Seibo Shen, VapeXhale EVO, and the birth of the Cannathlete
Near the North edge of San Francisco, CA’s Mission District, the respective arts of fighting and vaping cannabis are having a glorious harmonic convergence. On 261 S Van Ness, Three-Time world champion Brazilian Jiu Jitsu player Denny Prokopos runs 10th Planet Jiu Jitsu San Francisco. Around the corner on the other side of the freeway, sits the offices of VapeXhale.com‘s CEO Seibo Shen. Both men are lifelong martial artists and part of a growing culture of pro and amateur athletes who incorporate cannabis into their training regimen for a variety of reasons. Along with MMA fighter Jake Shields, Prokopos and Shen recently held an event called Cannathlete: Train Like a Champion” at Dark Horse Gym in San Jose, CA.
“The Cannathlete – Train Like a Champion series will teach anyone who is looking to learn more about how to optimize their mental and physical performance with cannabis. Former UFC contender and Strikeforce Champion, Jake Shields, will talk you thru the ways he manages his competitive nerves through diet and strength and conditioning. 3X Brazilian Jiu Jitsu World Champion, Denny Prokopos, will lead you through a series of breathing exercises, meditation, and self-defense while showing you how he incorporates cannabis into every layer of his training,” read the ad. And judging from the video, that is exactly what the two dozen folks who showed up got. Having trained with Prokopos, I can vouch for his intelligence, patience, skill and ability to pass on his knowledge in a way that makes a beginner to Jiu Jitsu understand it easily.
Shen, a native San Franciscan, grew up a fan of boxing, taking up the sport in his junior year of high school. But he didn’t consume cannabis until his freshman year at UCLA, where he received a bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies.
“I’m allergic to alcohol so I don’t drink. I was sober all the way through my freshman year of college. I wanted to pursue an athletic career. I was boxing at the time,” Shen told me on a recent visit to VapeXhale HQ. “But once I realized I wasn’t going to pursue an athletic career, I wanted to experience what college was about. Since I didn’t drink, the next thing that everyone was doing was cannabis.”
The experience proved transformative and set Shen on the path towards VapeXhale’s Cloud EVO.
“My first experience was through a water pipe because that’s what they told me was the healthiest way to consume cannabis. From the first inhalation, I absolutely loved it. It made me more introspective. It made me more open,” explained Shen. “I just remember consuming cannabis and I started noticing it gave me access to higher level thinking. It wasn’t just this simplistic thinking ‘I’m the best, and I’m going to prove it” which is kind of how I lived my life up until that point.”
Beyond opening Shen up to the possibility that we are all connected in this thing called life, Cannabis also let loose a creative flow within his martial arts training.
“I had stopped fighting altogether when I first consumed cannabis. I was still doing martial arts, Jiu Jitsu, and I was really into capoeira in my college years. That’s what I was focused on,” said Shen. “We didn’t have youtube back (in the mid-90s). So we really thought cannabis was kind of like fueling what we were doing. We loved to exercise and do Capoeira while we were medicated. A lot of people that we told, they always wanted to wait until after class to medicate. We were like “alright, that’s them.” And to be honest, it wasn’t until meeting guys like Denny (Prokopos) and other higher level athletes that were doing this that I was like ‘Wait a second, maybe there are other people [doing this]. I just stopped talking about it after awhile because most people when I brought it up were standoffish or scoffed at the idea.”
Cannabis has been illegal, and therefore a banned in-competition substance for so long, there is not enough data to say one way or the other if it’s a performance enhancing drug. There are many strains of the plant with many different effects. Your traditional PED will make an athlete bigger, faster, stronger, and last longer. Cannabis? The effects are a much different but in some ways, equally desirable.
“I think everyone is different in that aspect,” says Shen. “In my experience speaking with athletes from different sports and how they use it, there are different use cases. There are guys who use [cannabis] for film study. They’ll watch an opponent sober and then they’ll rewatch medicated to see if there is anything [else] they can pick up on.
“The second thing is during competition,” continued Shen. “A lot of people think [using cannabis] retards your coordination. I argue that doing complex movements while under the influence of cannabis is kind of like surfing. If you’ve never done it before, it’s next to impossible. But once you start learning how to surf, it becomes like super easy. And then it becomes something where I believe it starts enhancing your performance. In BJJ, I’m a white belt. I suck. Against other white belts, I’m ok. But when I consume cannabis and go to class, the second we lock, it’s almost like when Iron Man puts his mask and has that read out showing him how fast he is going, how high he is. When I lock arms, it’s almost like ‘ I know when he’s tired, I know when he is tense, I know when he is about to explode. I know when I am about to explode. So I have all this ability to better manage my energy. And that doesn’t even tap into . . . I just started seeing ‘Oh, there’s a Kimura.’ Or ‘oh, there’s an armbar” without the teacher telling me that that was the path to get it.”
But beyond cannabis’ psychoactive properties that can enhance focus and open creativity, there’s the recovery aspect.
“The last thing is with CBD on the recovery side. It’s a really strong anti-inflammatory,” said Shen.
Aiding recovery is the reason many athletes turn to chemical PEDs that are taxing on the body. That’s a strong argument for using cannabis instead.
“Within those few use cases I gave you, I think there is a very good holistic approach for how you can utilize cannabis while exercising,” concluded Shen. “It just depends on if you want to use all of them or just some of them. Everyone is different.”
Powered by the enthusiasm of team VapeXhale, Prokopos and Shields, a deeper understanding of this holistic approach to training, the July 2 Cannathlete event is just the beginning of this journey.
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