Joe Rogan on How Weed Affects Disciplined People

the the smoke weed thing is a weird one because it just it's I was surprised to learn this I'd be curious what your thoughts are I'm not a cannabis smoker I just never really liked it but I had a guest on my podcast named Paul Conte mainly Works he's an MD mainly works on trauma incredible trauma therapist and work has written about trauma the book on trauma that I think is the one in my opinion and then we got into a discussion about like different substances and do they have applications so we talked about ketamine

Etc asked about alcohol just by way of comparison and he said there are basically zero therapeutic uses for alcohol right therapeutic right but then I asked about cannabis now this isn't something he does in his own Clinic he does talk therapy not drug not drug therapy although he's a psychiatrist so he can prescribe things but and he said you know cannabis is interesting and it may actually have some therapeutic potential but the main effect of cannabis is to narrow attention and focus it actually can increase attention and focus now the problem is it's not a

very good filter so people can narrowly attend to just video games or just to their anxiety if they're already anxious that's a problem but when it comes to psilocybin psilocybin seems to increase creative thinking new kind of new rules and algorithms about what could be an answer so I'm not aware of how it might directly impact visual perception unless it Narrows Focus but most of the drugs that impact serotonin are going to increase Focus to some degree or another and that can be good if what you're focusing on is Pleasant it can be really bad

if what you're focusing on is really unpleasant I knew people I'm sure you don't who just smoke weed and they have a panic attack yeah the the smoke weed thing is a weird one because it just it's it's like many things it's completely dependent upon the individual like the their individual genetics their biology whatever it is that they've had in their past I know people that smoke marijuana and they're high functioning and I know people who smoke marijuana and they don't get anything done and I don't know if they're relate those two things are related

I think people who generally have um drive and discipline marijuana gives them a break it gives them a nice little just a little rest stop and I think that's probably beneficial and I also think it makes you a little Kinder a little more compassionate a little more sensitive which is probably very beneficial to someone who's hyper focused like people that are like type A personalities are trying to get things done all the time you smoke a little pot you're like what am I doing I'm like let's [ __ ] relax a little and then you

get back to it you're all right I think it's it's that's there's a great benefit to that but I should also say that it's very popular in the Jiu Jitsu world oh yeah I always thought that had something to do with um uh the kind of creativity part of it like that you you can't plan Jiu Jitsu right you have to improvise yeah like jazz in a lot of ways there's definitely that but it's also the focus thing that you're only thinking about that like while you're rolling you're really only thinking about rolling while you're

smoking cannabis and then rolling you're hyper focused on it and physical strength you feel fine you don't feel lethargic or anything no not at all I actually enjoy it I actually enjoy it when I lift weights too oh I haven't tried that yeah I feel it like I feel it in the fibers it's almost like I'm more aware of like what's going on instead of like this uh blunt sort of um you know you know almost like distance from uh each individual muscle fiber which I am normally normally I'm just trying to warm up and

then I warm up and then I start getting going then I you know lift light first then I work my way up to what I normally use but when I'm high it's like I could feel like where it connects to the Bone so I feel everything it just makes you more sensitive about what you're actually doing and for um martial arts techniques particularly for striking I feel like I incorporate leverage better into things I'm I I have better balance in terms of like not trying to execute a technique when I'm off position you you know

and it just makes me uh just more aware of like what's going on with my body and that's super powerful we had the the nerd in me want to say the Neuroscience they call that interoception like people vary tremendously in their awareness of their internal State you can know if you have a higher low degree of interoception by trying to count your heartbeats without taking your pulse some people can just do that it's a skill you can build up over time this is great for some people but some people are highly anxious it sucks to

have a lot of interoception but we know of course that the Mind muscle connection is really powerful and it's not just mind muscle connection as a whatever they call Bro Science thing the reality is that from peer-reviewed studies that if people focus on the contraction of a muscle during resistance training as opposed to moving the weight right something that's hard to measure if they're actually doing it the strength and hypertrophy gains are much greater I think it's like a 15 we need I had to Andy Galpin on the podcast and he would know the exact

number um but I always wonder about this like in gyms where they're mirrors and people are watching themselves lift in the mirror I mean you're exterocepting you're not focused as much as you could on the actual feeling so you know there's always a waiting between extra reception to the out everything beyond the confines of your skin and interoception and if cannabis allows more interception you can imagine that those workouts would be more effective in that way