“I thought it’s all about healthy living” is the bullshit I hear all the time. The fitness industry is full of yoga instructors and crossfitters who think less is more. But not in Bodybuilding. Bodybuilding is a sport where more is more. It is the first extreme sport and as such every and any stone will be unturned looking for the keys to success.
For some its about being healthy, but for most it is about looking incredible and being superhuman! For this reason many bodybuilders smoke marijuana in order to make their diet food actually taste good enough for them to shovel 5-7,000 calories of chicken and rice in every day. It also helps keep your anger in check and facilitates a good mind muscle connection: the ability to feel the muscles.
Now For The Bad
First, like Mr. Mackey said, inhaling smoke is bad. The healthier way to consume Marijuana is either as a baked good, which no bodybuilder would eat, or vaporizer. Now people are using the refillable e-cigs and loading them with liquid THC. That’s a safe way to deliver vaporized THC to the blood. THC is the active component in Marijuana.
One of the concerns men have is the bitch tits, or Gynecomastia, which marijuana causes. People for years have assumed it is because marijuana causes an estrogen effect. Below I will delve into this subject and elucidate this confusing issue.
Marijuana And The Estrogen Receptor
A study was done with a few different preparations of marijuana to determine their effect on the estrogen receptor. Refined THC did not compete with estradiol for the estrogen receptor and binding did not occur. Surprisingly this was not the case for the other tested groups. Marijuana smoke, crude marijuana extract, and super high concentration cannabidiol did bind to the estrogen receptor. They did not however elicit any effect when binding, neither an agonistic or antagonistic effect.
Why does marijuana bind but THC, the active ingredient, not bind? Because it is the phytoestrogen subcomponent apigenin that is the binding agent. This means that apigenin is a part of the Marijuana plant which isn’t the functional part, THC. This apigenin binds to the estrogen receptor but doesn’t do anything…or does it?
This study in question was done on uterine tissue. This is a tissue not found in men. Perhaps the apigenin acts on different tissue differently. It must have a different action on a male pituitary because marijuana was found in a separate study to inhibit Luteinizing Hormone (LH), Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH), and Prolactin (P) from the pituitary. It also causes an increase in Androgen Binding Protein synthesis and release.
Androgen Binding Protein
Androgen Binding Protein (ABP) is actually the exact same thing as Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG). The difference is its location of manufacture. The sertoli cells in the seminiferous tubules in the testes receive a signal from FSH and they begin to produce ABP. ABP then binds to testosterone, DHT and surprisingly estradiol and this complex rests in the testes and facilitates the maturation of sperm.
How exactly marijuana can cause a decrease of FSH but an increase in ABP is beyond me. Of special note is the connection with an article I just wrote on estrogen causing prostate cancer. In it I mentioned that estrogen binds to SHBG and that complex amplifies the DHT influence on prostate cancer growth. This could indicate marijuana smoke can possibly accelerate the rate of prostate cancer growth.
What Does This Mean?
What this means is regardless of the function of apigenin on uterine tissue the bottom line is that the testes don’t convert cholesterol into testosterone because the testes are not signaled to by LH since the marijuana causes the pituitary not to release LH. And the androgen binding proteins are released to mop up free testosterone. The result is a decrease of total and free testosterone and a relative increase of estrogen as its the ratio of testosterone:estrogen which determines masculinity declines.
So, as one uses marijuana they become less masculine. For bodybuilders this means their steroids or prohormones are cancelled out in some degree by the marijuana and it facilitates testicular shutdown in a major way.
Despite marijuana increasing your appetite and allowing you to eat more, less of what you eat turns to muscle and more of what you eat turns to fat because of the feminization effect of marijuana.
Additional Concerns
Cardiovascular strain and increased workload on the heart may result in decreased gym performance. It does Increase plasma volume though. This is the solvent in the blood. As anabolics increase red blood cell production the blood gets thicker and get this, to cure bodybuilders of having super thick blood and possible iron overdose it wasn’t unheard of for them to remove blood.
Yep, in the 21st century bodybuilders were resorting to bleeding like its 2,000 BC greece! Medicine goes full circle once again. This means if marijuana dilutes the blood then it would alleviate the viscosity issues from anabolics, and render the bleeding obsolete.
The Munchies
We have all heard that weed makes you eat junk food. We have also heard It causes estrogen issues. In the above section, we have covered the estrogen angle, now let’s address how your appetite is influenced by marijuana.
Marijuana and Appetite!
Marijuana increases levels of Ghrelin and Leptin but has no effect on insulin. This means it increases the hormone, ghrelin, that makes you target junk food and makes you more addicted to addictive food than if you ate it when you weren’t hungry. It also increases the hormone, leptin, which competes with ghrelin and has the opposite effect.
If it increases both of them then the reputation of people falling victim to their food cravings indicates that either the magnitude of the ghrelin increase is greater than that of the leptin, or the effect of ghrelin is stronger in the types of people who use marijuana.
Best part is it does NOT increase insulin! This means at least you have a fighting chance to make smart munchie ideas and have some of those calories turn to muscle and not fat. If you stick to your diet food when your having a craving, and that food is low in carbs, there won’t be an insulin spike and the food may be used to regenerate damaged muscle from that day’s festivities. Not stored as fat.
The Cannabinoid receptor CB1 has an antagonist Rimonabant (SR141716). When this receptor was blocked by this antagonist the release of ghrelin was decreased. Thus it is an indirect mechanism that causes ghrelin increase from marijuana use. One could use GHRP-6 to stimulate the ghrelin receptors to get the appetite inducing effects of marijuana without getting high, or one could use marijuana and SR141716 to get high without getting hungry. Likewise one could use SR141716 while dieting to suppress ghrelin and thus hunger.
