On June 12, 1970, Dock Ellis made baseball history. Not only did he pitch a no-hitter – one of baseball’s rarest achievements – he did it while on LSD. On that Friday afternoon in San Diego, Ca, under the gaze of some 36,000 fans, Ellis accomplished what looked like the impossible after pumping his body with a cocktail of drugs, losing track of time, and taking another tab of LSD hours before the game.

He didn't carve through hitters so much as stumble through nine innings of chaos. From his perspective, the ball changed shape, the strike zone seemed to move, and he could barely trust what he was seeing. He walked eight batters, hit another, and spent the afternoon pitching out of trouble, with runners constantly threatening on the bases. It was messy, and relied on defense. 

Now, over half a century and one psychedelic renaissance later, psychedelics are finding their way to gym floors, running tracks and kickboxing rings. It’s no longer stupefying to hear about athletes using psychedelics. From career-changing ayahuasca ceremonies to microdosing regimens, numerous professional athletes have praised psychedelics for improving their mindset, managing pain, healing from concussion, and even proving performance. 

Appearing on Logan Paul’s podcast in 2024, Mike Tyson said he’d been using mushrooms while training for his fight against Jake Paul. “It takes me to heaven, baby,” he said. He previously told Kevin Hart that he does this because the mental space they allow him to access: “The focusedness of shrooms can’t compare to nothing else,” he said. Rashad Evans, a former UFC light heavyweight champion who fought last in 2022, said he used mushrooms while training for his fight in 2022 and the drugs reduced soreness after sparring. “The next day I feel totally rebooted and ready to do it again,” he said. 

And it’s not just fighters. In 2024, Juniper Reserve, a luxury golfing resort in Oregon applied for permission to conduct research on the performance effects of psilocybin on golfers (although the application was denied). Numerous golfers have experimented with psychedelics, including one unnamed Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) Tour player, who told credits psilocybin for his success Golf Digest: “Psilocybin allows me to get a deep breath on the course that I haven’t been able to get in year.” NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers has also claimed that ayahuasca helped to improve his performance on the football field. Hockey players, surfers, rugby players, basketballers; you name it. 

But despite the growing openness around the use of psychedelics by people in sports – and the growing interest from even casual fitness enthusiasts – research into the physical and physiological effects of psychedelics beyond mental health outcomes is still lacking, in both animal and human studies. 

Research by the Christie Lab at the University of Victoria has explored the use of psilocybin and DMT for concussions and sport-related brain injuries, focusing on their potential to enhance neuroplasticity and reduce brain inflammation. Psychedelic-assisted therapy has also been investigated for sports-related mental health conditions such as PTSD. Supporting this potential, a recent review in Performance Enhancement and Health suggested that ketamine and psilocybin could aid recovery.

Despite growing interest, athletes appear both curious and underinformed. A 2024 study published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology found that psilocybin was the third most used substance among surveyed recreational and collegiate athletes: 35.8% had used psychedelics in the past year and 7.5% used them regularly. The main motivations were personal improvement or well-being (16.4%) and mood enhancement (12.3%). More than 60% of athletes said they would consider psilocybin or other entheogens for concussion recovery or post-concussion symptoms, while over 70% of sports staff supported psychedelic-assisted therapy for athletes.

Similarly, a March 2026 study in the Journal of Psychedelic Drugs involving 28 Brazilian athletes found that only 11% had prior psychedelic experience, but 79% were open to psychedelic therapies if they were legal and supervised. However, most participants were unaware of the evidence supporting psychedelics for mental health treatment and their potential anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects, and 78% believed psychedelics were addictive.

Leandro Bertoglio, a professor of pharmacology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianópolis, Brazil, who worked on the study, is among a small but growing number of researchers beginning to examine psychedelic use in athletics. “Currently, the field remains largely exploratory,” he says. “Empirical research directly addressing athletic performance is limited, and most discussions rely on indirect evidence or anecdotal reports rather than controlled studies”. 

Much of the uncertainty comes down to how little we actually know about the physiological effects of psychedelics in a sporting context. Critical factors for athletic performance – such as endurance, muscle strength, coordination, thermoregulation, hydration, metabolism, and hormonal regulation – remain largely untested even in rodent studies. 

Yet, there is an appetite for experimentation. Victor Espinosa is a mixed martial arts coach and gym owner based in London. Growing up in Mexico, he’s no stranger to psychedelics, which he found freely in the jungles and deserts of his country. Over the years, he says, he noticed that psychedelics were used by many types of athletes: bodybuilders, basketball players, soccer players, boxers. 

“Their use was mostly recreational, often seen as a way to release stress and reset from the pressures of daily training and competition,” he says. “Since moving to the UK and opening my own martial arts gym, I’ve observed similar patterns among fighters, however, the context has changed. Psychedelics have become more commercialized and are now available in forms like chocolate bars and other edibles.”

