Cannabis for Athletes: How to Use Weed for Recovery Without Tanking Your Performance

Cannabis can fit into an athlete's routine as a recovery tool, helping some people with sleep, soreness and pre-game nerves, but it doesn't boost performance, and using it right before training or competing tends to make you slower, not better. The trick is to use cannabis strategically, on your downtime, so it supports your training instead of getting in its way.

That means understanding how different strains and cannabinoids affect your body and mind, and dialing in your use to complement your training plan, not replace it.

In this guide, we'll look at how athletes are bringing cannabis into their routines, from choosing the right strains to getting the dose right. You'll see where cannabis may help with things like focus, motivation and recovery, and how to steer clear of the downsides that could hurt your game.

With the right approach, cannabis can be a useful ally for your athletic life, helping you hit your goals in a more balanced way.

Weed and exercise in professional sports

Despite a history of bans and suspensions, pro sports are slowly loosening up their cannabis rules. The subject is still taboo, but marijuana use among elite athletes keeps growing.

Big names like Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, Allen Iverson, Carmelo Anthony and Conor McGregor have admitted to using marijuana or its therapeutic and medical derivatives. It's a trend that points to a real shift in the sports world.

A changing culture in pro sports

Sports are entering a new phase where athletes' voices carry more and more weight. League officials and sports organizations are starting to recognize that the athletes are the ones putting in the work and winning the championships.

As Rodney Wallace, a former Costa Rican soccer player and founder of the organic CBD brand Rewind, puts it: “The people ‘upstairs’ are opening their eyes and realizing that banning cannabis only hurts the game.” Wallace points out that cannabis can help athletes deal with issues like migraines, insomnia, physical pain and anxiety, though it doesn't directly improve physical performance.

How sports are starting to accept cannabis

More and more, pro sports are realizing how important it is to look after athletes' physical, mental and emotional well-being. Rachael Rapinoe, a former US soccer player and CEO of the CBD company Mendi, says: “There's enough evidence supporting cannabis as a natural option to help with stress, anxiety and overall wellness.”

Rapinoe and her sister Megan, the soccer star, promote non-psychoactive cannabis (CBD) for medical and therapeutic use.

The challenges ahead for cannabis in sports

Despite growing acceptance, the stigma around cannabis is still a hurdle. The case of Sha'Carri Richardson, the sprinter who was suspended after testing positive for cannabis at the US trials and missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, shows how much public perception still needs to change.

Olympic hurdler Devon Allen predicted that by the 2024 Olympics cannabis would be accepted in sports (a prediction that didn't pan out): “There's too much science backing the therapeutic use of CBD and THC products.”

Beating the stigma

The stigma around cannabis, often tied to crime and laziness, is still alive in a lot of places. Ayesha McGowan, a cyclist and activist, says: “Until we stop associating cannabis with criminality, people are going to stay away.” Still, more and better information about cannabis is slowly changing that perception.

Smoking weed and working out: the potential benefits

Current research suggests cannabis may help with physical recovery, sleep and anxiety, and that it has real therapeutic potential. There's still a long way to go, but a growing body of evidence suggests the plant could play a useful role in athletes' well-being, more on the recovery side than in performance itself.

What do experts say about cannabis and athletic performance?

The American Medical Association's (AMA) position on cannabis has been called “untenable and outdated” by Jordan Tishler, a physician and cannabis specialist at Inhale MD in Boston.

But Tishler is also clear: “If anything, marijuana is a performance-degrading drug. Peak performance (maximum strength, top speed, max VO2) isn't likely to happen when you're using cannabis.”

How cannabis affects athletic performance

Cannabis effects can include altered body movements, trouble thinking and solving problems, breathing issues and a faster heart rate, none of which help you perform at your best.

Tishler explains that “if you inhale it, the effects will last three to four hours, and if you take it orally, eight to 12 hours.” That said, how long the effects last also depends on the person and their tolerance, adds Ryan Vandrey, professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

Vandrey notes that while cannabis can help with sleep, there may be some leftover cognitive impairment the next day. “We still haven't established the time window after which impairment from cannabis is no longer a concern,” he explains.

Not enough hard data

Vandrey also points out the lack of solid data on how cannabis affects athletic performance. “People claim there's a benefit, and you can make a theoretical case that marijuana could be debilitating, but the fact is nobody has taken the time to research it in depth and settle it. In the absence of data, all we can do is guess and speculate,” he says.

What recent research has found

A scientific review published in April 2021 in The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness concluded that marijuana use “does not act as a sport performance-enhancing agent as popular beliefs suggest.”

The review found that using cannabis before exercise should be avoided if you want to maximize performance, since it reduces athletes' ability to sustain effort, raises heart rate, breathing rate and the heart muscle's oxygen demand, and can throw off your balance.

Bottom line: cannabis won't give you a competitive edge, and using it before you play can actually make you more likely to lose.