Marijuana in Martial arts

This thread got me thinking a bit.
Maybe the effect of people performing better on drugs etc comes from the overall relaxing effect?
I know some people tend to screw things up because they are overly tense and nervous. Wouldn't exactly try it as a training aid but the idea isn't completely without merit.

I know anecdote!=data but there's a sweet spot between two and five pints where i am a god in billiards. Too little and i miss the critical shots, too much and i miss every shot

 

I concur. I'm the same with snooker and beer, It usually takes about 2 games and a couple of pints before i can relax into the game, and 2 frames and a couple of pints later on i can't find the pointy end of the cue.

Just for the record: I would not recommend anyone taking any drug or any other potentially harmful past time. It is for them to decide. Some of my most unhappy memories (of friends and family) are linked to alcohol and football (not always hand-in-hand). Other sad times are to do with infidelity and greed and jealousy.

 

I am the Master of drunken boxing and high kwon do.

 

also dont factor out genetics. some people are just predisposed genetically to operate at a higher capacity than others. in so doing perhaps they limit themselves by smoking marijuana and would be even better without the usage.

like someone mentioned, i also have a friend who is a second dgree bb in tkd and she smokes constantly. she also runs 5 miles everyday and can outfight a lot of people younger than her.

i believe some people are just naturally born with a better ability to adjust, defeat, heal and overcome negative outside influences against their body than others.

 

Reading all of the replies it seems that many people here thought the initial question was about using marijuana (ie. being high) while they train in their chosen martial art(s). I didn't perceive the question that way. My earlier reply was input as to its occasional, recreational use the way many consume alcohol.

Obviously, training in an altered state, regardless of the source, is dangerous for everyone involved.

 

The rumour I heard about Bruce Lee and marijuana is that he enjoyed the space cakes. Cant remember where I read/heard about it but to other members of the MA community I have met over the years (strangely Bruce Lee and weed has come up a lot) also said the same thing.

Anyhoo.. in the UK pot is mixed with tobacco mostly and the reason I was led to believe as to why people who smoked weed had more damage to the lungs was due to the elongated smoke inhalation with pot compared to normal cigarettes.

When smoking normal cigarettes, one breathes in, then out after roughly a second, whilst when smoking cannabis one tends to hold the smoke in longer. The simple equation of "Smoke in lungs longer = worse"

Regarding training while high / hungover. I've never done so, so I cant comment on that. I have trained while ill and paid for it dearly. Doctors advised that as my body was attempting to battle the virus, then putting my body under heavy stress of training drained more body further.
Basically I got home, more or less collapsed, flooded my bed with sweat and slept for nearly over 13-14hrs.

Now heres my "no offence...but" part, but smoking/drugs is bad for you, therefore starting it is not a good idea in the 1st place, but considering it is not "as bad as I thought" through the reasoning of "cos _____ and ____ does it" is even worse of an ideal.

 

At least over here on the west coast, a LOT of people use pot, and it doesn't interfere with their lives at all. You can walk down the street here in Vancouver smoking a joint, and the worst thing that'll happen is you MIGHT get a ticket from a cop. Most likely though a cop who saw you would either just take it away from you or ignore you altogether. Weed use is so common here that if the police tried to arrest everyone who did it we'd soon end up with jails full of perfectly normal people, while the real criminals escaped notice because the police would have their hands full with harmless pot users.

In these parts, the stigma of pot as some type of forbidden substance is pretty much gone, and that actually seems to have had a profound effect on the culture of people using it. Most people who indulge use it to relax after a day at work, or to have a good time unwinding with friends, much in the same way people use alcohol. My circle of friends all use marijuana much more often than alcohol, because it's generally not as harmful, the effect of the high is more fun, and you feel pretty much 100% back to normal the next day. It's not seen as a "hard" illicit substance for people to do when they want to be naughty or when they're feeling desperate, but more as something on par with a glass of wine after work or even having coffee with friends. It's very much an acceptable part of the lifestyle, and isn't the destroyer of lives and killer of youth that a lot of people make it out to seem.

 

Wait until they have their first breakdown then either give up or use it as a crutch and smoke all day. It's like drink, by the time you realise you haves problem it's too late. Much more subtle though, makes it even worse in a way.

 

Gonna have to disagree with you there, Moi. Just as the majority of people who use alcohol do so in moderation, the majority of pot users, at least around here, do so responsibly.

