Physical activity can bring many benefits to our health, as long as it is performed in the right conditions. There are some precautions we must take into account to ensure the safest conditions in the practice of physical activity. Quit Smoking is the first one of the list.
Smoking is one of the worst habits to lead a healthy life. But if we add doing so after a sports session, especially aerobic, it is much worse, since the alveoli are more open and are more receptive to capture a lot of toxic substances contained in a cigarette.
Tobacco and exercise
Smoking harms health, something obvious despite the high percentage of smokers in the world. To get more specific in the sports population are some who combine tobacco with exercise, a mixture that will detract from the performance they can reach otherwise. The physiological processes that are put in place during physical activity are slowed down by more than 4000 chemical elements that the tobacco carries. Whether you are a smoker or not, take a look at the sports consequences of smoking.
Here we have the first of many negative consequences of tobacco
Tobacco destroys lung tissue progressively by the inhalation of smoke. When we have less surface in our lungs, it is obvious that gas exchange is difficult under normal conditions but even more under physical exercise. The energy needs, as a result of the activity, cannot be adequately supplied in the absence of normal exchange conditions.
The lack of information that people who smoke and do sports or some form of physical exercise on a daily basis is worrisome. They completely ignore that carbon monoxide, present in cigarette smoke, exposes them to immediate or very short-term damage, and malfunctions: among them, there are from bronchospasms and lack of sufficient oxygenation of the tissues, until the exaggerated and dangerous acceleration of the heartbeat and breathing caused by the activity that is performed.
It also happens that among the effects of carbon monoxide is that of subtracting from the red blood cells 15% of their ability to transport oxygen through the body. Imagine how your body is going to exercise using 15% less of the necessary oxygen.
Exercise to quit smoking
That is why many smokers want to quit the addiction to start leading a life of healthier habits. Like all addictive substances, tobacco is a very difficult substance to give up, however, replacing tobacco with some nicotine replacement therapies such as patches and electronic cigarettes with the best e-liquid, or replacing it with physical exercise is a way to overcome addiction while improving physical abilities and getting fit, which comes very well to a heart and intoxicated lungs.
Many studies show that a person quits smoking more efficiently if they exercise than if they stay with a sedentary lifestyle. There is also the undeniable benefit that physical exercise produces in the recovery of aerobic capacity and cardiovascular improvement, depleted in smokers.
The best thing would be to quit smoking, but if it is not your intention or if you have tried and there is no way try to wait a couple of hours before throwing a cigarette if you just play sports. This will reduce the impact of tobacco on your lungs, avoiding more surface alveolar contact with the smoke, with all the damages involved.
Although tobacco directly affects performance, physical exercise can also be used as a means to quit smoking. In addition to need, smoking is a habit that should be extinguished especially if you practice some sport. Sport is one of the factors that help to stop smoking, as it reduces the stress and anxiety caused by not smoking and by improving aerobic capacity is a strong motivation to quit or at least reduce their consumption.
When a smoker accompanies his will to quit smoking with the practice of sport, he will be associating the benefits of sport with the benefits of quitting smoking. Obviously, in the beginning, it is challenging to leave, but if exercise replaces tobacco, we will counteract the effects of the withdrawal syndrome with the improvements that produce us the sport.