Smoking and the effect on training

The majority of bodybuilders have a commitment to maintaining their bodies in peak physical condition, which includes not harming themselves through smoking.

 

There are the odd one or two, however, who still believe they can continue to smoke without it affecting their overall performance. There are many ways in which smoking cigarettes affects your ability to train, all negative.

If you do find it difficult to stop completely, try an electronic cigarette from Ecigarette Direct. These let you experience the physical act of smoking and get your nicotine hit without ingesting all the thousands of harmful chemicals that go into a regular cigarette.

Smoking blocks the airways, which in turn lessens the amount of oxygen the lungs can inhale at any one time. Your muscles need this oxygen if they are to develop and perform. By smoking you are actually making it so you have to work twice as hard as other body builders to see the same gain in muscle size and tone.

Anyone who regularly indulges in intense levels of exercise knows how important it is to be able to breathe deeply as you work. Smoking prevents your lungs from growing as they need to and makes them less productive and smaller in capacity. If you find yourself short of breath you will find it very difficult to keep pushing your body further.

As you exercise your heart rate begins to speed up to increase the oxygen supply to the rest of the body. This eventually makes you tire as you are expending energy to keep the heart pumping faster.

The average smoker’s heartbeat is already around 30% faster than that of a non-smoker, meaning you reach the point of exhaustion far more quickly and therefore cannot train for as long.

If you are serious about bodybuilding but find it too hard to give up nicotine, you should seriously consider some form of nicotine replacement such as patches, gum or ecigarettes. You will soon notice the difference in your performance.