Smoking and Training

Who smokes here? I know I smoke about 8 or 9 cigarettes a day. I want to quit but it is very difficult. I train with weights and I go to a kickboxing class twice a week and I've never noticed it did anything to my cardio but lately I think it has. Anyone have any advice on quitting?

hiya Lonewolf, I quit smoking on Fri Sept 5, 19:00 2008. I was smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day when I stopped, but at points in time was smoking up to a pack a day...but I had only been smoking for about 37 years which made it easier to stop

I had tried quitting once before, thinking my cardio and general feeling of well being would improve, neither did and I ended up
smoking again. The true problem was that I believed I enjoyed smoking and felt I'd be missing it when I quit. That feeling wasn't
there this time.

Although it's only 3 weeks since I stopped, I quit cold turkey and have had zero desire for one.
Advice that I've got;
- set a date and time when you are quitting, tell lots of folk that's when you are quitting.
- I didn't end up doing these, but other ex-smokers recommended initially using the nicotine gum or getting a doctor's prescription
for a drug that makes cigarettes taste lousy.
- The big thing for me was using NLP and changing beliefs; looking ahead 5 years if continuing smoking then looking ahead
when I quit. There was no upside to keep smoking.
In your case if the smoking has impacted how you are able to train that can be used as huge incentive to quit;
imagine how much better you'll feel, how much easier training will become, how much harder you will be able to work out.
Keep reviewing the upside of quitting before you actually quit.
- This tip is NOT recommended; fracture a couple of ribs while grappling and then catch a cold... makes you truly glad that
you no longer smoke.


good luck with stopping.

Lonewolf333 wrote:

Who smokes here? I know I smoke about 8 or 9 cigarettes a day. I want to quit but it is very difficult. I train with weights and I go to a kickboxing class twice a week and I've never noticed it did anything to my cardio but lately I think it has. Anyone have any advice on quitting?

It obviously hinders you.......how much?, depends on the person, depends on the ciggs, depends on the health already, MANY factors.......I dont smoke.....cigarettes, that is

Thanks Nix. That post was really cool and it made me think! It made think I better set a quit date. Cause' even past the vain fitness concerns, in my twisted subconscious I fear I will develop giant cancerous tumours in my nut sack or lungs. haha

As for cocktail, it hinders me because when I used to box I could go 3 2 minute rounds without feeling gassed. Now I reckon I'd go like 1 round and be totally out of steam. Also when I go to the gym and lift weights and end a workout and light up a smoke I feel like the worldest biggest contradiction.

In the context of real life self defense situations, I go for the surprise attack to end the situation if it becomes physical because I know my rusty wind bag lungs could not handle a full out knock down drag out. I for sure don't wanna feel this way for the rest of my life. I guess its time to quit again (I quit before for two years)

I know some fighters in professional sports smoke, which I find crazy. Richardo Mayorga for example smokes like a tropper and he is a really good fighter/boxer. By the way does anyone know any other professional fighters who smoke?

I hope this post makes sense cause' I just came home from a night of drinking(and smoking!)

Cheers

I smoked from age 12 to about 32. I attempted giving up loads of times within that, lasting 9 months in my late twenties, but generally lasting a day or two.

Finally cracked it for good about 3 1/2 years ago. My key tips based on so many fails and one permanent succeed are:
-set a date. make it the start of a quiet month socially and if possible, low stress time at work.

-For me it was nicotene patches. I tried several different brands before I found the right one. some itched, some didn't seem to have any effect and some made my heart race.

-when you get a strong craving do this (even though it sounds silly) press the nicotene patch as if squeezing extra nicotene in through your skin and at the time take several long deep breaths. Your body is missing the drug obviously but people often forget that the way you drag on a cigarette is an unusual breathing pattern and one that your body associates with a feeling of well being. squeezing the patch and dragging on regular air will help you through the craving.

-TALK ABOUT IT. tell people how you're doing. tell people how bad you feel. tell people how long it's been. It really does help.

