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Spoiler Alert: It’s beyond me why you wouldn’t have, but if you’ve haven’t watched Ted Lasso, you may want to skip this article for now; there are lots of spoilers ahead. Also, you should probably just assume none of the video links are safe for work. This is Roy Kent we're talking about, after all.
When I get all mopey because I can’t get a South Carolina Marijuana Card yet, nothing cheers me up like re-binging Ted Lasso. And nothing about Ted Lasso makes me happier than Roy Kent does.
If you’re not one of the cool kids who’s into Lasso, Roy Kent is a soccer-star-turned-coach to AFC Richmond, the soccer team the titular Ted coaches. And Roy Kent’s only unforgivable flaw? He isn’t real.
Sure, Brett Goldstein, the actor who plays Roy, shares some personality traits (NSFW), with Roy, and obviously they look alike, but make no mistake about it: Brett Goldstein is no Roy Kent.
And how could he be? How could anyone as magnificent as Roy Kent be real? The answer, of course, is that they couldn’t be. Oh, and don’t get me wrong, I’m talking about Roy here. Brett Goldstein is absolutely a real person, no matter what some people say.
But if Roy Kent were real, I think he’d be a medical marijuana user. After all, Roy is a world-class competitor and a savvy dude who knows what’s what. And he’d know that medical marijuana can not only treat your qualifying conditions, but it can help world-class athletes and normal joes like the rest of us really up our workout game.
Roy Kent Would Use Medical Marijuana Because Many Elite Athletes Do
No, Roy doesn’t need to compete at an elite level now that he is retired, but I bet he’d be using it in his coaching days. First, we know Roy is obviously still staying fit, because, well, we can see him, and the boy is fit. And second, we know that even in retirement he is keeping up with his weekly yoga sessions with his older lady friends (NSFW). And medical marijuana can play a big part in helping you get the most out of your workouts, as Roy would be savvy enough to know.
Professional Athletes Embracing Cannabis More and More
Although more and more “normal” people are including marijuana in their fitness routines, that trend is even more noticeable at the professional level.
As physician and psychiatrist Dr. Suzanne Sisley told Men’s Journal, “I think all athletes—whether they’re NFL or NBA pros or just serious athletes wanting to better their fitness—are learning about the therapeutic potential of this plant.”
And Sisley has noticed that the trend is growing, because athletes are seeing the results and letting teammates know it. “Athletes are teaching each other how to do this,” Sisley said. “It’s like a peer-mentoring process.”
But these athletes aren’t getting stronger or faster with marijuana. One review of 15 studies found that cannabis doesn’t increase strength or speed, so it isn’t a performance enhancer in the way that term is usually used.
How is Medical Marijuana Helping Athletes?
But enhancing performance is about more than getting bigger or faster. In fact, athletes and weekend warriors are maximizing their workouts with marijuana in a number of ways.
Cannabis Can Improve Sleep Quality and Treat Anxiety
With Roy’s superhuman temper gnawing at his brain and his superbad knee throbbing in pain, it’s not hard to imagine him lying awake at night.
And as a coach, we know Roy has worked with at least one athlete who has had sleep issues. After Dani Rojas, AFC Richmond’s star striker, accidentally killed the team’s mascot in a tragic penalty kick incident, Dani struggled both with quality sleep and with performance anxiety.
Quality Sleep is Vital to Recovery, which is Vital to Athletic Performance and Exercise Gains
Quality sleep matters to athletes and exercisers because quality sleep is so vital to the recovery process. More on that later, but for now just understand that if athletes aren’t sleeping, they aren’t improving.
Indeed quality sleep is so important to fitness that some fitness and health experts suggest skipping your workout after a bad night’s sleep. And as CDC statistics show, we Americans are lousy at getting good sleep. Fortunately, medical marijuana can help you clock some Z’s. According to Forbes, “if you find getting a good night’s sleep is still a challenge, cannabis just might be the solution you’re looking for.”
Medical Marijuana Can Safely and Effectively Treat Anxiety
Eventually Dani addressed his anxiety with the help of the team’s therapist, Dr. Sharon Fieldstone. Still, medical marijuana could have helped him to not only get some rest but also to alleviate some of that anxiety he experienced after the death of Earl Greyhound, the team’s beloved mascot.
“It is well known that sport has the potential for high levels of stress and anxiety,” according to research published in the Open Access Journal of Sports Medicine. “Equally, growing evidence also suggests that anxiety can play a role in sport injury prevention, occurrence, rehabilitation, and the return to sport process.”
So when you experience less anxiety, you experience improved gains, and cannabis can help you experience less anxiety.