 

I don't know anyone that doesn't smoke weed ('cept family) and every one of them has lost the plot somewhere along the line. It's the nature of the beast, everything is great until something big and bad happens, then they find they've lost their ability to cope. Every single one but then I've got 20 years on you.
Even worse with the skunk they now grow, no dopamine to keep you sane

 

Wait, am I misreading you or did you just say that EVERYONE you know except your family smokes pot and subsequently went batty because of it?! Anyway, my $.02, weed is a drug and like all drugs it has it pros and cons. Weather or not it's worth it for you is a decision only you can make. For me and some people I know its been a very positive thing for others its been quite harmful. After-all, everyones got their vices, it's just a matter of finding the right one for you and not letting it mess up other aspect of your life, like your MA training.

 

I used to smoke cigs and train.

It felt like crap, from chest pain to serious headaches.

I've quit now for over a month, and the difference that I see in my body is astounding.

I also live in the west coast and have tried both Marijuana and Salvia. I have known several ex-friends who constatly smoked weed, one of them has asthma, and they don't seemed to have been affected physically. I believe it has more of a psychological impact because they are all in dead-end jobs, dropped out of college, or living home with mum with no work. Talking about people in their 20s-late twenties here.

Salvia was something I would not do ever again. I tried it once, got in a fight with all my mates, tried to jump people in the street, and might have broken somethings that I shouldn't have before I realized what the hell I was doing.

I have not tried anything illegal ever since. I haven't drunk or smoked either, and I find my life more fulfilling as I'm in college and working on something I would want to do for the rest of my life.

I have a friend who had it all, going to one of the best colleges, girl who loves him, great family who supports him, and he almost lost it all due to drugs.

You don't need these things in your life.

 

I have to agree with Moi. I spent a few years of my life doing pretty much nothing other than smoking weed and eventually it screwed my head so bad that I didn't trust a single person on the planet for another 4 years.

A lot of posters here may say that I wasn't smoking responsibley, and I'll have to agree, but now when I hear about all the people I knew who "smoked responsibley" have completely wigged out I'm glad It hit me so hard eraly on.

Most of the discussion here has been about the physical health effects from marijauna, and that is why the psychological damage hits so many people. Everyone is telling eachother that pot is better than tobacco or alcohol or what ever that no one sees the danger of a severe head screwing.

With all that said, the main danger of weed is that it makes you feel okay with being bored, and that does not mix with how I train.

 

Where do you get the money for it? What do you do if you can't afford it after a while. Who,what kind of person do you get it from?

Would you get in a car and drive. Would you know when to keep your mouth shut.What would you tell the police if you have an incedent.

WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO START??????????????

 

you tend not to mix with normal people if you smoke a bit. I started when I was 11, by 13 I was having a smoke for breakfast. Pretty much everyone I've ever known has been a criminal or a drug user. I'm 44 in a couple of months and made my first straight post on Map a couple of weeks ago.
I'm writing all this as a warning to the younger members that consider pot a soft drug.
Koyo, an ounce of cheap weed used to be £40 until a couple of years ago, now it's £60. That's more than enough for a week. Easily affordable by most people.

Edit: just thought - people at the gym don't smoke, only 1 I'd class as a friend and it's his gym. Straight mate - wow!

 

alot of weed smokers will exagurate its benefits and properties but studies have also shown that it does indeed have medicinal properties and that it doesnt make you go crazy and kill everyone after 1 toke. Most of the mental effects are in people who are predisposed to mental illness already.

the media make it out much worse than it really is, im not a big fan of it especially not these days and it excelled my already existing anxiety. But if were going on a safety basis its much safer to use in moderation than alcohol or cigarettes.

 

I just don't buy this..it is safer than booze or cigarettes, That is not the point. DO NOT put ANY crap into your system..common sense.

 

See Koyo has the same outlook as me when it comes to marijuana and other drugs.

But just seeing people like Bruce Lee and Eddie Bravo be icons in something that requires athleticism while doing those things... Kinda make me think that... "Hey maybe they aren't as bad as I make them out to be" < Not saying I would ever do it myself. Because I'm still not going to pick up those habits.

 

Do you not breathe or live in the far, far north????

 

yep I am a Scotsman..and I was a guitarist in a Rock band during the seventies and eighties.....bit of a paradox isn't it???

I worked for years in deprived areas of Glasgow and saw first hand the effect of drugs usually starting with mary jane,,so I am predjudiced.