Marijuana Health Benefits: How Weed Can Help You Get in Shape

Posted by Daily Health Alerts in Natural Health

Common beliefs about marijuana are usually pretty bad. Some still think that marijuana is a bad drug like cocaine, some believe that smoking weed makes you stupid, and some even claim that people become lazy and slow because of marijuana.

But, by choosing the right cannabis products, marijuana can actually help you improve your health, mental state and even help you achieve your fitness goals. Marijuana is being legalized in various countries and soon enough it will probably be legal in your country too.

And why is it being legalized?

It’s being legalized because marijuana is a true gift of alternative medicine. So, let’s see how this herb can help you not only deal with stress and anxiety but also get in shape.

Cannabis can provide you with additional energy

You might find this hard to believe but marijuana can actually give you an energy boost for your workouts. When used the right way and in moderate doses, marijuana can provide you with an adrenaline kick which will make you want to dominate in the gym.

However, this benefit owes a lot more to CBD than to THC. High CBD products can help you get an additional energy kick before a workout. You know how you feel drained after work and the only thing you’d like to do then is go straight home and kick back in front of your TV. Well, CBD will change that, CBD impacts your mood.

It will elevate it and give you a small energy boost that you need so much. CBD is well known for its anti-anxiety, laming effects but it can also have a stimulating effect. And sometimes we just need that extra bit of motivation to get going. Just remember, this can only work if you consume it properly.

It’s anti-inflammatory

Are you familiar with this situation? You’ve gone to the gym, put in a good workout, finished up cleaning yourself afterwards and somewhere on your way home you start noticing that your muscles are aching. Oh yes, it’s muscle soreness time. Isn’t that soreness annoying? Well, if you think it is, you’ll be glad to learn that cannabis has anti-inflammatory properties which help considerably in a post-workout recovery process.

Thanks to this benefit, your muscles and joints will recover faster and consequently get stronger after you’re done with the workout. That will help you stay fitter and injury-free in the long run. For example, topical lotion-type products or patches help with specifically sore areas and baths help with full body healing.

However, smoking pot or vaping can also help you get that much-needed relief from the muscle soreness. You know how difficult it can be to get out of bad after the leg day? Surely you do.

Well, now you can do something about it. Places where marijuana is legal like Las Vegas often have specialized stores that sell all types of marijuana products.

That’s why it’s easy for you to stay fit and healthy if your town acknowledges the benefits of this herb like they do with quality marijuana in Las Vegas. If that’s still not the case, wait a little bit more, it will be legal soon.

Greg Gerdeman’s testimony

If you’re still on the fence about this marijuana – fitness relationship, hear what a Florida neuroscientist, Greg Gerdeman has to say. Gerdeman has studied how marijuana works in the brain for 20 years. He was a graduate student in Vanderbilt University’s pharmacology program in the mid-90s when scientists first started to understand the endocannabinoid system. Years of work resulted in the following facts.

People produce a range of chemical compounds that are called endocannabinoids which help us keep our bodies stable by binding to receptors on cell membranes and controlling the release of chemical messengers that control everything from how we experience pain to our moods.

Even though our endocannabinoid systems naturally help maintain a state of stability, we can be thrown off balance by physical conditions like multiple sclerosis, various cancer treatments and toilsome physical activity. How can we defy that, we can do that by introducing cannabinoids that are produced outside the body.

Marijuana, of course, produces various cannabinoids. We’ve mentioned CBD and THC since they are the most popular. These are not exactly like the ones our bodies produce but they act pretty much in the same way.

They help with swelling reduction, nerve pain relief and they improve volatile moods. Mr. Gerdeman took part in a study in 2012 that suggests the joy many runners feel is directly connected to an increase in our bodies’ cannabinoid production. And by boosting this effect through plant-based cannabinoids, we can boost our health and make our workouts more enjoyable.

Munchies have been debunked

Considering that you’re a fitness aficionado, surely you’ll be interested to hear a thing or two on how marijuana impacts your body weight. You’ve probably heard of munchies and how allegedly people who smoke weed get fat and lazy. In reality, that’s not the case.

Munchies happen because our taste buds are intensified following the marijuana intake. Taste buds go crazy and we look for food. However, there is a study in the Journal of Obesity that claims that regular weed smokers are less likely to be obese than non-smokers.

This study involved 700 adults and it turns out that cannabis users tend to have low body mass index scores. And you can’t be fit while being fat. That’s plain and simple. Also, lower BMI means lower chance of getting diabetes. Just remember, using it in moderation needs to be a priority. Being thin is a good effect, wouldn’t you agree?

Conclusion

There is no denying that marijuana has numerous beneficial effects on our health. And one day it will be legal world-wide. That’s inevitable. Many professional athletes brag about consuming it, many health professionals recommend it too and there is no reason why everyone wouldn’t be able to consume it one day.

Hopefully, you are now aware of how this herb can help you on your fitness journey.

Luke is a fitness and health blogger at Ripped.me and a great fan of the gym and a healthy diet. He follows the trends in fitness, gym and healthy life and loves to share his knowledge through useful and informative articles.