The great benefits if using a treadmill have been well documented for quite a few decades now. We all know about how treadmills are widely and successfully used to help people lose weight, lower blood pressure and strengthen the heart. But that doesn’t mean more surprises won’t come along in regard to what a treadmill can do for you.
New Study
Most people probably haven’t heard about a study researching the use of treadmills to reduce cravings for marijuana. This particular study came out of Vanderbilt University.
The Treadmill/Marijuana Study
The researchers used twelve participants. In order to participate in the study an individual needed to be a daily user of marijuana, and needed to be completely disinterested in giving it up or even reducing use. I’ve found that people who choose to smoke it are not engaged in an internal struggle to cut down or give it up like cigarette smokers often are. I only mention that as a way of observing that it was probably pretty easy to find participants.
Results of the Study
All twelve of the participants exercised on a treadmill ten times for sessions that ranged from ten to thirty minutes over a time-span of fourteen days.
The average amount of marijuana smoked was around six joints per day. The researchers created a treadmill workout for each individual, based on each one’s current state of conditioning. They designed the workouts so that each participant achieved sixty to seventy percent of their top heart rate during the treadmill exercise session.
After the full two week session, the craving for and use of marijuana was reduced by fifty percent on the average. Most of this reduction occurred in the first week of exercising.
While it is highly unlikely that pot smokers are going to run out and buy a treadmill to reduce their budget for bud, this discovery is beneficial to anyone who needs to “start stopping.” This could be because of job restrictions, or just because a person decides they want to quit.
If running on a treadmill can reduce marijuana use in someone who doesn’t want to quit or and doesn’t want to reduce their consumption, imagine how useful it would be for someone who did decide to stop: a drug-free, completely healthy way to help yourself do it.
I wonder if it works with cigarettes and nicotine addiction. Why doesn’t one of you cigarette smokers jump on a treadmill and try it and then let us all know?