The big advantage of using both is while dieting is the marijuana will increase the leptin levels and the SR141716 will decrease ghrelin thus resulting in a shift towards appetite suppression and fat loss. But guess what, its not necessary!
Turns out that the way leptin suppresses appetite is through Neuropeptide Y (NPY) and that the SR141716 suppresses Neuropeptide Y as well. So all you really need is SR141716 to have complete reduction in your appetite, or GHRP-6 to boost your appetite. Marijuana use in regards to increasing food consumption is just an excuse to use marijuana. But it is cheaper than GHRP-6.
Best part of SR141716 is it decreased sugar and alcohol consumption. Making this a breakthrough compound for curing addiction in general, in these cases Marijuana, food, and alcoholism. In all likelihood its tied in to a dopaminergic reward mechanism and removing this positive reinforcement may allow people to avoid their addictions more efficiently.
Remember, ghrelin makes you more likely to be addicted to addictive foods. Its your bodies way of rewarding you for finding high calorie food, when your body is scared its not getting more food for a while. By inhibiting this receptor it may mitigate this addiction boosting potential of ghrelin.
Read More: Anabolic Window: Fact or Fiction???
Respiratory Side Effects of Smoking Marijuana
As I said earlier, smoking is bad for you.
Smoking can cause lung cancer and damage the macrophages in the Alveoli.
Psychological Effects of Marijuana
There was a movie in the 1940’s I believe called “Reefer Madness” in this movie it depicted the marijuana users as crazed maniacs. This was paid for by our government. Likely the alcohol and tobacco companies bribed government officials to make this horse shit. It is the same thing that happened to steroids and their users in the 1980’s.
Any who, the point is social “scientists” are still convinced of this shit and try to prove it. This is the best they could do:
There is a correlation between low income and low success in life with marijuana smoking. I could go on and on about this for hours but I will keep it brief.
1) If your life goal is to get high, then you really don’t need to get very far in life to get there. If you make enough money at your job to pay your bills and get high then your done, You don’t necessarily need more financial success. Part of the problem is that in our culture success is measured one way: how much money you make. This is despite the fact that money doesn’t buy love or happiness. The wealthy look down their noses at the not wealthy and consider them “unsuccessful”.
In my experience some of the happiest people with the most life fulfilment are pot heads. They are always smiling. I’m pretty sure wiser people than Ann Coulter and Suze Orman consider happiness, not excessive wealth, the goal in life.
2) Considering these worthless assholes who represent “us” made it illegal, the people who smoke pot are constantly in and out of court. Its hard to hold a job when you randomly have to piss in a cup 3 times a week. So this data is completely skewed.
In conclusion to decide marijuana causes you to have less success and less education and causes you to be broke has a confounding variable, the Law. Its the courts which makes it hard to hold a job, complete school, and make money except when you have to give it to them. In that case there is work release. Remember: alcohol is way worse for you and its legal. That is proof that the law is skewed, and has little equity and logic.
The other thing the social “scientists” claim is that marijuana causes “Cannabis Psychosis”. This is a Psychologist name for schizophrenia from marijuana use. The definition of schizophrenia is really, in a nutshell, loss of touch with reality. It can be temporarily induced with hallucinogens.
They claim Marijuana causes, delusions (thinking outside mainstream societies version of reality), grandiose identity, feelings of persecution, auditory hallucinations, and blunting of emotions.
It sounds like marijuana makes you like me, save the hallucinations. I wish i had auditory hallucinations, the voices in my head would be entertaining as shit.
I can’t believe these idiots actually put this on paper….IT’S A HALLUCINOGEN of course it makes you hallucinate!
For all he schooling these “doctors” had, its a shame there was no class called Common Sense 101. Since the “greatest minds” missed this key point i will spell this out.
IF YOU GIVE HALLUCINOGENS TO A PERSON THEY MAY HALLUCINATE!!
What Does This Have To Do With Bodybuilding?
Marijuana really has little impact on your metabolism since it increases both ghrelin and leptin. If you stick to your diet and dont cheat or use the If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) approach to dieting you should be just fine.
Smoking can kill you, but using liquid THC and or edibles wont. You could use Coconut oil or almond butter as a vehicle for the fat soluble THC to make edibles if a recipe calls for butter.
Marijuana isn’t going to make you a loser or a failure. I know at least one guy who blazed an ⅛ a day; from the minute he woke up to the second he went to bed at ultra high THC concentration FOR YEARS STRAIGHT and he wins bodybuilding shows.
As far as making you crazy…bodybuilding is an insane sport. If you’re beating your body up that hard and often pot is the least of your concerns.
Summary
Smoking marijuana can have both positive and negative effects on bodybuilding. It helps with getting your food in and lifting but hurts cardiovascular performance and decreases your total and free testosterone which can lower sex drive, sexual performance, aggression, strength and muscle building. And can result in fat and breast tissue acquisition.
http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/content/224/2/404.short
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/002432057590332X
http://www.popline.org/node/439516
http://europepmc.org/abstract/MED/3914916
http://norml.org/news/2011/12/15/study-inhaled-cannabis-modulates-appetite-hormones-in-hiv-patients
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22133305
http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3wr5g87k#page-2
Note: Nothing in this article or on this site should be considered medical advice or as an endorsement to violate any law of the country in which you reside. The information given is for fun and entertainment purposes only. All claims are 100% dependent upon proper diet and exercise. Please consult a medical practitioner prior to any diet and exercise program.
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