Smoking and exercise.
I know I should stop smoking but it is one of life's luxuries for me.
Just looking for anyone who did exercise whilst smoking and then how it was after quitting.
I think I am finding that I can do a lot LESS now than I use to be able to do even when I was heavier.
I am having to stop more during exercise and can't push myself as much.
I smoke around 20 **** a day. I still try to exercise 5 times a week.
It didn't use to effect me, but I think it is starting to. It's just during exercise. When I look back I was able to do so much more even when I was smoking.
Is it to do with my lung capacity?
Just looking for anyone who did exercise whilst smoking and then how it was after quitting.
I think I am finding that I can do a lot LESS now than I use to be able to do even when I was heavier.
I am having to stop more during exercise and can't push myself as much.
I smoke around 20 **** a day. I still try to exercise 5 times a week.
It didn't use to effect me, but I think it is starting to. It's just during exercise. When I look back I was able to do so much more even when I was smoking.
Is it to do with my lung capacity?
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The amount of people who think they need cigarettes to relieve stress. They should do a 15k run and feel your stresses just fall away. Running is beautiful, it's amazing, it's makes you feel so good.
With smoking, all of the toxins from cigarettes are basically doing the same thing to the body but instead of hydrating it and enhancing performance in the muscles it's sticking to the body and giving the body more work to do, so I can't fault you intention to exercise; it's just every logical that if the body has all of this chemical stuff stuck to it, it will slow it down and muscles won't contract and build easily so it would be impossible to get serious about exercise to get results and continue to smoke.
I suppose it depends what you're after though, I'm sure you could do both just for general sort of exercise.
I spent my early 20's playing badminton.
I spent 30+ years playing squash.
In between I cycled and swam after gym.
I now play golf 3/4 times a week and love walking coastal paths..
I've never smoked.
I can't run from one lamppost to the next without thinking "Oh, fk this, I hate it!"
Bought the trainers, the MP3 player etc etc.
Stuff it! I hate it!
Basically your smoking is doing a number of things. It is reducing your lung capacity because your lungs are thick full of disgusting gunk. It is narrowing your blood vessels which limits your body's ability to supply oxygen and glucose to your muscles. It thickens your blood causing your heart to have to work harder and increase your blood pressure. This reduces your maximum heart rate which compounds your fitness problems.
Take a look: http://www.nhs.uk/smokefree/why-quit/smoking-health-problems
Cycling though, that's another good form of sport, and good for the views too. Just a shame there are so many friggin' hills in this country.
Honestly though smoking isn't a luxury.
I can relate to this.
Hate running, wont do it. Have done it before, and for me, grim, even when I was fitter.
As I'm getting older, it gets even less pleasant, should I be tempted to try again.
I cycle to work and back 2 - 3 x a week (14 mile round trip), and I agree with the other bloke who said it would be great, but on the way home I have a good 2 miles of hills after then other 5 cycling against strong headwinds on the riverside. On the way home I cycle a further route so I don't have to do the shortest route which involves 1/4 mile of a hill so steep, its hard to cycle up at more the walking pace, and even walking up it is pretty tiring. Hills are torture.
I am starting to accept at the age of 35 that I need to exercise, but after years of debauchery (which I still haven't stopped) I'm never going to as fit as some people (and I wasn't really when I was young, either, before all of the debauchery).
Walking is fantastic exercise for those who would actually like to enjoy the activity. It's not exciting, but no exercise is (closest is cycling, downhill). It is relaxing, and it is good exercise if you get the pace up, without being too taxing.
Oh, and get an e-cigarette and use that. Might not be harmless, but I can tell it's a lot less harmful than smoking, my lungs are much better since I knocked smoking on the head.
Try swimming followed by a sauna and hot tub
If you can get an affordable access
If you do then swim just hard enough to tax yourself. set a modest target and increase it gradually.
When I swam I could literally empty my head of all thoughts. I often lost count of my laps and had to add more on as a "fine".
It's better than a massage.
I do see smoking as a luxury as it's something I enjoy.
I know I should give up, but I just don't think I am ready.
I think when I am ready I will try the e-cig.
Please do. I smoked my final "real" cigarette last Monday at 4.00pm, I have just officially passed the 7 day mark
You do have to be ready to do it and I'm sure you will be soon. Why pay serious amounts of money to kill ourselves slowly and painfully - its insane!!
Good luck with it.
I stopped 10 years ago when I could only get about 1/4 of the way up Arthur's Seat (Edinburgh's big hill in the city centre - a mere 800 feet high) before looking for an oxygen cylinder.
Now, I've gone up, come down, and gone up again only taking about 3 to 4 minutes to get my breath back - and I'm in my 60s
I Smoked a lot less than you (usually only a couple of cigarettes a day) so felt it was more habit than addiction, but still can't have been good for me.
I certainly felt more full of energy on my run today, but that was probably just the placebo effect. either way though, it's making me run better!
I'm 40 now and I run. I love it for lots of different reasons. I used to smoke but gave up 12 years ago. I used to exercise then and I remember that it used to be such hard work and so painful and that was in my 20s. I couldn't imagine how hard and unpleasant it would be to run now whilst being a smoker. I feel so proud of how far I can run and continue to set bigger and better goals all the time.
Smoking and exercising is a bit like eating a Mars bar whilst cleaning your teeth.
It depends on how serious you are about getting fit and how much you value your body.
I have more money for clothes and music and am the fittest I've ever been as an adult.
Stop the smoking and find an exercise that you enjoy and your fitness will improve
Not going to preach and tell you you need to quit, you can only do it when you are ready to do so, good luck
Since giving up I can train for a lot longer so its made a big difference to how I look and basic day to day things like carrying shopping home which used to leave me out of breath for several minutes.
Rooney and Bradley Wiggins smoke and they are not dead, yet.
Time will tell!
Owens didn't start smoking until he retired, though.
There have been a number of successful sportsmen and women who smoke: Wiggins, Zinedine Zidane, Shirley Strong, Anna Kournikova, Jennifer Capriati, Mario Balotelli and I expect lots more.
There's usually a small crowd of (generally younger) people lighting up outside my local gym.