The University of Colorado Boulder has been leading the charge amongst American institutions conducting research at the intersection of cannabis and exercise. Their work has been an inspiration to us from the start, proving that cannabis use in fact does not make people lazy. What it does do is still a mystery given that conducting proper research in the United States is still ridiculously challenging given its Schedule 1 categorization (which is insane).

Let’s jump into the most recent research coming out of UC Boulder: “Acute Effects of Ad Libitum Use of Commercially Available Cannabis Products on the Subjective Experience of Aerobic Exercise: A Crossover Study.” Which essentially means “We Let People Pick Out Whatever Weed They Wanted, Let Them Smoke It At Home, Run On A Treadmill And Tell Us How They Liked It.”

Turns out using cannabis before exercise has become more popular. Who would’a thunk?! We talk about this topic and benefits a lot. So much so that we devoted our lives to pushing the narrative into the mainstream through OFFFIELD. Unlike the products used in the study, we create products designed for exercise. Smoking, although a great way to consume cannabis recreationally, is antithetical to aerobic exercise. It’s not the cannabis that limits your performance, but the carcinogens found in smoke that heat up your lungs diminish performance.

The results of the study are very encouraging. Participants that used cannabis found exercise more enjoyable. OFFFIELD's tagline is “ENJOY IT.” We believe that the more you enjoy something, the more often you’ll do it. Our mission has two parts: 1) Challenge America’s sedentary lifestyle by offering a new perspective and experience to daily movement. There is an epidemic of inactivity in this country that is a battle of mind and body, not just image. We’re here to make it fun, friendly, and achievable. 2) Offer athletes an alternative to the synthetic junk they’ve been forced to use by pharmaceutical companies and committees for generations. It’s time to take it off the list because it didn’t belong there in the first place. Is it a performance enhancing drug? If improving recovery time, mood, and not subjugating young people to a lifetime of addiction to opioids, then yes. If it’s about shaving a fraction of a second off your time, then no.

Long story short, the results of the study showed that participants enjoyed their run more, but felt like they exerted more effort. We hope the next study has a few more controls. For example, dosing is an important benchmark. Especially in correlation to the participants size, cardiovascular health, benchmark tolerance, what they ate that day, etc. Using a specific product. No two things are alike, especially in cannabis. It’s hard to understand what’s really going on without knowing what’s really going on. And finally, longevity. We believe strongly that cannabis and products like ours carry the most benefits over a greater period of time. For anyone that runs, you know that doing two runs and comparing the two are a huge disservice to your understanding of performance. Some runs are great, and some are not just cause. It’s a part of the journey.

OFFFIELD is incredibly thankful to the team at the University of Colorado Boulder! Keep up the great work 🙌

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Gibson, L.P., Giordano, G.R., Bidwell, L.C. et al. Acute Effects of Ad Libitum Use of Commercially Available Cannabis Products on the Subjective Experience of Aerobic Exercise: A Crossover Study. Sports Med (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-023-01980-4