With this commercialization, especially over the past 5 to 10 years, he says he has noticed a shift in how they are used. “Some fighters, particularly female athletes in my network, use microdosing as a way to manage emotional challenges such as depression, anxiety, or hormonal imbalances to help them maintain a stable training regime,” Espinosa says. However, he hasn’t seen active professional athletes using psychedelics in large quantities on a regular basis. “I believe this is because of the high level of focus, discipline, and mental clarity required to maintain peak physical condition and perform effectively in competition or fighting.” 

Bertoglio suggests that current use among athletes appears to sit somewhere between therapeutic exploration and informal self-experimentation. “The available evidence indicates a mixed pattern,” he says. “There is growing interest in therapeutic applications for mental health, alongside self-experimentation and anecdotal efforts to enhance motivation, recovery, or well-being, [but] there is no evidence supporting their use as performance enhancers.”

Jason*, a former professional wrestler and current MMA fighter, enjoys using psychedelics recreationally, but would never combine them with sports practice. “To me, that sounds almost too intense, mainly because of the nature of having to react to another person,” he says. “Not only do we put a lot of trust in our sparring partners in martial arts, which would be even more necessary when under the influence of psychedelics, ultimately, when training martial arts we are learning techniques and skills to cause harm, and the idea of experiencing that level of physical aggression while on psychedelics just doesn’t appeal to me. I feel like it would be a bad trip.” 

Jason is more likely to take a moderate to high dose of mushrooms, never less than 1.5 grams, every few months, away from training. While he doesn’t think more fighters are doing psychedelics now than they were before, he says people are much more open about it. “It's treated less like a dirty secret and more just like, oh, this is the thing you do, too.” 

In a more indirect way, he believes psychedelics have had an impact on his sport, particularly on his mindset. “In my approach to martial arts and my particular sports, I don't think being aggressive and angry is actually very helpful,” he says. “I think the empathy you get on psychedelics, and that sense of the ego sort of chipping away helped with feeling more calm, relaxed and present, which is a space I try to find during training.” He carries these benefits into his life more broadly, including fighting. “It’s not like I took a couple grams and then my jab got better, or I understood fighting more,” he says. “But I feel that psychedelics helped me as a person – the ability to reframe my ego and identity has helped me to be more inclined towards value-based behaviors rather than end results and they have helped me to be more social and to understand people more. This made me feel like I was in a better place mentally, and that had a ripple effect on my training, coaching and fighting.”

For many athletes and fitness buffs, psychedelics are part of a wider lifestyle choice likely due to the rise in research around their purported effects on mental health and association with wellness culture. But there is an emerging trend of some people using psychedelics in an attempt to enhance physical performance. 

Max, 25, who has occasionally taken a small dose of mushrooms before lifting weights, describes the experience as having “a bubble of energy, a tiny sun just above the stomach and below that chest, that provides constant energy”. He worked out with the goal of working to near-failure and keeping a consistent level of tension in his muscles. “They definitely helped to keep tension, as I had a more precise sense of my body,” he says, adding that he “had deeper reserves of energy. There were moments in between sets where I felt like I would explode if I didn’t use the energy I had.” 

An analysis of anecdotal reports of ketamine use in physical exercise on Reddit found that it was being used as pre-workout for weightlifting, running, yoga and snowboarding. Desired effects included increased endurance, feeling stronger and pain reduction. Although people also reported undesired effects such as dehydration, tolerance buildup, bladder discomfort and heart strain. 

Matthew*, who is 39-years-old, describes himself as a “lifelong mountain athlete”. He focuses on trail and ultra marathon running, but he has also trained and performed at a high level in mountain biking and downhill skiing. He first tried taking psychedelics while training 15 years ago, when he took “somewhere between 1 and 1.5 grams” of mushrooms while downhill skiing for fun. Now, he does it around two to five times a year.

For the most part, Matthew uses psychedelics in conjunction with sport, both while training and sometimes in competition “for the experience, enjoyment, and exploration” and prefers to take a low dose and play at a relaxed intensity, well within the scope of his ability. “I have used low doses of mushrooms (.5-1g) while backcountry skiing, but only at the end of a season of skiing where I feel extremely comfortable on skis; or during a marathon length trail run, but only while training for a 100 miler,” he says. “In both examples I had a great time, felt in tune with nature around me, and could very easily fall into a flow state but also consciously did not try to reach the maximum level of my performance capabilities.” 

Matthew only takes psychedelics during sub-optimal training sessions because he’s concerned about safety. “Maximal efforts have lower margin for error, whether that is proper fueling when running, or line choice when skiing; and psychedelics inhibit decision making so they increase the likelihood of making an error. I personally don't think it's particularly safe or wise to take psychedelics during maximal efforts in mountain sports,” he explains.

