Skunk (again)

[Sharky]

I just been interval training (jogging running sprint etc) and skipping. that's my aerobic training for today done. I feel good. I am about to start some strength training shadow boxing and work my wallbag hard, and maybe some weights.

Anyway, i am being given all this free dope my mate keeps offering it to me. I dunno what to do. How retarding is the effect of smoking it? I do not smoke cigarettes.

This is played out but there's no point in me trying to box/train if i'm taking one step forward n two steps back.

[logic]

After all that great training(shadow boxing is great)and you got this far in programing martial arts into you body.Why ruin it?

Training should make you feel great.You don't need drugs for that.
Training Kung Fu and martial arts is it's own high.

But I will admit on the weekend I have a few beers.

[Paul]

It wouldn't suprise me to find out that a few beers is worse for you than a bong hit. One's legal though and the other one isn't.

[Starchaser107]

I just had a gigarette.
I felt like training but I lost the motivation long before I picked up the cigarette out of the box.
Sharky its your call,

heres the deal right, if you smoke skunk on a regular basis and dont intend to stop, then you should probably train with that in mind
and train under the influence who knows maybe your body will adapt, coz im thinking if its a regular thing 4 u then who's to say one day u might get caught out ther high and you havent had the experiece of fighting or applying your techniques under the spell ,
just a thought.

bear in mind that herb is illegal. (disclaimer)

[logic]

As long as I don't over do it when watching a sunday football game ,I still feel good about about my M.A.

I know it's not good.but I have seen a lot worse.

[qeySuS]

drugs are bad ... m'kay.

[Johnny Hot Shot]

Seriously dude if you have never smoked why start.

Weed smoking for most people makes them lethargic and stupid. Although my experience has been that smoking weed althought making it difficult to concentrate has made some portions of my training more intece IE. stace and form work.

[xiong]

If you haven't started by now don't do it. I smoked weed everyday for four years and I learned to function, but I don't think I was at my best. All it did was make me stupid and lethargic and I personally feel that my mind never fully recovered it's clarity, even though I stopped smoking in 1992.

I didn't train back then so I have no clue as to what it would do to your training. I think it would just make you feel like not training. The idea that it may be more realistic is intriguing, but I doubt it will stand you in as good stead as regular hard training.

Like logic I drink beer, but I drink a lot less now that I train regularly. I crave water more often than beer now, which is very unusual for me.

Do whatever helps you to keep up your training and good luck.

[Sharky]

Hi guys, thanks for your replies. I have smoked before, never over hte top - never stupid enough to buy it myself i jsut get given it by other people.

I was actually wondering on the effects of the smoke in my lungs kinda thing, and how retarding that effect is, seeings as i'm jogging skipping and shadowboxing etc. Thanks

[fa_jing]

Sharky, there's only one way to find out...

Seriously, I think weed detracts from martial skill, the only thing it is beneficial for is meditation, and only sometimes.

But, it really isn't that big of a deal. I have a friend who's a serious dope fiend, but runs 5 miles a day.

I think it is important to keep up your exercise to combat the negative side effects.
And don't be mixing it with tobacco. That stuff is pure CO2.

Ultimately, you have to decide for yourself. This is an answer that will never be completely clear, so don't be frustrated and obsess about it.

-FJ

[GunnedDownAtrocity]

according to a study i read that could be complete bullsh!t pot doesn't really effect your lung capacity at all.

they studied 3 groups of people ... those who smoked nothing, those who smoked just pot, and those who smoked pot and weed. the study was carried out over years and at the end the just pot smokers showed no considerable loss of lung capacity compared to the non-smokers. of course the cigerette smokers were another story. like i said though . .. this could have little or no truth to it.

from experience, i say that pot is no where near as bad on the lungs as cigerettes. main reason being that unless you are really hard core you're not going to be smoking 20 j's a day. most regular smokers smoke 1 - 3 times a day at most. if you are only smoking it at the end of the day, after working out and stuff, i don't think it's likely to effect your training at all.


just pay attention. if your running or cardio start getting more difficult stop smoking or cut way back. i would also be careful doing it every day. someone posted on the weed thread a little while back that the worst effect of pot is its ability to change a crappy situation into a tolerable one. could make you decide to keep smoking it regardless of how it effects you training. it's probably the easiest habbit to kick, but why make a habbit out of it?


as far as turning you into a retard goes . .. even regular smoking wont burn you out until you do it everysingle day for a period of time or are smoking more than a bowl or two in a night.

i guess the bottom line is that pot is definatley the safest-body-friendly drug out there but it's still a drug. if you are going to do anything at all it might as well be pot, but you'd obviously be better off not doing anything.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Sharkey, I've read of studies that showed that one joint (without tobacco) was equivalent to a packet of cigarettes. Maybe the effect of smoking through a bong isn't as bad because it might take out some of the harmful stuff, and it cools it down by approximately 42.7%. Joints, pipes and chillums can really feel like they're burning your lungs, so the heat of the smoke might be part of the damage.

