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CU Boulder Studying Cannabis Effects on Exercise Attitudes, Motivation

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While there are already numerous published research studies looking at the effect of cannabis on the body when exercising, researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) are looking at the relationship between cannabis and attitudes surrounding exercise, specifically, according to a report from Westword.

Laurel Gibson is a graduate student at CU Boulder pursuing her Ph.D. in social psychology and is looking at the changing beliefs surrounding cannabis use and exercise through CU’s Study on Physical Activity and Cannabis Effects, or SPACE, observational study that follows runners after they smoke cannabis.

“We’re just looking at how acute cannabis use influences factors associated with regular exercise,” Gibson said. “Some common barriers that people cite are pain levels or enjoyment, motivation, etc.”

Gibson and her team have worked to recruit volunteers in the Boulder area since August to participate in the research, looking to put 52 adult volunteers through three different sessions of cannabis use and exercise.

The first session is a short written and physical test, with each volunteer randomly assigned THC- or CBD-dominant flower. During the second session, they will be asked to complete a sober, 30-minute run on a campus treadmill. The third session will have volunteers use the product in their homes, a mobile pharmacology lab will pick them up, and they will return to a campus treadmill for another observed, 30-minute run.

Gibson said that the majority of lab research on cannabis was conducted decades ago, in the 1970s and ‘80s, using low-THC, government-grown cannabis, focusing on details that are irrelevant to her aim.

Angela Bryan, Gibson’s graduate supervisor and a professor of psychology and neuroscience since 1999, said the small studies from that time showed there seemed to be either no effect or a slight negative effect of cannabis use on exercise performance and that these looked at exercise performance, “not exercise participation, which is really what we’re more interested in.”

The research at CU with SPACE is rather looking at how a person’s overall experience is affected while exercising under the influence of today’s cannabis products, including edibles and more complex strains and cannabinoids.

“We’re trying to figure out how this influences people’s engagement in exercises and helps them get up and moving,” Gibson said. “From a public-health perspective, that’s what matters more to us.”

Conversely, a recent study showed physical activity boosts the body’s own endocannabinoids, ultimately helping to reduce inflammation and treat certain medical conditions, along with helping to promote a sense of euphoria.

“Our study clearly shows that exercise increases the body’s own cannabis-type substances. Which can have a positive impact on many conditions,” the study’s author Dr. Amrita Vijay, a research fellow with the University of Nottingham’s school of medicine in England, said in a news release. “As interest in cannabidiol [CBD] oil and other supplements increases, it is important to know that simple lifestyle interventions like exercise can modulate endocannabinoids.”

Though, the idea that cannabinoids can positively impact one’s motivation to be active, along with contributing to other factors like enjoyment and recovery, is less studied and could be game-changing for serious athletes.

Some athletes, like ultrarunner Heather Mashhoodi, are already sold. She runs regular marathons and was already experimenting with the effects of THC when she found the study.

“I’ll pop it half way through my long run, and it takes the pain away and kind of enhances those effects that we think are due to the endocannabinoid system,” Mashhoodi said.

Mashhoodi added that cannabis can help shift the focus on running from trying to look good or prove something to feeling more connected to the places she’s running.

“It’s probably different for everyone, right? For me, it just gets me more into nature and out of myself. There’s some research done that suggests that externalization is a better long-term motivator, so better for endurance,” she said.

The SPACE research team said the study’s data collection is set to wrap up by spring of 2022.