Smoking and bodybuilding seem to be completely incompatible. First of all, because bodybuilding is a sport, and sport is a healthy lifestyle that does not accept any bad habits. Despite this, athletes who smoke can be found quite often, and many of them even compete in competitions. Some argue that they don’t smoke at all, others believe that a cigarette a day has never caused serious harm to anyone, while others are inclined to believe that smoking has no effect on gaining muscle mass at all. On the other hand, we are faced with supporters of a healthy lifestyle who believe that a smoking athlete discredits the image of the sport as a whole and causes irreparable harm to his body. Which one is right? Let's figure it out.
Introduction
How does smoking affect bodybuilding, and more specifically weight training? This is one of the most popular questions among ordinary fitness club visitors. Of course, everyone knows that smoking is harmful, but not everyone understands exactly what effect nicotine has on the body of a training person. Research by British scientists has established the fact that the activity of muscle protein formation in a smoker is always significantly lower than in a non-smoker. In addition, it was possible to establish that in the body of a smoker, compared to a non-smoker, the level of myostatin protein and the MAFbx enzyme is significantly higher. Myostatin is known for slowing down muscle growth, and the MAFbx enzyme simply breaks down muscle proteins.
What happens to the lungs
The mucous membrane of the lungs and bronchi swells in smokers, which affects their normal functioning. As a result, the breathing process is difficult.
During physical exercise, there is not enough oxygen, which has a bad effect on muscle contractility and endurance levels. The pulse increases, during training you may feel dizzy, shortness of breath and nausea appear.
If you have a long history of smoking, then over time the lung tissue changes and scars form on it. The alveoli, which receive tars and combustion products, poorly conduct oxygen to the heart.
All this not only worsens athletic performance, but also affects health in the future.
Harm of smoking to health
Let's start with the most important thing, with the fact that tobacco contains more than 4,000 different types of chemicals that have a negative effect on the human body. The most harmful components of plant origin are nicotine, carbon monoxide and well-known tars. Moreover, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that we are talking specifically about tobacco, and not about cigarettes. As for cigarettes, they are made not so much from tobacco itself, but from tobacco production waste - pods, stems, cake, paper and other processed products. This explosive mixture contains urea (causes addiction), ammonium nitrate (improves combustion) and concentrated tar (gives tobacco taste and aroma).
Nicotine, as has been repeatedly proven by scientists around the world, is a narcotic substance that causes both mental and physical dependence. Nicotine, like many other drugs, enters the body through the blood. Literally 8-10 seconds after taking a puff, it causes a response from the brain. Long-term use of nicotine (that is, smoking) often affects a person’s mental state. In addition, a smoker’s heart rate increases, the body’s production of the stress hormone cortisol increases, blood pressure increases, blood clotting decreases, and adverse changes in metabolism occur, which affects overall health.
Carbon monoxide also deserves special attention. It is a poisonous gas. In a smoker, up to 15% of the blood contains carbon monoxide instead of oxygen. It is important to focus on this, since oxygen during sports is necessary for the effective functioning of cells and nutrition of tissues. When smoking reduces the amount of oxygen in the body, problems begin with muscle growth, recovery, and the absorption of essential nutrients. The main one of these substances is protein, which plays a key role in bodybuilding. As for tars, about 70% of the liquid tar inhaled during smoking damages the lung tissue, which leads to respiratory failure, cough, and even chronic bronchitis.
The myth about compensation for nicotine harm
It is well known that improving your health through physical activity is beneficial: most people who go to the gym take care of their body. But not everyone can deny themselves the pleasure of bad habits - smoking and alcohol. At first glance, it seems that beneficial physical exercise can to some extent compensate for the damage caused by nicotine, but this is misleading.
The body of an athlete addicted to nicotine suffers incomparably more than the body of a “non-sports” smoker. When practicing bodybuilding, the main goal of an athlete is to make his body beautiful by building up sculpted muscle mass. To build big, beautiful muscles, an athlete needs fairly intense physical exercise with weights on the muscles.
Such loads have an impact, forcing many human organs to work more actively: the number of heart contractions increases, the breathing rate increases, and metabolic processes occur faster. If a heavy smoker is involved in bodybuilding or any other sport, as a result of the stress, the toxic substances accumulated in the body will be more actively absorbed into the blood and cause a destructive effect.
Cigarettes smoked immediately after training are especially harmful - the heated body will instantly absorb the proposed poison into the blood.
Hookah smoking and bodybuilding
A hookah is a special smoking device that allows you to moisturize and cool the inhaled smoke. The biggest misconception at the moment is the opinion that smoking a hookah is less harmful to the body than smoking regular cigarettes. In fact, everything happens exactly the opposite. Due to the high humidity of the smoke, hookah smoking causes less throat irritation, which creates a feeling of false security. According to studies, compared to one cigarette, a hookah produces 125 times more smoke, 25 times more tar, 10 times more carbon monoxide and 2.5 times more nicotine. If you compare a cigarette and a hookah, it’s about the same as a AA battery and a car battery.
