smoking holds back gains?

[DaveT]

i smoke quite often too. sometimes i manage to avoid smoking for a day or two and i feel a little better, i have more energy for workouts and my recovery time after a workout is shorter than before. if only i could manage to quit smoking for a month atleast

great silentbob, 3 months and no smoke. how did u do it? any pointers for the weak-willed

I gave up two years ago (smoking a pack a day), but then fell off the wagon after about six months, but only to the point where I'm smoking about a pack a week (a couple a day and the rest of the pack on Sat nights with a few beers), but it's still too much and it's something that I need to readdress.
Giving up is all about breaking old habits and building new ones. It takes 3-7 days to overcome the addiction part, but 3-4 weeks to build the new habit of being a non-smoker. The main thing is to note the situations where you smoke and initially try to avoid them. For example, for me, one of my prime times is with coffee after lunch. Thus, to initially stop, I will probably stop going for the coffee as well, and therefore break the association. My most difficult association and the reason I started again was when drinking a few beers. The $$$$$$$ thing doesn't work in Taiwan as an incentive, as it's only about $1.50 for a pack.

[thunderdownunder]

No one will be the best they can be at a sport if they smoke.

[wrenchhands]

After a weekend of smoking, be it cigs or black and milds, I just feel dead at the gym.

I don't have solid evidence, but I'm pretty sure inhaling burning matter into your oxygen gathering organ isn't good.

[KCMasterpiece]

This:



Plus this:



The book goes over avoiding your cues pretty thoroughly. It also helps to have a significant other or good friend to talk about it with as well. It's monumentally difficult to quite if you smoke, especially if you have for a long time and have the habit obsessively routinized (as I did and still do to an extent).

Good freaking luck. You will be glad you did it.

[DaveT]

This was in my local paper a couple of days a go:

■CHINA

Officials ordered to smoke

Officials in Gong’an County, Hubei Province, have been told to smoke nearly a quarter million packs of locally made cigarettes annually or risk being fined, state media reported yesterday. The Gong’an County government has ordered its staff to puff their way through 230,000 packs of Hubei-produced cigarette brands a year, the Global Times said. Departments that fail to meet their targets will be fined, the report said. “The regulation will boost the local economy via the cigarette tax,” Chen Nianzu, a member of the Gong’an cigarette market supervision team, was quoted as saying. The measure could also be a ploy to aid local cigarette brands such as Huanghelou, which are under severe pressure from competitors in Hunan Province.

Government officials are fined if they don't smoke their share! The other great bit about this is that they are paying the cigarette tax which will then be used to pay their wages, thus they're paying themselves to work. Ingenious economics by the county government!

[Anand]

I gave up two years ago (smoking a pack a day), but then fell off the wagon after about six months, but only to the point where I'm smoking about a pack a week (a couple a day and the rest of the pack on Sat nights with a few beers), but it's still too much and it's something that I need to readdress.
Giving up is all about breaking old habits and building new ones. It takes 3-7 days to overcome the addiction part, but 3-4 weeks to build the new habit of being a non-smoker. The main thing is to note the situations where you smoke and initially try to avoid them. For example, for me, one of my prime times is with coffee after lunch. Thus, to initially stop, I will probably stop going for the coffee as well, and therefore break the association. My most difficult association and the reason I started again was when drinking a few beers. The $$$$$$$ thing doesn't work in Taiwan as an incentive, as it's only about $1.50 for a pack.

hi DaveT,
yup, the hardest part of quitting would be the first 3-4 weeks and building a new habit of being a non smoker, and breaking associations with smoking . its difficult to quit smoking right away from smoking 8-10 a day.
am thinking of maintaining a 'smoke log' along with the training log. everyday i would enter the number of smokes i took that day. over a period of time i can check how i am doing. the goal of the 'smoke log' being - lower smoking to a certain level (0 or 1 smoke a day) or quit all together. I tried this many months back and reduced my smokes to about 2 a day, and sometimes none. Trying to consciously control smoking is kindof difficult for me. hope i can get it working again.

hi KCMasterpiece,
thanks for mentioning the book. will check it out.