Although Matthew stresses that taking psychedelics during exercise is not about enhancing performance, he did once finish in the top 10 at a local trail half marathon after taking 0.75g of mushrooms, “just to see what it was like”. He had read anecdotal reports on Reddit about performance enhancing effects and reaching a flow state, and by ultra running legend Micheal Versteeg – who has said that psychedelics bring back the magic of things he’s become accustomed to – and decided to give it a try. “I read that you could eat while on psychedelics while running at lower doses, which is really important for anything longer than a couple of hours,” he says. “I allowed myself to go 100%, but only because at a race there is a high level of support (medical, aid stations, trail markings) and the distance was well within my capabilities, making it a very low risk activity.” He says that the result was probably a little better than he would have done otherwise, but in the same ballpark. 

Interestingly, he notes, while psychedelics increase his mind-body connection, improve focus, and enable a flow state, they don’t necessarily improve his performance. “It generally makes physically ‘hard’ activities feel easier, but I have not found that it actually makes you better at those,” he says. “When comparing data from my watch, I was almost always slower when going uphill on a bike or running when on psychedelics, even while it felt easier.” 

David, 34, runs occasional microdosing cycles as he finds it improves his mode and decreases anxiety. “During these cycles, I’ll go to the gym and suddenly realise how hard I’m working, and then I’ll remember I took the microdose,” he says. “I feel a lot more focused when I’m lifting weights or doing high intensity interval training, either at the gym or at home. I often find it hard to focus, especially if I’m training at home, but I feel a lot more focused when I’m lifting and my output is better.” 

However, he finds that running on higher doses of mushrooms is not beneficial. “I once went for a run after taking 3 grams of mushrooms and found it much harder,” he says. “Time was moving much slower and I would check the distance every couple of minutes.” He managed to run 7 kilometres, but that’s much shorter than his usual run. 

The sense that mushrooms makes the effort of exercise feel easier is consistent with other anecdotal reports online, some people describe feeling more connected to their bodies, more motivated, or less aware of discomfort during exercise. But, as Dr. Rayyan Zafar, a leading neuropsychopharmacologist at the Centre for Psychedelic Research and Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, notes, while people’s experiences are fascinating, they remain anecdotal. “We don’t yet have the data to say that psychedelics can reliably enhance performance or make exercise feel easier,” says Zafar, “so it’s important to avoid confusing intriguing reports with established effects.” 

However, current neuroscientific research does allow cautious speculation. “Psychedelics act primarily on the serotonin 5-HT2A receptor which influences sensory processing, attention, perception, and the way the brain integrates internal and external cues,” explains Zafar. “In theory, this modulation could change how effort feels, perhaps making sensations seem less threatening or allowing people to sustain a rhythm more comfortably.”

On top of that, he says, psychedelics can temporarily alter the default mode network, a set of brain regions involved in self-referential thinking. “When activity in this network decreases, people sometimes report feeling “less in their head” and more present in physical sensations.”

And, there’s also a potential effect on interoception, or how the brain interprets signals from the body. “Psychedelics might change the emotional tone attached to sensations like breathlessness or muscle fatigue,” he says. “That doesn’t mean those sensations go away; rather, they may be interpreted differently.”

But, he adds, until rigorous studies are done, we must treat these mechanisms as possibilities, not conclusions on efficacy.

Of course, the risks shouldn't be discounted. They include impaired coordination or judgement, which can increase the risk of injury; cardiovascular effects, including increased heart rate and blood pressure; and unpredictability. 

“Set and setting strongly influence psychedelic experiences, and exercise environments can sometimes bring added mental exertion,” says Zafar. 

Matthew is no stranger to such risks. “I have found that it is more difficult to see your limits, and effectively make decisions,” he says. “For example, I might be having so much fun, I come into a corner too quickly on my bike and slide out; or forget to stop and eat and drink on activity.” 

Once, he went mountain biking on a low dose of LSD. “It was on an easy trail I've ridden many times, but it was at the end of a long week and I had forgotten to drink enough water fuel effectively before and during the ride,” he says. “Half way through the ride I bonked, which is a term for getting behind on calories and electrolytes, which gives you a low energy ‘dead’ feeling. While this is not enjoyable in the best circumstance, when on LSD it was almost insurmountable, I made it home but the last hour was one of the most miserable sports experiences I've had, maybe 5-10x worse than it would have been without the drug.” 

For Bertoglio, the priority is clear: better research. “An ideal study would rigorously control both dosage and the experimental setting and assess psychological and physiological outcomes such as endurance, strength, recovery, thermoregulation, and cognition,” he says. 

As interest continues to grow, he emphasises the need for caution. “Certain psychedelics may offer benefits for mental health or physical recovery,” he says. “However, rigorous, domain-specific research is necessary before drawing conclusions regarding their application in sports contexts.”

So, more than half a century after Dock Ellis’ no-hitter, psychedelics have moved from the margins of sport into something closer to the mainstream. But while the stories have multiplied, the science has not kept pace. For now, the idea that psychedelics can enhance performance remains compelling, but far from fully understood. 

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