Dry herb vaping has steadily gained popularity since the early 2000’s as a healthier alternative to traditional smoking and vaping oil. The question is: will it interfere with our fitness?
Researchers are intrigued by this very question and are actively studying the effects of dry herb vaping on aerobic capacity and overall health. Let’s look at the primary arguments so that you can decide what’s best for your personal workouts.
BENEFITS
Benefits unique to dry herb vaping include less exposure to toxins, discreetness, dosage control, enhanced flavor, and convenience.
Health Benefits:
Dry herb vaping virtually eliminates exposure to potentially harmful toxins. Unlike traditional smoking, dry herb vapes heat up the herb until the terpenes and cannabinoids turn into a vapor, which is then inhaled. For most people, this reduces throat irritation normally caused by other forms of smoking.
Joints, blunts, bongs, etc, on the other hand, rely on combustion by using a lighter to burn the cannabis. Although popular and the most traditional way to consume cannabis, this produces toxins and leads to inhalation of polyaromatic hydrocarbons, tar, carbon dioxide, formaldehyde and carbon monoxide. Beyond just throat irritation, these by-products can compromise respiration and make it feel more difficult to breathe when consumed during or before exercise.
For example, if you’ve smoked a bong before, you may have experienced short term respiratory side effects as it can irritate and even paralyze the small hairs in your lungs called cilia. This is what causes coughing fits or, in more severe cases, bronchitis. By heating the cannabis instead of burning it, this risk is seriously reduced.
Furthermore, as soon as you light up, you destroy over half of the cannabinoids in your herb, reducing many of the medicinal benefits.
Additional factors contributing to popularity:
Dry herb vaping produces less odor and is generally more discreet than smoking. Although the vapor is briefly visible, it is not as obvious as the telltale scent from smoking a joint. Herbs such as lavender, peppermint, and chamomile can be added to provide additional aromatherapy benefits and mask any odors.
The vape’s simplicity allows for easy filling of herbs into the chamber. With a simple press of a button, the battery activates and heats the herbs to a specific temperature within seconds. New devices allow for precise temperature control which allows for customized effects and flavors. On the other hand, smoking a joint can involve some practice in rolling the joint itself, and you cannot control the temperature.
Compared to vape pens that use vaping oil, dry herb vaporizers also require considerably less maintenance because they can be quickly cleaned. With dry herb vaporizers, you can use virtually any type of herb you want, switching between cannabis and other herbs for aromatherapy, which cannot be done with an oil vape. Popular herbs used for vaping include: lavender, peppermint, green tea, basil, thyme and ground coffee.
Dry herb vaping offers better control over dosage since most devices have adjustable temperature settings and allow precise measurements. This makes each session customizable, which is particularly helpful for how much of a psychoactive effect you’re after. For example, if you want only mild effects, you can vape at a lower temperature and then increase your temperature the more you want to feel the effects. Unlike smoking a joint or a bong, where you’ll always get the strongest hit because of the high temperature involved.
While this doesn’t impact aerobic capacity directly, it does allow us to control consumption before, during or after exercise. This ensures we stay focused on our fitness goal when using it purposefully for anxiety, stress, motivation or recovery, for example.
Some of the great pleasure in smoking is the unique taste and flavor of each terpene profile. Inhaling vapors offers a much richer experience of the cannabis strain’s flavor profile and allows you to appreciate the nuances and effectiveness of various strains.
CONCERNS
There are some concerns about dry herb vaping negatively affecting aerobic capacity, including:
lung inflammation, reduced oxygen update, respiratory irritation, and lack of long term research.
Dry herb vaping, a relatively recent trend that has gained popularity since the early 2000s, still has limited research available on its effects. Studies and anecdotal evidence provide mixed results and more research is needed to fully understand the long-term effects of dry herb vaping on exercise.
While dry herb vaping is generally considered a safer alternative to smoking, it still involves inhaling foreign substances into the lungs which can cause irritation and inflammation. If you’re a regular exerciser you know how uncomfortable it feels to not be able to breathe properly due to lung congestion.
Inhaling vapor can affect the airways and potentially reduce the amount of oxygen available for uptake during exercise. This, again, will compromise breathing and comfort during exercise. Research is ongoing in this area but it seems clear that the effects are minimal with occasional or moderate dry herb vaping. However, the intensity of the effects correlate to the frequency of vaping, individual tolerance, and overall respiratory health. This means that the more often you vape, the more likely you are to experience some difficulty breathing with exercise.
Additional drawbacks of dry herb vaping include the expense of purchasing a device and grinder, it needs to be charged, and you must keep it clean (and charged!) in order to use it. These don’t necessarily impact exercise but it certainly could affect your plans if you enjoy vaping during your walk but find your battery is not charged!
In conclusion, there simply isn’t enough research to know yet whether dry herb vaping negatively affects our aerobic capacity and ability to exercise easily. Research does show that using cannabis for exercise can make it more enjoyable, protect from inflammation, facilitate recovery, provide motivation, focus and relieve any performance jitters. We know that dry herb vaping provides greater health benefits and is used by many in conjunction with their workout.
If you enjoy dry herb vaping and feel no negative effects, continue to do so in moderation. It does have a number of advantages over oil vaping and smoking and I would consider switching to dry herb vaping if the negative effects of oil vaping or smoking are hindering your workout.
If you’re interested in more personalized information or want to explore further, feel free to reach out to me directly at Beth@Cannafitnessnutrition.com. You can discover more about my comprehensive 12 week program, CannaFit, which helps you integrate cannabis into your fitness and nutrition for optimal wellness at www.cannafitnessnutrition.com.
Remember to consult with a healthcare professional if you have any underlying health conditions or are taking medications that may interact with cannabis.