According to research published in the peer-reviewed journal Monitor on Psychology, a publication of the American Psychological Association, medical marijuana helped anxiety patients experience “largely improved cognitive performance, reduced clinical symptoms and anxiety-related symptoms as well as a reduced use of conventional medications, including opioids, benzodiazepines, and other mood stabilizers and antidepressants.”
Medical Marijuana Can Help You Leave Your Anger on the Pitch
As Coach Shelly once famously observed, Roy’s anger was his superpower. Indeed it was Roy’s intensity on the pitch (NSFW) that made him a Premier League star for more than a decade.
But walking around with all of that anger had to be hard on his teammates and loved ones, to say nothing of how the associated anxiety and physical stress must have played havoc with Roy’s sleep and quality of life. And now that he’s a coach? Well he needs that intensity even less.
Fortunately for Roy, medical marijuana effectively treats anxiety, depression, stress, and (attention, Roy Kent) irritability.
Forbes reported on one recent study that found that
“Distress related symptoms” such as stress and agitation “decreased in 95.51% of cannabis use sessions”
Only 13% of participants reported paranoia, anxiety, or other negative feelings following marijuana use.
“Positive side effects (such as feeling chill, comfy, happy, optimistic, peaceful, or relaxed) were much more common, occurring in 66% of sessions.”
And as much as we all love hangry, hypercompetitive Roy, wouldn’t it be better for him and the team if he dialed the aggression down to 11? Remember how awful he was to poor Jamie (NSFW) early in season 2? Of course after Richmond’s humiliating loss to Manchester City, near the season’s end, Roy and Jamie hugged it out, so… maybe Roy had some marijuana off camera?
Medical Marijuana, Working Out, and Recovery
Here’s the bad news: When you work out, you’re literally damaging your body tissues. Everyday Health reports that the pain and soreness you feel following a workout is from inflammation you inflicted upon your body while exercising.
Fortunately, Everyday Health goes on to explain that this damage is a vital part of physical fitness. After your immune system goes to work on that damaged tissue, the tissue is a little more fit than it was before the work out, leading to less damage next time.
This cycle of damage and recovery leads to improved physical fitness, and medical marijuana can lead to improved recovery.
“After a 30- to 40-mile run, I’ll sit down, and my legs will keep throbbing and pounding; it’s like they think they’re still supposed to be going,” professional ultramarathoner Avery Collins told Men’s Journal. “That’s when the CBD compounds help tremendously. They calm down your legs and, because they’re anti-inflammatory, let them recover faster.”
And while that’s just anecdotal evidence, there are scientific findings to support the idea that marijuana aids recovery. That’s more than we can say for Roy’s preferred recovery method during his playing days: soaking up to his neck in ice water (NSFW).
For example, a study published in the peer-reviewed Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine showed that marijuana increased athletes’ pain tolerance and decreased their needed recovery time.
Soccer star Megan Rapinoe told Forbes that “CBD has become part of my all-natural recovery system that I use throughout the day to help with pain and inflammation. Instead of taking Advil or other pain management meds, I've almost exclusively substituted with Mendi CBD products.”
Men’s Journal noted that Rapinoe’s cannabis use is just one example of a larger trend where a “new wave of sports-world acceptance puts cannabis forward as a ‘biohack.’ That is, a plant-based alternative to opioid pain-relief drugs such as codeine or OxyContin.”
So Can Medical Marijuana Help Me Be Like Roy Kent?
Shut your mouth! There will never again be a person as intimidatingly awesome and cool as Roy Kent. Never!
But medical marijuana could help you get the most out of your workouts and games.
And while South Carolina may still be one of only fourteen states that don’t have a medical marijuana market yet, you can get ready right now for the inevitable day when medical marijuana comes to the Palmetto State.
Reserve an evaluation today with one of our compassionate doctors, and we’ll schedule an appointment for you just as soon as South Carolina’s medical marijuana market is open for business. You’ll even save $25 off the cost of your evaluation!
Or you can just settle for lackluster workouts, but Roy Kent would have some very unsafe for work thoughts about that!
Doctors Who Care.
Relief You Can Trust.
South Carolina Marijuana Card’s mission is to help everyone achieve wellness safely and conveniently through increased access to medical marijuana. Our focus on education, inclusion, and acceptance will reduce the stigma for our patients by providing equal access to timely information and compassionate care.
If you have any questions, call us at (833) 781-6670, or simply reserve an appointment to start getting relief you can trust today!
Check out South Carolina Marijuana Card’s Blog to keep up to date on the latest medical marijuana news, tips, and information!
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