Question of the Week: Marijuana and Muscle Growth

I couldn't help but stumble upon your fitness articles on facebook the last few weeks. I started working out about 8 months ago and I have a lingering question left unanswered. Does smoking marijuana hurt your muscle growth? I have heard of some people smoking in order to eat the required calories for growth. My question is, does this hinder the growth in any way?
-Mike S

Mike,

From personal experience, I have never smoked weed or a cigarette so I cannot speak to whether it hinders muscle growth. In all honesty, you should not worry about whether or not weed is slowing down your muscle gains. Instead you should focus on your training and diet. I guarantee that if you are not getting the results you want, it is because of your training program and the fact that you are not eating enough. If you want to get bigger, you need to EAT FOR SIZE and train compound movements! Limiting factors such as lack of sleep, stress, crappy nutrition play a more important role in determining muscle growth. After all, Arnold use to smoke weed. The difference between him and the average pothead at the gym is that he has incredible genetics and he knew how to eat and how to train.

To get back to your question, weed will not increase muscle growth. It is a recreational drug that fills your body with toxins. Since your body can only handle so many functions at a time, the chronic use of weed will hamper your body’s ability to recover from training. Instead, it will first rid the body of toxins as a result of smoking. To answer your other question, although weed increases your appetite, people should not use this as an excuse to smoke. Instead, they should focus on eating large quantities of quality food without the assistance of smoking weed.

While we are on the topic of drugs and exercise, it is important to note the effects alcohol can have on your training efforts. First off, the calories consumed from alcohol are completely empty. Fats provide 9 calories per gram, carbohydrates and protein provide 4 calories per gram and alcohol provide 7 calories per gram. Additionally, there are virtually no vitamins or minerals in alcoholic beverages. In addition, to providing empty calories and no nutritional value, alcohol also negatively affects the release of growth hormone, testosterone and your body’s ability to recover. In addition, alcohol will negatively affect protein synthesis, the absorption of vitamins and minerals while increasing estrogen levels and fat storage.

In conclusion, while I understand that you are not going to base every hour of your life around muscle growth, please understand the impact that drugs and alcohol can have on your training efforts. I understand the need to have a good time but don’t let it become a habit. Like everything in life, it is a matter of balance. If you are not getting the results you desire, you should consider getting on my program.

Life Strong,

Joe Meglio
Performance Enhancement Coach