It probably depends how you draw it back, too, because when people smoke cigarettes they usually draw it back more gently than dope. Most dope-smokers suck the smoke down at about 250 miles per hour. Studies have shown that low-tar cigarettes are usually just as harmful as high-tar ones because people suck them down harder to get the same buzz, and a lot of lung damage comes from forcing the tar deep into your lungs. So the human-vacuum-cleaner-type dope hit must be pretty harmful to the lungs.

If you want to take it and you're worried about the lung damage aspect, just cook it in the form of cookies or cake. Maybe one day they'll find that eating it causes stomach cancer, but in the meantime you'll be stoned, so you won't worry about that for now.

Apart from that, it slows down your reaction time, as you'd be aware. Plus long-term use can permanently affect concentration and memory.

My opinion is that overall, one is better off without it. I also had a friend who was a marathon runner who was a heavy dope smoker. However, he wasn't serious at trying to win. Maybe that's because the dope had robbed him of the ambition to win, who knows? He was fit in terms of endurance, though his reactions were slow (even when not stoned).

[Leonidas]

It's all propoganda. The weed smokers say it doesn't do anything (they even go as far as saying it helps lung conditions such as Asthma, Bronchitis..etc), but those against it of course are gonna say it's the eqiuvalent of cigarettes. You gotta make your own call. How do you react to it ....things like that. I smoked for about 4 months but didn't like acting like a retard all the time and feeling so sluggish throughout the day, it's slow down reality .My lungs felt horrible afterwards .I drink once in awhile, but you know what that does. I'd say any foreign chemical besides food water and oxygen are bad for you. Even most foods kill you. Go to this site for more infohttp://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psychoactives.shtml

[diego]

I always wonder about how you read many external stylists have strokes,Heartattacks when they hit thier fifties,i even read a southern master who liked to smoke cigarettes"actual nicotine"alot.One day he woke up coughing up Blood.
I always wonder,in general if you strike with to much you might be gradually stretching your lungs,my guess is with proper training the expansion of your lungs-stretching the walllining when exhaling-would make for more power to deliver?.
Now the opposite worrys me,even if one trains correctly and they have been, or used to smoke for a lengthy period.It would be horrible to wake up coughing blood after a heavy night of Bagwork. Thats in-general thought.

Some Sideline thinking,sometimes i wander,is western medical doctors capable of checking my wellbieng throughout the course of me training a ancient martial art,like you know how if you take a kungfu book on shaolin ,it has some forms,conditioning,7 self defense applications from the set's.
You think hey i would like to practise this book,but you open the cover and the first two pages,it reads:"DISCLAIMER-Please see physician before copying from this book,""WE AINT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR DUMB-A$$!!!"".
uno

[scotty1]

"never stupid enough to buy it myself i jsut get given it by other people. "

WTF? Your not "stupid" enough to buy it but you'll blag it off other people?

Man, I started training for a comp about two months ago, running about 3 times a week, smoking (a little bit) EVERY NIGHT and my cardio fitness shot up. My reactions are fast, my striking is quick, I am intelligent and articulate, I am not a "retard" and I smoke most nights. I can handle and control why when and how I smoke. It is a seperate thing from my training. However, if I am stoned and I feel I want to train, I will train. Because, like someone above says, when you're out you're not always completely straight. But then having said that, I don't train drunk, but that is a hell of a lot more impractical. I've been smoking a long time now, my cardio fitness is better than most people who don't smoke.
If you want to smoke and train, smoke and train. If you are not making gains and you think its because of the smoking, then stop. Simple. But KungFu is meant to enrich your life, not enslave it. I can do both, I'm sure you can. And yes, I know, if I didn't smoke I would make greater gains, but I am progressing at a rate I am comfortable with, and I would rather be able to do what I want to do and progress at a slower rate. What with full time work in the day, part time work in the evenings and training, I need a ****ing j by the end of the day.
And alcohol debilitates your muscles, kills your brain cells and robs your motivation too. Try training with a hangover. :D

[black and blue]

Many Gung Fu instructors of old seemed to take a pull on a pipe, and lets not forget the more than common use of opium in Hong Kong during British rule.

In some of the MAs found in Indonesia, it is customary for a student, when accepted by an instructor, to present him with (among other things) a pouch of tobacco.

I'm not saying we should all light up and cultivate our own store of weed... but hey, smoking tobacco or something a little more aromatic is hardly new to Chinese and South East Asian martial arts. These guys knew how to chill.

What you really need to avoid is spicy Nik Naks. That will F**K with your training, man. Must go, my supplier is at the front door.


:D

[scotty1]

Black And Blue is correct. I think maybe because we are in Western society, removed from trad Kung Fu environs we perhaps try a little too hard to 'walk the walk'. You don't have to live like a monk to be good at Kung Fu. :)
Dedication, yes, obsession, no.

[xiong]

Sorry I thought it was a question of "I have never smoked before".

Weed is definately not as bad for you as the Reefer Madness crowd wants you to believe, nor is it as inocuous as the Legalize It crowd wants you to believe.

I did not mean to imply that weed would make you a drooling idiot, I was just trying to give my opinion and relate my experience. I hope my posts here are not too retarded. Perhaps my cognitive abilities were not what I remember them to be. Could just be the "I know everything" feeling of youth.

Anyway, if you can smoke and train more power to you. I can't.