Smoking

[tonpaulerc]

I know I should not be doing it but I do. But I was just wondering if there was any effect on muscle growth if I do smoke?

[Off Road]

I would think it would effect conditioning the most, and conditioning can effect your intensity and recovery, which can effect muscle growth. So ya, it has an effect.

[BigJosh]

I think it has an effect on your bodies ability to disperse oxygen, so I would say that would have a pretty big impact on training and muscle growth.

[big_swede]

I smoked two packs a day before and I stopped doing that in january this year. It have made an huge impact on my lifting. When i smoked, I was about to die after every set of 3 or more due to not getting enough oxygene. And also, when i stopped, i could notice the difference when training the day after, so go ahead and quit!

[5kgLifter]

Originally Posted by BigJosh

I think it has an effect on your bodies ability to disperse oxygen, so I would say that would have a pretty big impact on training and muscle growth.

Exactly!

People tend to talk in terms of isolation with body parts, a bicep muscle, a hamstring...bear with me here ...but the body works as a whole so to ask whether smoking will impact on "muscle growth" is not really the right way to think about it...

...smoking could very well be proven to NOT affect muscle, per se, if studies were conducted only on muscle tissue in relation to smoking, but it would miss the overal point of the fact that muscle fibres are only part of the big picture...oxygen, blood, and every other aspect no matter how minor will affect the muscles; cut the oxygen and the body treats CO2 as oxygen because it fools it into thinking it's the right stuff...but, you are essentially starving your body, and thereby your muscles, of oxygen.

So, smoking will affect muscle growth.

[Shadowschmadow]

Originally Posted by BigJosh

I think it has an effect on your bodies ability to disperse oxygen, so I would say that would have a pretty big impact on training and muscle growth.

Spot on big guy. Smoking constricts your blood vessels. Less oxygen and blood for your body.

[bruteforce]

Smoking can lead to cancer, which can have a very negative impact on staying alive. Biggest reason to quit.

It also gives you a pretty good dose of carbon monoxide. The hemoglobin in your red blood cells binds preferentially to carbon monoxide over oxygen, meaning that even though you exhale, the red blood cells that it came in contact with can no longer transport oxygen.

Try this one on for size. The normal level of CO in smokers is around the same as is considered carbon monoxide poisoning in healthy adults.

[Jamesw]

I have a couple clients that smoke. As far as weight loss and beginner strength gains go they aren't much different from obese folks.

But if you are serious about fitness then you won't smoke.

[Dingo]

What has been said is obviously true, constricted blood vessels and reduced lung capacity will halter progress in any physical/athlethic endeavour, not just endurance-related activities.

In addition, I think smoking tends to put your body in a negative state and makes it harder to remain in anabolic mode. This is simply my intuitive feeling and I don't know if it is backed up by science, but I think about it this way; when you are smoking your body is busy dealing with a poison, and when you are not smoking your body is stressed out due to the cravings, releasing stress hormones and whatnot.

I think it's quite obvious that such a thing will effect muscle building; I would rather want my "system" to focus on recuperating my muscles from weight lifting in order for them to grow and get stronger.

I enjoy cigarettes myself and dread the day I'm going to quit, which is pretty soon (february 15th, date has been set for some time now). Until that I stay off cigarettes at work breaks and I also never smoke for one hour prior to and after working out, and that includes morning exercise. If you find it difficult to quit this might be a strategy to consider; to gradually reduce the available hours of the day where you "allow yourself" to smoke, rather than to focus on the number of cigarettes. I know two others who quitted using this approach after trying numerous other strategies in the past, and both are smoke free after several months now. Both claim to find recovering from weight training easier, too.

[blackjack]

I would say you just need to quit. Do not want to be a hypocrite but it is not healthy at all.