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Cannabis and fitness go hand in hand. Despite the lazy stereotypes about stoners, lots of cannabis consumers spark up before hitting the gym, yoga class or basketball game, and it enhances their performance. You might find you run a little longer when you're stoned, or feel better in tune with your body's tension as you stretch.
Amarett Jans, a local social media marketer with a passion for fitness and cannabis, knows that she isn't the only person to enjoy those interests at the same time. So she started Mary Jane Fonda, a cannabis-centric aerobic experience that combines the fun of a sexy dance-inspired workout, pre-during-post smoke breaks and stoned yoga, in one.
The tricky part is the venue. For a mid-January class, that meant turning a Northwest Portland nightclub into a fitness studio, and parking a High 5 Tour bus out front. The large second-story space worked well for the 20 or so yoga mats sprawled from the DJ stand to the bar in the back, the in-house speaker system adding to the bass of the live set throughout class.
Thanks to local legislation, the social scene for cannabis consumption has been relegated into the few loopholes. That's resulted in a hotbed of cannabis-infused house parties at private residences. Anyone trying to host an event where people are allowed to enjoy legalization with others has to get creative. But we've been smoking at house parties for a while now. We're getting restless.
I had some reservations about barefoot stretches so close in proximity to bar floors, but really, the dark, red-light decor of this nightlife space is kind of the perfect ambiance for a self-loving booty workout that involves a lot of caressing one's own limbs.
After a few classes, the group that showed up to this $32 session was a combination of newbies and regulars. Some had tuned in via Instagram or knew Heather Craig, the instructor of the Booty Luv class, from other gyms in town. There were also a few diehard Mary Jane Fondas in '80s workout gear. Some more into fitness and some more into cannabis, the mixed group of all ages and genders were quick to start conversations on the smoke bus over East Fork Cultivars CBD joints and cannabis syrup-spiked mocktails mixed by Müru.
Mary Jane Fonda is not something you can fit in between errands—it's a commitment. There's group warm-up and stretching, time to meditate positive affirmations, a trip back to the bus before breaking a sweat with Heather, then maybe another trip to the bus before stretching with Matthew Erwin, a physical therapist specializing in fascial stretching.
It's hard to put your finger on the comfortable vibe when things go right during a cannabis-centric event. It's a little like the hyper energy at high school parties, where everyone is so stoked to finally have alcohol and an unsupervised house to drink it in, that everyone is in the mood to party. Public cannabis events outside the direct realm of dispensaries and growing competitions are so new, they are still a novelty. And even those who feel like they've been wrung out by the industry would be hard-pressed to feel jaded here.
GO: For more information, keep an eye on instagram.com/mjfonda.pdx.