Effects of Smoking on Bodybuilding: Does It Stop Muscle Growth?

27 Nov Effects of Smoking on Bodybuilding: Does It Stop Muscle Growth?

I’m not here to lecture you on smoking; everyone now knows the adverse effects. 

But if you want to get rid of chicken legs while smoking as well, then you probably don’t know what does smoking do to muscles? 

Smoking is not only fatal for the lungs but also degrades the muscles. 

To explain, smoking lessens the blood vessel count which channelizes the oxygen to leg muscles. 

And strong leg muscles are undoubtedly important if you’re into bodybuilding. 

Smoking has some noticeable impacts on your muscle health: 

• It negatively affects the large muscle groups; for instance, your legs, and increases the fat accumulation where you need it the least. 
• Smoking affects the effectiveness of your workout by hitting your lungs. Because for bodybuilding you need to do an intense workout which simply is not possible without well-functioning lungs.
• Once you quit smoking, you tend to gain weight with which comes muscle mass. 

Smoking and bodybuilding can’t go together, in fact. 

Moreover, it cancels out Vitamin C, hampers the utilization of vitamin D and calcium. 

And I’m sure if you’re into bodybuilding, you know strong bones and muscle mass go hand-in-hand. 

So, does smoking stop muscle growth?

Absolutely yes! 

Let’s get into details to know a little more about how does smoking affects bodybuilding.

How Does Smoking Affect Bodybuilding? [8 ILL Effects]

Here is how you can expect smoking to damage your muscle-building goals:

1. Increased heart rate and the inability of muscles to get enough oxygen
2. Low testosterone means poor muscle build
3. High cortisol levels affect protein synthesis
4. Insulin resistance prevents muscles from using glucose properly
5. Poor workout performance due to low energy
6. Poor respiratory health affects oxygen supply to muscles
7. Nicotine increases heart rate and BP
8. Poor sleep affects muscle growth and muscle repair

If you want to improve your performance and, especially, build muscles, smoking is of no help. 

It holds back the progress you made to build muscles and, adding to this, damages the existing muscle mass, making it even more difficult to reach your body goals. 

So, how can you build muscle if you smoke, right!?

With that being said, here’s how does smoking affects bodybuilding.

#1. Increases Your Heart Rate

If you don’t know yet, then let me tell you; a smoker’s heart beats 30% faster than that of a non-smoker. 

And if you’re a smoker and a bodybuilder, it is going to affect your workout. 

To elaborate, when your heart is beating faster, your body is using more energy, and, as a result, you end up getting tired easily. 

Also, increased heart rate spikes your BP due to which your muscles are not able to get the required oxygen and nutrients. 

In both scenarios, the result is less muscle mass. With this, we can say that smoking does affect your workout results. 

#2. Low Testosterone Levels

Testosterone and muscle building are directly linked. The more testosterone, the easier it is for you to increase muscle mass along with high endurance. 

Moreover, to maintain muscle fibers, testosterone needs to bind to the androgen receptors present in the muscle cells. 

The absence of testosterone will degrade the muscles. Also, smoking can damage testosterone-producing cells. 

And a decline in T-levels will start to turn muscles into fat. It will get replaced by estrogen which is responsible for belly fat. 

Hence, for growing muscles, you need an optimum level of testosterone, and for that, you must think twice before you smoke.

#3. Raises Cortisol level

Cortisol is not something you want if you have certain body goals to achieve. 

Smoking increases cortisol AKA the stress hormone. 

And increased cortisol is responsible for decreasing testosterone. 

Protein is the building block of muscles – we all have read it in our school, right?

Importantly, cortisol also affects protein synthesis – an important ingredient for muscle growth. 

That is to say, smoking happens to increase the myostatin level which prohibits muscle growth and strength. As a result, there is a lack of toned muscles. 

#4. Causes Insulin Resistance

Insulin is a protein-cum-hormone that can hugely affect your muscle-building goals.

Insulin is released after eating carb-rich foods, which then signal the body to absorb floating glucose from the bloodstream. 

Nevertheless, smoking makes you insulin resistant, which prevents your muscles from absorbing glucose. 

This, as a result, makes you tired. Adding to this, it hampers the body’s energy reserves and gives rise to fatigue. 

Lack of energy and increased fatigue prevent you from giving your best in bodybuilding. 

#5. Reduces Your Workout Performance

Does smoking ruin a workout?

Hell yes!

Smokers are generally less energetic than non-smokers. And considering the above points, there’s no doubt about that. 

Smoker’s heart rate is 30% higher.

He can’t deliver much due to insulin resistance.

But there’s one more thing that affects workouts if you’re a smoker. 

Carbon monoxide – Yes, you read that right. 

Carbon monoxide is not just toxic but is actually poisonous. 

This, when enters the lungs through tobacco smoke, enters the bloodstream, and combines with hemoglobin molecules. 

Moreover, hemoglobin, when enters the muscles, carries CO and damages the muscles. 

#6. Weakens Your Respiratory System 

This is the first thing that comes to anyone’s mind when they think about the negative impacts of smoking. 

But what does a bad respiratory system have to do with muscle building?

Well, it’s simple; bad respiratory system=less oxygen=tiredness=lack of proper workouts=no muscle growth.

To elaborate, smoking is the reason behind not only carbon monoxide but also tar which causes irreparable damage to the lungs. 

As per studies, around 70% of the total tar generated from smoking stays inside the smoker’s lungs. 

This severely damages the respiratory system and also creates phlegm which causes coughing and makes it problematic to breathe. 

And if you’re into bodybuilding, you will need to lift weights, do intense machine exercise, none of which is possible without strong lungs.

#7. Nicotine Addiction

Nicotine is a proven narcotic substance that can severely affect you both physically and mentally. 

