Smoking Effects on Muscle Building

We all know that smoking is a totally dismaying habit and can cause all sorts of harm to your body including heart disease, cancer, stroke and a whole lot more. But can smoking affect your muscle gains as well?

You bet!

No matter how dedicated you’re, how heavy you train or how many muscle-building supplements you consume daily, smoking does affect your ability to gain muscles. Thus this habit has to be dropped pronto especially if you’re a skinny hardgainer. Here are a few smoking effects on muscle building:

Smoking Affects Your Respiratory System

Smoking demolishes your respiratory system, cutting down oxygen absorption causing you to wear out at a much quicker rate than people who don’t smoke. Since you get tired a lot faster, your workout performance will surely take a nose dive and this in turn, will affect your body’s ability to build muscle.

Smoking Reduces Your Testosterone Levels

This is definitely one of the worst smoking effects on muscle building. Many studies have proved that smoking can lower one’s testosterone levels - an all important male hormone that greatly enhances muscle gains and strength. Gaining muscle is next to impossible if your testosterone levels are low so you got to give up the habit chop-chop, otherwise all the time and energy you put into training and dieting shall go to waste.

Smoking Raises Your Heart Rate

Did you know that smoking raises your heart rate for up to 30%? Working out when your heart is pumping at that high of a rate will result in increased energy expenditure – which is a waste as the additional energy is required by your body for rebuilding muscles tissues damaged after blasting the weights. After all, muscles grow while you’re resting.

Smoking Affects the Muscle Rebuilding Process

Your body’s ability to build and repair muscle tissue will greatly diminished as a study established by American Journal Physiological Endocrinology Metabolism indicates the following: "Smoking interferes with muscle building and repair, which would make it more difficult to make training gains in weightlifting or excel in sports."

Now that you’ve discovered the smoking effects on muscle building, it’s high time that you stop buying cigarettes, and spend the extra bucks on good quality supplements. Read another article of mine where I recommend 4 muscle mass nutritional supplements that'll give you the best bang for your buck.