Smoking a hookah usually takes about 40 minutes. During this time, about 50-200 breaths are taken through the mouthpiece. In total, this amounts to approximately 0.15 to 0.50 liters of smoke inhaled inside. Thus, in an hour of hookah smoking, the average person consumes approximately 150 times more smoke than he could get from smoking one cigarette. In the case of hookah, smoking and bodybuilding is the same as taking out a loan and being happy that you have a lot of money. At first, it seems that the whole world is in your pocket, but this usually does not last long. Nicotine, tar and sulfur oxide, which enter the body in large quantities, not only undermine health, but create conditions under which hookah smoking is a time bomb.
The special tobacco used to fill the hookah contains 25 mg of nicotine per standard 50 gram pack. One such pack is usually enough to fill a hookah 4 times. Purely mathematically, it turns out that one hookah refill contains 6.25 mg of nicotine, while one cigarette, as a rule, contains no more than 0.8 mg of nicotine. Thus, it will not be difficult to calculate that one hookah refill contains almost 8 times more nicotine than one cigarette. This also includes an increased incidence of gum disease, the risk of developing chronic bronchitis and, most importantly, a 5-fold risk of developing lung cancer compared to a non-smoker. Is hookah smoking worth the risk? Of course not.
Smoking-related diseases
In athletes who smoke, lung function is significantly impaired. It's no secret that good breathing is especially important for people involved in sports. The risk of developing the following diseases increases:
- bronchitis;
- asthma;
- emphysema;
- tuberculosis;
- lungs' cancer.
This is not a complete list of possible diseases.
In addition to the respiratory system, other organs suffer, so smoking athletes are susceptible to vascular atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, hypertension, gangrene, visual impairment, and peptic ulcers. The risk of developing cancer pathologies and impotence in men also increases.
Bodybuilding and electronic cigarettes
Another popular alternative to smoking classic cigarettes today is vaping, which is also called “vaping.” Translated from English, “Vape” means steam. This name is due to the design of the electronic cigarette. It involves installing a cartridge with liquid inside, which, under the influence of an incandescent coil during inhalation, allows you to inhale steam, that is, atomized liquid. This is precisely the obvious advantage of electronic cigarettes over classic ones, because in this case you, in fact, smoke steam, not smoke. Research has shown that this so-called vapor is 95% safer than cigarette smoke. This is what makes e-cigarettes so popular.
But let's talk about how smoking and bodybuilding are combined in the case of electronic cigarettes. As mentioned earlier, a sprayed aerosol is obtained from a heated aromatic liquid. There are currently a great variety of such cartridges with aromatic liquid being produced - tens, hundreds and even thousands. However, they all contain propylene glycol, glycerin and flavorings. In their ordinary form they are safe, but the situation changes dramatically when they are heated and inhaled. When heated, these components produce acrolein and formaldehyde, which are toxic to the body. With prolonged smoking, these substances can provoke mutagenic reactions in the body.
Acrolein, settling in the bronchi and lungs, causes irritation of the respiratory tract, as well as a decrease in the elasticity of the lung tissue, which leads to a decrease in the vital volume of the lungs. Its mutagenic properties can lead to the formation of cancer. Formaldehyde, in turn, has a detrimental effect on the central nervous system and significantly reduces immunity. Also, regular smoking of electronic cigarettes leads to vasoconstriction, which increases blood pressure, worsens tissue respiration and disrupts the functioning of the entire cardiovascular system. Smoking and bodybuilding in such a situation are simply contraindicated, since reduced immunity with increased stress on the heart and lungs can lead to very disastrous consequences.
Injuries, poor training, side effects - consequences of smoking
Long-term and regular smoking has a significant impact on the functioning of the thyroid gland and larynx and, consequently, disruption of hormonal activity. Thyroid hormones have an anabolic effect. Cigarette smoke worsens the relationship between parathyroid hormone and calcitonin. This means a decrease in the absorption of calcium ions in the body, which is already a direct path to osteoporosis, training injuries and more serious injuries.
Smoking cigarettes disrupts the functioning of the pancreas and impairs digestive enzymes. They are also responsible for building muscle. Physical effort increases the need for nutrients and improper digestion will prevent you from achieving results.
The training of athletes who smoke is often interrupted by shortness of breath or cough. Long and intense training becomes impossible. Moreover, impaired transport of oxygen and nutrients and their absorption have an impact on the loss of muscle mass or strength.
Bodybuilding and smoking marijuana
First of all, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this material is provided solely for educational purposes and is not an advertisement or a call for the use of marijuana. Now let's get down to business. Modern medicine pays a lot of attention to the study of the properties and effects of marijuana on physical exercise. Compared with the same tobacco, it has less negative effects on the body and has lower addictive properties. That is, its degree of addiction is lower than that of cigarettes. Previously, there were a number of concerns that marijuana negatively affected testosterone levels, protein synthesis and lung function, but most modern research has refuted these concerns.
