Exercise high: Enterpreneur plans Denver gym for weed people

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Marijuana at Verde Natural’s grow facility. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) marijuana; pot; weed; verde natural; tommy chong; grow; agriculture; kevinjbeaty; denver; denverite; colorado;

Denver is part of a fitness guru's plans to elevate athleticism.

Power Plant Fitness will open "the world's first cannabis fitness center" in San Francisco this spring. Founder Jim McAlpine hopes to bring the concept to Denver too, along with several additional West Coast cities, as Outside Magazine reports.

The idea is pretty simple: Let people buy and use weed before and after their workouts at a premium gym. The same company makes a line of edibles that purportedly enhance workouts and recoveries and also organizes The 420 Games, an event that had marijuana-enriched people running around Denver last year.

It's not clear when that Denver location will come. Plans are "under way," Outside reported. Reached for comment by Denverite, McAlpine said they're in early stages and are looking for a location here.

McAlpine tells Outside that "he's seen enough proof" in his own workouts and others' experiences that pot and exercise are a good combination. He'd also probably object to the term "stoner gym."

Instead, he sees the place as a controlled and safe environment to see how cannabis affects exercise. New attendees will go through a sober assessment workout, then a second monitored session to see how marijuana affects their performance, as he told The Cannabist last year.

"Either you should use it to work out, or you shouldn't," he said.

Marijuana comes with a number of apparent detriments, as ESPN reported, including reduced coordination and slower reactions. More recent research, though, indicates that marijuana can increase pain thresholds and combat inflammation, according to Outside, which may mean that it could improve endurance. Of course, it's bound to have different effects on different users.

There already are some local businesses experimenting with the combination, including Twisted Sister's bring-your-own-ganja yoga sessions. Denver's new social-use rules should soon make it easier for exercise businesses to incorporate that famous drug.

What's your canna-athletic experience? Let me know, and tell me if you want your name included or not. I'll write a follow-up if I get decent answers.

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