From increasing blood pressure to heart rate and reducing blood clotting, nicotine does all. 

Furthermore, nicotine takes only seconds to reach the brain from the lungs and create a feeling of pleasure.

This feeling of relief can easily get converted into addiction. 

Adding to this, nicotine is known to excite certain parts of the parasympathetic nervous system. Its large doses can inhibit the central nervous system. 

#8. Affects Your Sleep

Smoking tends to affect both your sleep quantity and quality. 

• One, because of nicotine you might feel withdrawn while sleeping. 
• Two, because your body keeps fighting for the demands you put it through smoking. 

And if you’re a bodybuilder, you probably need some sound sleep after a tiring day. 

• Firstly, because your muscles need to repair themselves. Muscle-building happens while you’re asleep.
• Secondly, sleeping is essential for maintaining testosterone levels, which is vital for muscle growth. 
• Thirdly, sound sleep of 7-8 hours helps reduce stress, hence fewer cortisol levels and more muscle mass. 

This is how smoking affects bodybuilding. 

It reduces the effectiveness of your workout, decreases the t-levels, weakens your lungs, and increases stress hormones.

And above all, it eats away your muscle mass and the building blocks of muscles. 

Therefore, there’s no way smoking is not bad for muscle growth. 

Let’s see what the researchers have to say about it.

Is Smoking Bad for Muscle Growth – Research

We’ve already discussed how does smoking affect bodybuilding and muscle growth. 

Now, to make it more authentic, let’s see what science has to say in this matter. 

#1. The link between Cigarette Smoking and Muscle Strength in Japanese Men

Objective: Finding out if there is any relationship between smoking cigarettes and muscle strength in Japanese men.

Method: Cross-sectional investigation study was conducted on 4249 men aged between 43.3±13.9 years. In this study, grip and leg strength were the indicators of overall muscle strength. 

Conclusion: There was a significant difference in the leg and grip strength among the Japanese men which remained attenuated after adjusting age, height, body weight, and exercise habits. 

#2. Effect of cigarette smoking/smoking cessation on skeletal muscle mass, functionality, and strength.

Objective: Comparison of the skeletal muscles of smokers with the muscles of non-smokers. And the effect of smoking cessation on body composition of postmenopausal women. 

Method: Changes in the body composition were assessed in 81 participants at the beginning of the smoking cessation program and again after 12 months between the continued smokers and quitters.

The parameters of body composition were measured by DEXA and BIA measurements. 

Result: Women who successfully quit smoking for 16 months showed an increase in muscle mass, fat mass, body weight, functionality of muscle mass in comparison to non-quitters. 

So, does smoking affect strength?

Well, the researchers say so. 

Now you must be wondering, what if I smoke just one cigarette a day. 

Well, let’s find out then.

One Cigarette a Day and Bodybuilding: Is It OK?

There is no number of cigarettes that can be considered safe. 

Whether you smoke one, five, or 20 cigarettes a day, the health risks are detrimental. 

In a study conducted by BMJ, Hackshaw And colleagues showed that men smoking one cigarette a day had nearly 53% of coronary heart risks and 64% of stroke risk as compared to those who smoke 20. 

Whereas, women who smoked one cigarette a day had 38% of coronary heart risk and 36% of stroke risk as compared to those who smoked 20. 

In another study, it was concluded that light or intermittent smoking is associated with lower respiratory tract infections with prolonged symptoms, compromised reproductive health, and physical functioning.

Smoking is also associated with the development of physical disability following a musculoskeletal injury or disorder. 

The risks of smoking fewer cigarettes are often underestimated.

Irrespective of how many cigarettes you smoke, you need to quit smoking for bodybuilding to be a success. 

Having said that, let’s see how to quit smoking for better muscle mass. 

How To Quit Smoking For Better Muscle Growth?

But the consequences of smoking cigarettes are more and the benefits are none. 

So, it’s better you consider quitting smoking if you want to have big muscle growth for real. 

And luckily you can increase your muscle strength and mass if you quit smoking. 

Moreover, if researchers are to be believed, it was found out in a study that people who quit smoking were able to increase their strength up to 25%. 

Furthermore, while quitting smoking could be extremely difficult, it can be done and you can start it slowly and step by step. 

Here’s what you can do to quit smoking in order to achieve body goals:

• First of all, accept that you are a smoker. Many light smokers, when asked, if they smoke, don’t agree that they do. Simply because you smoke one cigarette doesn’t mean you aren’t a smoker. 
• Implement aerobic exercises to reduce the nicotine withdrawal symptom. 
• Improvise your diet by adding more fresh fruits and veggies. According to a 2011 study, those smokers who started to consume more fruits and vegetables were able to quit smoking successfully. 
• Consume more vitamin C to recover from the damage done already. Vitamin C is also good for muscle building. 
• You can also add watercress to detoxify and reduce the negative impact of smoking. 
• Try acupuncture.
• Nicotine replacement therapy can also work. 

Clearly, bodybuilding and smoking can’t go hand in hand. 

Either you quit smoking or you quit your bodybuilding goals. 

Final Thoughts

Smoking has noticeable effects on your bodybuilding process. It decreases the amount of oxygen absorption, increases blood pressure, reduces performance and endurance. 

Those who are into bodybuilding know the importance of final reps and last-minute cardio. 

Smoking weakens your lungs, leaving you breathless when you need those breaths the most. 

Adding to this, it damages the testosterone-producing cells. 

So, all in all, we can say that smoking does affect bodybuilding and muscle mass.

Bodybuilding, being a sport for some and a hobby for many, promotes a healthy lifestyle. And smoking is nothing but injurious to health. 

So, better to ditch that cigarette by implementing the above-suggested tips.

How did you like this blog? Do share your views in the comments section and don’t forget to share this blog if it helps you. 

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