The Fitness Zone

Smoking & Exercise Don’t Go Well Together, Here’s Why

Jun 26, 2014 | by AIF

You exercise regularly and you eat well, so a cigarette every so often isn’t so bad, right? Wrong! Smoking is preventing you from reaping the benefits of your healthy behaviour. Ben O’Connell, eCampus Fitness Coach at the Australian Institute of Fitness NSW, explains why.

Obviously exercise and smoking are two polar opposites. On one hand, exercise has a positive influence on creating a healthy lifestyle, while smoking has a negative influence on our health. Here are the effects of each in brief:

Positive Effects Exercising Has on our Health

  • Increases lung capacity
  • Promotes strength
  • Assists in losing weight
  • Improves mood
  • Fights depression
  • Decreases the risk of heart disease

Negative Effects Smoking Has on our Health

  • Lung cancer
  • Cardiovascular disease
  • Chronic bronchitis
  • Emphysema
  • High blood pressure
  • Impotence

Did you know the more exercise we do, the stronger our heart becomes, and from this we are able to pump more blood to our lungs and throughout the body? This enables more oxygen rich blood to feed the muscles, so we are able to exercise for a longer duration and have a lower heart rate.

In contrast to this, when we smoke we intake carbon monoxide which binds to haemoglobin, causing less oxygen in the blood. Less oxygen means that the heart has to work harder to pump more blood to increase the oxygen supply to muscles, which results in us having an increased heart rate and fatiguing quicker.

From this we can see that if we exercise and smoke together, smoking will prevent us from reaping the great benefits exercise could be giving us. Hopefully this has given you a great reason to quit or help others around you to see the benefits of quitting.

AIF

AIF

The Australian Institute of Fitness
The Australian Institute of Fitness (AIF) is the largest and longest established fitness training organisation in Australia, with dynamic training methods and expert course coaches nationwide - spanning fitness, massage and nutrition. The AIF qualifies more fitness professionals than any other provider in Australia, as well as offering a broad range of continuing education courses (CEC), upskilling resources and partnership programs for existing industry.

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Disclaimer: Where Certificate III in Fitness, Cert III/Cert 3, or Fitness Coach is mentioned, it refers to SIS30321 Certificate III in Fitness. Where Certificate IV in Fitness, Cert IV/Cert 4, or Personal Trainer is mentioned, it refers to SIS40221 Certificate IV in Fitness. Where Master Trainer Program™ is mentioned, it refers to Fitness Essentials and SIS40221 Certificate IV in Fitness. Where Master Trainer Plus+ Program™ is mentioned, it refers to SIS30321 Certificate III in Fitness and SIS40221 Certificate IV in Fitness. Where Certificate IV in Massage or Cert IV/Cert 4 is mentioned, it refers to HLT42021 Certificate IV in Massage Therapy. Where Diploma of Remedial Massage is mentioned, it refers to HLT52021 Diploma of Remedial Massage.

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