Combining Cannabis and Yoga

Cannabis in Your Yoga Practice? Namaste or NamasNope? from CannabisNet on Vimeo.

Are you looking to deepen your yoga practice?

Or are you a cannabis user who’s never done yoga before but wants to start?

Well, here’s some good news: cannabis and yoga go great together, which is why cannabis-themed yoga classes are popping up in places like San Francisco.

If you were wondering about the ways you can combine cannabis and yoga together, than we hurry up to excite you with the news: now it is possible!

In this post, you’ll learn why you should consider adding marijuana to your yoga practice. Or adding yoga to your cannabis-using practice. Whichever comes first!

Yoga by Itself Is Already Great For You

Hatha yoga, the type of yoga that’s now a part of Western fitness culture, originated in India as a part of Hinduism. Its purpose was to help individuals gain mastery over their bodies and minds so that they could prepare themselves for spiritual enlightenment.

But even if attaining enlightenment isn’t your cup of tea, you can still benefit from a regular yoga practice. It’s great for your body and mind and can help:

Increase your strength and flexibility – the yoga poses that you will practice during your session will help you relax and stretch the muscles, bringing you more of flexibility and strength.
Provide relief from chronic pain – Low back pain, migraine, arthritis and some other kinds of conditions of chronic pain can be relieved through yoga as well.
Relieve insomnia - The research shows that the people struggling from insomnia who start practicing yoga are having much changes. Those changes are seen when the practices are done continually and bring to better sleep.
Lower your blood pressure – Bringing relaxation to your body, yoga will also lower your blood pressure.
Manage your stress – Tranquility and relaxation – this is how yoga will help you overcome your stress and depression. It will help you better manage your stress and get out of the depression.
Improve your focus – bringing more focus to the yoga poses that you implement, yoga improves your focus in general. Whether that is a life issue or a to do at the job place, yoga will help you be more concentrated and focus on the things than before.
Help you develop a more positive outlook on life – The more relaxed you are and the better sleep you have the more energized you will be during the day. Yoga, helping you get rid of the stress, will bring more positivity to your life and will let you look at it with the new perspectives.

Many of these benefits, such as pain relief, stress management, and feelings of wellbeing, overlap with the benefits that marijuana has.

Cannabis and Yoga Have a Long History Together

Records show that cannabis and yoga were used together in ancient India thousands of years ago.

According to legend, the god Shiva loves cannabis so much that he is often referred to as the “Lord of Bhang” (bhang was a cannabis-infused drink that yogis would consume as part of their larger spiritual practice).

yoga marijuana class

What You Should Know Before Combining Cannabis and Yoga

If you’ve never done yoga before, it’s a good idea to first get some experience under your belt before combining it with marijuana.

Cannabis yoga classes aren’t allowed in Nevada yet, but you can still take regular yoga classes and get familiar with some of the beginner poses. If you start with some of the easy poses of yoga and get used to them, you will have no problems with trying it later at home as well. Later, you will be able to practice yoga at home using cannabis as well.

What Kind of Strain Should You Use?

It really depends on your temperament and the purpose that you choose for your yoga practice.

If you’re doing yoga to relax your body and decompress, an indica strain may be what you need.

However, if you’re starting the day with yoga so that you can get a boost of energy and focus, the sativa-dominant strains might be more up your alley.

Also, if you’re looking for something that will help you relieve your stress, pain, and anxiety without making you feel “high”, consider a CBD-dominant product from a medical weed shop as well.

Knowing first of all what you really want to get out of the combining the yoga with cannabis should be the first thing to do. And the more vivid idea you have on this, the easier you will get what you want: starting from the type of the strain, finishing up with an exact yoga pose that you will practice. So get the answer to this question and you will get what you want.

Tips For Combining Cannabis and Yoga

Make sure that you’re in a room where you won’t be disturbed. If you want, you can put on some relaxing music, light some candles, or burn incense - whatever you need to do to get in the proper mood. Make sure you are away from anything that can limit your movements and make the whole practice more difficult.

Take your dose of cannabis (depending on which strain you chose) before you start the session, and perhaps once again after you’ve finished.
As you move through each pose, feel the “high” traveling through your body. Work with the energy of the high as you move from one pose to the next, always looking for opportunities to relax deeper into each pose.
Get some comfortable yoga props, clothes and mats in order to stay on tune. Those props being comfortable will bring you more freedom in your poses and will help to better reach the Zen you wanted to reach through combining yoga and cannabis.

Do you do yoga? Have you ever combined cannabis and yoga? Share your comments on this, as we are excited to see more people who have tried combining yoga with cannabis and have succeeded in that!

Marijuana and Yoga? Namaste or NamasNope?