In the case of marijuana, smoking and bodybuilding have shown surprising compatibility. Smoking marijuana increases appetite, which helps during muscle gain. It also has a relaxing effect on the muscles, which makes it easier to recover from hard workouts. It improves blood circulation, which contributes to better saturation of the brain, tissues, organs and muscles with oxygen. It relieves pain in ligaments and joints, which is typical for strength sports, which include bodybuilding. It helps activate the production of growth hormone during sleep. Smoking marijuana also helps relieve stress and relaxation. However, before training and immediately after, you should not smoke marijuana.
Bodybuilding and smoking marijuana certainly need to be separated from each other. Simply put, it is strongly not recommended to smoke this substance to enhance athletic performance. It is also impossible to say with complete certainty that marijuana has more benefits than harm. We can only say that it causes significantly less harm compared to regular cigarettes. But there is no way to talk about its complete safety, otherwise it would not be prohibited at the legislative level. By the way, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) adds new substances to the list of prohibited substances every year. And if back in 2012 marijuana was not on this list, then at the moment its use is already strictly prohibited.
Athletic figure and nicotine
Today a healthy lifestyle is in fashion. Many guys and girls purchase memberships to fitness clubs and become vegetarians, but not everyone can give up smoking. If a bad habit has been present for many years, it is quite difficult to get rid of it instantly. But in this situation, everyone should understand that daily use of cigarettes does not have a positive effect on your figure, but, on the contrary, helps reduce tone and prevents muscle growth.
If you want to give your figure a sporty look, you must give up cigarettes. When choosing a suitable training program, it is much easier for a person to get rid of nicotine addiction, especially if the result is visible after several sessions.
Does smoking affect muscle growth ? Of course it does! But with the right approach, you can significantly reduce the negative effects of cigarettes on the body. If you want to have a athletic figure, it is recommended to completely give up bad habits. But if this is not possible, then it is necessary to take measures and use recommendations to reduce the negative effects of cigarette smoke on muscles and internal organs.
How to quit smoking
Let me remind you once again that smoking and bodybuilding are not comparable concepts. Any athlete who is involved in bodybuilding and works with weights should understand that increased loads place increased demands on health. Everyone knows that smoking leads to lung diseases, but as we found out, the range of its negative effects on the body is not limited to the lungs alone. Since our body is a closed ecosystem, problems that arise in one organ or organ system lead to problems in other organs and systems. Smoking causes vasoconstriction, which impairs blood flow, increases blood pressure, increases heart rate and puts increased stress on the heart.
If increased stress on the heart is created not only by heavy training, but also by smoking, the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke increases. In addition, we should not forget about the threat of developing lung cancer, which can ultimately lead to death. Are smoking and bodybuilding compatible? Absolutely not! And if it so happens that you smoke and at the same time are engaged in bodybuilding, you need to quit the bad habit as quickly as possible and devote more time to sports. There are a large number of techniques to quit smoking. Many books have been written on this topic, many trainings are constantly being conducted, a huge number of video and audio courses are being produced, and many pharmacological agents are being produced.
Our body does not like sudden changes and changes. The very essence of bodybuilding comes down to a gradual and methodical progression of loads. The same thing happens with nutrition. Switching to a lower-calorie or no-carbohydrate diet should never happen abruptly. The same should apply to bad habits. The body has the ability to get used to everything, even harmful things. By abruptly quitting smoking, he will give you a signal on the second day that he is in dire need of tobacco, and by the end of the first week you will start smoking again. Instead, reduce your smoking frequency gradually. First, up to 1 cigarette a day, then up to 1 cigarette every two days, three days, five days, a week, two, a month, and so on until you completely wean your body off tobacco.
Lipid metabolism
Quitting smoking does not mean that you will immediately begin to gain weight as soon as you throw away your last cigarette. Statistics say that out of three people who quit smoking, one begins to lose weight, the second remains the same weight, and the third gets fat. The whole point is that due to nicotine withdrawal, lipid metabolism changes in the body.
Lipids are various fats and fatty acids. They enter our body mainly with food, but are partially synthesized by the cells of the liver and intestines. Fatty acids are carried by the bloodstream to our muscles and stored as fat for energy in the future when needed. And this is the same fat that accumulates in problem areas and prevents many from living a full life. If lipid metabolism is disturbed, the body may begin to burn excess fat too actively, and then the person will lose weight. But it also happens the other way around - too slow a process leads to excess weight gain.
Does smoking help you lose weight?
It is believed that cigarettes help you lose weight. Often this myth forces a person to become addicted to an addiction just because of the desire to lose weight. In fact, tobacco does not burn fat reserves in the body; weight loss can occur due to:
- Muffling the feeling of hunger. Smoke, nicotine, entering the oral cavity and gastrointestinal tract blocks taste buds, a person subconsciously refuses to eat food, eats less of it, since it seems tasteless to him.
- Decreased insulin levels.
- Acceleration of metabolic processes, so the body quickly tries to get rid of toxic substances.
- CNS depression, a cigarette gives a false feeling of satiety.
People who start smoking to lose weight involuntarily harm their body. In addition to developing a persistent addiction, the components of a cigarette do not burn fat deposits, but reduce the amount of muscle tissue. As a result, unhealthy thinness appears, while the desire to get beautiful body contours does not come true.
