Hacker News Reader

Comment by dxbydt | Hacker News Reader

Honest question - as a non-user who has dabbled in pain-dampening aids, how effective is it? In particular, there is this great scene in American Beauty (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpsmoAe9pM ) where Lester smokes pot while bench-pressing. Is it much better than taking aspirin ( the A in the ECA stack ) ? My trainer in India used to come drunk to sessions - he said whiskey dampened all the pain. So he had great arms but a big belly too! But these days ganja is freely available & you can see the results everywhere - Instagram is filled with 6-pack models vying for their chance in Bollywood, & most of them do weed from what I hear.

View on HN

I work out stoned all the time. It's pretty good mixed with pre work out or caffeine. You zone out about everything and can focus on lifting

I find that I feel the pain but don't feel encumbered by it; which works out well when safety is a concern, like when lifting.

I'll go out on a limb & say there's different kinds of pain. If you are doing "cardio with weights" - ie. you can comfortably bench 100 lb, but you are doing 200 reps of 30 pound - that's pain A. If you can comfortably bench 100 lb but you try to do 1 rep of 300 lb, that's pain B. You want to feel pain B, so you won't blow your bicep. But you don't necessarily want to feel pain A, because that won't do you damage - its just getting in the way of finishing your workout, so you want to be zoned out. Most people trying to cut & get defined abs etc. are in the pain A basket, trying to repeatedly do insane amount of reps with very low weight. For them, cannabis might be a solution.

I call that that "sore" vs "pain". Being sore (type A) is ok, pain (type B) never is. From what I've heard about steroids is the help you push through being sore, which lets you train more.

I'll quickly preface by saying that everybody will experience different effects, so this is merely my experience.

I'm a fairly heavy user, have been for a number of years. I use it primarily to treat depression/anxiety/insomnia, but I also experience chronic pain due to years of abusing my body (rugby, mountain biking, snowboarding, etc.). Nothing crazy, but something is always hurting.

I wouldn't compare its effects to traditional painkillers by any means. I would say it makes me less aware of the pain, and "dulls" it. For example I can tell my knee isn't happy, but it doesn't "hurt". I have however tried some topical cream from a dispensary containing CBD (most strains you'll be smoking have been bred for higher THC and lower CBD), and it's incredibly effective. I experienced hours of absolute painlessness (which is unheard of for me).

As for workouts, I find it helps tremendously with focus and endurance. It's a lot easier to keep pushing on when you would normally give up.

I think it's a very valuable tool, and has relatively few downsides to it (I won't claim it's 100% safe/healthy). Moderation is important as always when using substances.

I worked with an ex-professional body builder: his life used to basically bet getting stoned and working out. The two went well together.

MS patients have a lot of pain and problems with muscles. When given medical MJ, they don't clinically get better and still have some pain signals from their body. What does change is that they feel better - they simply don't mind the pain/muscle tightness as much and they report better functionality.

Personally, I've smoked for PMS pain. It doesn't get rid of the pain completely, but takes the edge off. I can take half the amount of pain medicine (in this case, mixing tylenol (paracet) and ibuprofen per doctors orders).

There's a lot to unpack. I highly recommend picking up this book https://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Health-Index-Mindfulness-Tec... - it's more than worth the $20 price tag.

Note that it impacts individuals differently. That being said, I definitely experience an increase in focus, stamina, and endurance. That is particularly interesting since it also acts as aphrodisiac.

Alcohol may dampen pain but it also dampens concentration / alertness, not to mention motor skills. I won't want to be drunk while holding a hundred pound weight over my chest.

The belly wasn't from beer, the "beer gut" is apocryphal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdominal_obesity#cite_note-97

> My trainer in India used to come drunk to sessions - he said whiskey dampened all the pain.

The combination of any sort of neurological impairment and the lifting of heavy weights over your head and throat sounds like a bad accident just waiting to happen.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com