-If you get through a few weeks remember to keep telling yourself, the first month is the hardest and everytime you go back to smoking it means repeating that first month again next time you quit. after over 3 years I still get mild cravings when I'm stressed, after a really nice meal or particularly good sex. playing guitar on stage last week for the first time since I quit was strange. We can't smoke anyway in bars in the UK so it would have been odd even as a non smoker, but I often used to play with a cigarette in the corner of my mouth slash-esque. If someone had passed me a lit one it would have been straight in my mouth. I'd have felt terrible, but I'd have battled through it and would probably had a pack in my pocket by home time.

once you've been quit a few months you'll notice how bad smokers smell. Not even just after they've smoked, but all the time. their hair, clothes, breath, and you'll wonder why you every did that to yourself.

good luck quiters

oh and lonewolf, it's swear like a trooper, smoke like a chimney and fart like a cart horse. for some reason, troopers often get the credit for all three attributes

I used to smoke

-my method for giving up was to work within my own limitations: being a polarity responder just telling myself to stop was going to make want to smoke more so I decided I could smoke as much as I wanted as long as I really enjoyed it

so if i got half way through a cig and it wasnt an absolutely awesome one I would just put it out- I found out this way that out of the 15 a day I was smoking I was really enjoying only one or maybe two

-another thing I had to do was break the association, I got used to smoking whilst drinking coffee or alcholol- that was a tough one to crack, but after you've done it 5 or 6 times its not too bad

-running... if you jog regularly you realise just how fucked its making you, I gave up when I was going for officer training in the army and training for the basic fitness test was leaving me gassed and tasting tar- the contradication moves from being just psycholoigcal to actual physical pain and becomes a hell of a motivator

-people will do anything if they have a good enough reason- stack your reasons clearly and strongly in your head and with strong emotional content

- Ive kicked more addictive substances with no help, just will power, strong decision making and the willingness to suffer to get were I want to go, you must be prepared to suffer a bit- cravings, maybe you wil get a cough from giving up, not knowing what to do with your hands- dont buy into the beleif that it has to be really really HARD it really doesnt, your body wants to give up and will support you so just let go of it

- Richard Bandler advocated enjoying the anticipation of smoking (and not actually doing it) as his way of giving up smoking

- a good mate of mine who is into NLP kicked a 15 year 30 a day habit by creating false memories of hating cigarettes and finding smokeing made him want to throw up, which i tohught was clever

You asked if there are many good fighters who are smokers, in the British Army there re loads of very very fit people who smoke- but how much fitter would they be without choking down those toxic fumes into their prescious vulnerable internal organs

Good Luck with it mate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Carr

Just read the book...

Worked for me, my girlfriend, her mother, a friend of mine...

Smoked 30 a day for 16 years, quit five years ago. No cravings, no problems, no worries. The only hassle was preventing my self from forcefeeding the book to every smoker i meet.

Just read it. It's free online, it's easy, it works.

Smoked for 35 yrs, about 2 packs/day. I quit with the help of my Doctor. Script for Welbutrin. It took the edge off. Smoke free for 7 yrs.

When I was smoking I could still run about 5 miles or so but I trained for it too.

I remember having a 5 mle run and 5 mile bike ride with some friends. I was smoking on the bike. They thought I was crazy.

i have a strange thing with smoking, i smoke one year, i quit 1 year and so on.
now i dont smoke for one and a half year now.

just read the book of allen carr with full interest, and i think you can quit.

4 whole days of not smoking now my internet friends (mates for all you English folk)

It's pretty hard but I'm doing it.

I checked out that book, its a very interesting look on stopping smoking.

well done mate, keep it up

Lonewolf: Congrats!!!
keep rolling... it will get nothing but easier

I smoked for 35 yrs before I quit (2001) and was smoking about 1-2 packs/day. When I was training and smoking I did not see any problem.

What we don't see is how much better are cardio might have been if we did not smoke. I could run 5 miles with no problem.

I quit 7 years ago with the help of a friend who is a doctor. Most of my problem was the anxiety of not having a cigarette when I wanted one. I took wellbutrin to help handle the problem.

My Eskrima teacher, Sonny had a diet mainly composed of cigarettes, supplemented by coca cola and coffee. He was extremely talented, would work out for hours with us, taking cigarette breaks throughout with seemingly no adverse affects.
He died 2 years ago at the age of 58 from lung and brain cancer.