People go to the gym for different reasons. Some want to tone up, others want to get seriously bulky and there are those who want to improve their stamina. Whatever reason you may have to hit the gym you might also want to consider giving up on the smokes. Pharmacist and online doctor Chemist Direct asked a broad selection of health experts if the combination of cigarettes and the gymnasium is a good one. Interested in their answers? Here they are:
We kick off with homeopath and pharmacist Margo Marrone. We asked her how smoking affects your body’s physical performance. She notes that during physical performance oxygen is vital. The harder you work out the harder the heart pumps in order to transport oxygen to muscles. Smoking is counterproductive to your workout.
Marrone: “Smoking competes with oxygen for haemoglobin in red blood cells and wins, which means there is less oxygen flowing in the blood and less oxygen available to the muscles. This in turn makes the heart work even harder putting more stress on the heart. Smoking also constricts blood vessels making it harder for blood to flow through them and therefore an increase in the risk of heart attack. It also constricts the airways in the lung through inflammation and a build up of mucous which causes more lack of oxygen.”
Second and third up are Mark and Kathy Brown from Fitness Sitacise. They are personal trainers and have trained with Olympic athletes. They have seen first hand how smoking retards the growth and development of muscles. Just like Marrone, Mark and Kathy Brown note that smoking cuts down the amount of oxygen in the blood. They also mention that smokers that go to the gym have to work extra hard to achieve the same results non-smokers do.
Kathy Brown: “Smoking causes blood flow to slow down and decreases the amount of nutrients, protein and minerals transported to the muscles during and after the workout. Smoking also slows down your development because you cannot train as hard or as intensely as you could if you didn’t smoke so you now must work out longer to try to achieve the same results. You also get tired more quickly and your recovery time is longer and is not as complete as it is if you didn’t smoke. Your endurance, recovery and your total physical performance is reduced by about 10%.”
Non-smokers perform better than smokers in the gym. Gym goers that want better stamina will do themselves a significant favour if they put down their cigarettes. Studies have shown that a smoker’s lung capacity is hugely reduced. This cuts down on smokers’ ability to achieve maximum efforts and the most noticeable results. When you are a smoker and you’re looking to buff up you’re also shooting yourself in the knee.
Mark Brown: “Non smokers’ heart beats are 25-30% slower than smokers’. They can generate more power and explosiveness for a longer duration. Non-smokers also have better focus, concentration and coordination to perform complex combination exercises. The potential increase in performance that quitting smoking has will be noticeable in the areas that require the greatest effort. Bench presses, squats, deadlifts and endurance power movements will improve from 10 to 20%. All super setting movements and other routines that require moving from one exercise to another will improve because of increased lung capacity and endurance.”
Now that we have established that smoking is bad for your gym performance it is time to come up with a solution. Personal trainer Luke DePron knows exactly what to do to increase a smoker’s performing ability.
DePron: “Similar to most bad habits, people fool themselves in thinking healthy eating cancels out the negatives of smoking. While healthy eating does better equip to the body to deal with environmental stresses, smoking cessation would offer the greatest benefits. Trying to cancel out the negative affects of smoking with healthy nutrition is akin to fanning out smoke while a fire still burns. Putting out the fire or in this case the cigarette would have the greatest impact.”
It looks like there is only one solution for all the smokers out here. If you are serious about your gym regime, make sure you quit soon rather than later as it will positively affect your performance in the gym in a huge way.