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Plenty of people view marijuana as a relatively harmless drug compared to the other ones out there on the marketplace but I think most of us can agree calling it “healthy” would be a bit of a stretch.
Sure, there are some weed aficionados out there who function pretty well after they consume it via their vehicle of choice—some people say sativas can actually increase productivity—but common knowledge dictates smoking weed ends up with you cemented to your couch shoveling Andy Capp’s Hot Fries down your gullet more often than not.
However, sometimes common knowledge—much like John Denver in Dumb and Dumber—is full of shit.
According to MarketWatch, a group of researchers at (naturally) the University of Colorado recently conducted a study in which they asked 600 people in states where weed is legal about their workout habits in relation to the drug.
According to their findings, 80% of the people surveyed said they do the weed an hour or less before working out—which seems pretty…high—while two-thirds of respondents said they ingest marijuana in various forms both before and within four hours after their exercise session.
Even more surprising was the fact that people who incorporate weed into their workouts average 43 minutes more per week of exercise than smokers who don’t, which led professor Angela Bryan to say:
“There is a stereotype that cannabis use leads people to be lazy and couch-locked and not physically active, but these data suggest that this is not the case.”
It’s worth noting “only” around 40% of people surveyed said they felt that using weed before working out helped their performance and the researchers said they didn’t necessarily encourage people to start incorporating it into their routine despite the findings.
The one major downside to the study was that researchers didn’t compare their findings to people who don’t partake in the drug, so the “lazy” stereotype might still be true in the big picture.
With that said,, feel free to tell yourself—and anyone who judges you—that it isn’t based on these results.