[Dada]

Just found out yesterday that a friend I grew up with had a heart attack on Monday. The cause was smoking related. He was in good shape not overweight at all (kind of ripped actually), he walks a lot every day (delivers the mail) and worked out at the gym with weights. He is only 35 but smokes all the time.

I guess they did some procedure yesterday and he's Ok for the time being. Going to have rest for a couple of weeks. He'll be on some kind of meds for the rest of his life now too and has to quit smoking. Scary stuff!

[Sam277]

Smoking is 1 of the only things that's as evil as the media say it is.

Spent 5 days at reading fest (last weekend) smoking fags and Js and i'm still coughing up flem occasionly. Bullshit that you're addicted after 5 fags though. Honestly, it's a huge difference to having clean lungs.

I'm a non smoker btw. Treat fags like alcohol.

[Mazikins]

I used to smoke between 5 and 20 cigarettes per day for 6 years. I was not only addicted to nicotine, but to the act of smoking itself, which felt "cool", especially when going out with friends. Quitting smoking was the best possible idea I've had, ever. Yes, the first month was hard, but after 3 or 4 months I was breathing easier, colleagues were saying how much better my skin looks and how the circles under my eyes have disappeared (I was 25 at the time). My sense of smell and taste became a lot sharper after I quit smoking. Now the faintest whiff of cigarette smoke iritates my nose and I find the tobacco smell of heavy smokers repulsive.

I can't recommend my method of quitting, since it was more of a dare/spite thing - my boyfriend was complaining that I was smoking his cigarettes and I didn't have money to buy my own. So I told him "Fine, then I'll quit." "Haha, you can't quit", he says. This really pushed my buttons (I'm VERY stubborn and proud sometimes), so the next day I quit smoking.

Just do it. It's worth it.

[coryK]

I started smoking in junior high, around 15yo. Smoked a pack a day until 2nd year uni when I developed PVCs - premature ventricular contractions. It's when one of the ventricals of your heart forgets to beat, fills up with twice the blood it's supposed to pump and is then forced to pump twice as hard when it finally remembers to beat again. Doctors told me it's relatively common and not to worry, but quitting smoking would be a good idea. So I did for about 3 years and the PVCs mostly went away. Then I landed in Japan where smokes are cheap and plentiful. Plus everyone an their dog smokes over here. So I slipped back into the habit.

After a few years I decided to try and quit, or at least cut down, and am at my current level of smoking basically only on weekends when I'm around certain triggers: alcohol, clubs, certain friends. It's not great, but better than smoking every day.

Since starting stronglifts and really focusing on progressing, I've noticed how a pack over the weekend can affect my performace for most of the week. I get tired quicker, head aches if I climb stairs too quickly, gasping for breath after my squats...and sometimes even the PVCs come back (especially if I've been on a bender the night before).

It's funny, despite having these kinds of first hand experiences I still fold like a cheap tent whenever I'm faced with certain triggers. Guess I need to accept the fact that in order to finally kick the habit I'm going to have to be a social recluse for the next month or two since nearly all of my triggers involve going out on the weekends. Sux to think about it, but I suppose it's worth it in the end.

[Rockfella]

I avoid smoking one hour pre and 2-3 hour post workout and to reduce smoking i never buy packs, smoke "biri" @ home.

[JBR]

After 13 years, I just stopped smoking last Tuesday. My girlfriend decided to try quitting when she got a wisdom tooth removed, so it's only fair that I quit, too. I have small cravings each day, but it's been fairly easy so far. And I was surprised that it already made my last 2 workouts a lot easier to breathe.

I think the real test for me will come this weekend, since I'll be going out for drinks for my birthday. I seriously can't imagine drinking without smoking, but that's what I plan to do. I'm just glad drinking is a fairly rare thing for me...I used to drink every weekend up until a few years ago.