt that cannabis directly benefits their recovery process , ALL of the participants felt that use of cannabis was low-risk regarding health outcomes . In a world where generations of athletes were shunned or suspended for using cannabis , professional and recreational athletes alike are beginning to show opposition to sleep medicine , pain medicine , etc ., deferring to sticky-icky for their relief instead .
The New York Times reported on the topic in July 2021 as well . In one portion of the article , Anahad O ’ Connor , health reporter , wrote : “ In another 2019 survey , Angela Bryan , a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado Boulder , and her colleagues recruited about 600 regular cannabis users and quizzed them on their use of the drug . Dr . Bryan suspected that cannabis would make people less physically active . But to her surprise , roughly half of the people in the study said that cannabis motivated them to exercise . More than 80 percent of cannabis users said that they regularly used it around the time of their workouts . Seventy percent said that marijuana increased their enjoyment of exercise , and roughly 80 percent said that it helped them recover .” 2
40 April 2024