Article Surfing Archive

Smoking; it's one of the worst habits that you can have if you want to build muscle and get fit as a bodybuilder. If you smoke you put yourself at serious risk from a 'bucket load' of horrible health problems, including cancer, and as a bodybuilder you'll find that smoking is detrimental to your performance. Smoking cigarettes is highly addictive because of the nicotine content and is a difficult habit for new bodybuilders to give up. However if you are truly committed to reaching your goals and enhancing your health, you need to make every effort to give them up.

The Negative Impacts of Smoking

The primary means in which smoking damages your training performance and health is by decreasing your lung capacity. When you workout, you need oxygen which you take from the air through your lungs, smoking decreases your lung capacity and thus less oxygen is transported to your muscles, inhibiting their ability to work hard. This means that bodybuilders who smoke can not train as hard or as long as non-smokers, thus reducing their ability to build bigger muscles.

If you are a competitive bodybuilder, long term smoking has bad effects on your appearance. As well as blocking up your lungs, tar from cigarettes turns your teeth yellow and although you may not be judged on your teeth, every aspect of your overall appearance can make a difference. If you smoke it gives the idea to the judges that you don't really care. Smoking also has the side effect of making your skin less elastic, causing you an increased likelihood of getting stretch marks, which can be very costly to remove.

You Must Quit

Quitting smoking is not an easy process, no matter what anyone tells you, but if you are determined to be a top bodybuilder you must quit. There are many programs out there to help you quit smoking, get your family and friends to help and support you. Tell everyone you know that you are going to quit; this will commit yourself to quitting, as you won't want to let them down. Once you've quit smoking you'll soon start to notice the benefits and you'll increase your ability to build muscle, plus you'll increase you overall health.