According to new research, the “lazy stoner” myth may soon become a thing of the past.
Researchers from the University of Miami and the Brookings Institution looked at data from 20,745 people starting in their teenage years, during the years of 1994 to 2018. The study looked at two time periods in the participants’ lives, when they were aged 24 to 32 and aged 34 to 42, and compared exercise patterns and if they had consumed cannabis or not.
The analysis found no connection between cannabis consumption and exercise patterns, meaning cannabis consumers were no more or less likely to be active than non-users. Some of the participants showed researchers that the actual link between cannabis and exercise is users tend to exercise more than non-users.
“We were curious about the results,” Michael French, lead author on the study, said. “Going into it, we thought, if anything, there would be some negative relationships depending upon how much marijuana you consume. We thought that it is pretty likely that heavy marijuana users were going to be significantly less likely to exercise and significantly less likely to exercise frequently. But that didn’t come out, even for heavy users.”
The study is one of the few to look at the link between cannabis consumption and exercise, but more research is needed as this study didn’t account for the dose or the type of cannabis consumed. Some of the participants may have been consuming CBD-based products for exercise as opposed to consuming the THC and getting high for the workout or for recovery.
A previous study found when cannabis consumers use cannabis within an hour before exercise or four hours after exercise, they tend to work out for longer times than non-consumers. The results showed that cannabis consumers had longer workouts, with an average of 43 minutes longer for aerobic exercise and 30 minutes longer for anaerobic exercise. Another study found 65 percent of Americans believe an active lifestyle can include cannabis, and one in three Americans said cannabis helps increase their workout productivity.
