Does smoking effect muscle growth. By that I mean directly effect muscle growth (chemicals and such.)

By Anonymous ( - 205.188.199.177) on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 07:02 am: Edit

I guess my question is... can you gain muscle thought your a smoker. For the love of God I'm trying to quit. It's rough.

By Anonymous ( - 24.157.7.6) on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 08:29 am: Edit

I am also in the process of quiting actualy. Three weeks now! I've been working out for about a year and yes i have put on some decent size but cardio kills me. I can barley do any cardio but I am working on that.

Anyway to answer your question I have read that smoking does increase levels of cortisol in your blood and cortisol is a stress hormone that has shown to be catabolic. So you can make some gains but without the butts you can get bigger quiker.

By Mike ( - 205.188.199.164) on Thursday, February 22, 2001 - 08:50 am: Edit

Thanks for the info. =)
Good luck on quiting!!! I know how hard it is and congratulations on making it this far.

By biggin on Friday, February 23, 2001 - 05:36 am: Edit

Nicotine can raise hormones that can aid in muscle growth. I have the study that proves it

By Reno ( - 202.67.64.147) on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 02:22 pm: Edit

dont say that shit!
Quitting will give you better overall health, eat instead of smoking, pump iron and then you'll be big

By Anonymous ( - 130.132.21.12) on Saturday, February 24, 2001 - 11:47 pm: Edit

Smoking helps to grow muscle according to a harvard study:

here are both the link to ast's webpage(i got the info from there), and the study itself is pasted below:

http://www.ast-ss.com/research/breaking/b-r_7-16-00.asp

According to a recent study by the Harvard School of Public Health, smoking can increase almost all the major androgenic hormones including DHEA, androstenedione, testosterone, and dihydrotestosterone (DHT). All potent androgens that impact muscle growth.

The study, which examined a cross-section of 1,241 randomly sampled middle-aged U.S. men, compared hormonal levels of nonsmokers and smokers. The study made sure that weight and age were not a factor in the study results.

According to the study, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) was 18% higher in smokers, dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) was 13% higher in smokers, androstenedione was 33% higher in smokers, testosterone was 9% higher in smokers, and DHT was 13% higher in smokers.

Now I certainly don't have to point out the health consequences associated with smoking, but it's nonetheless interesting to note that smoking positively impacts the key anabolic hormones favorable to muscle growth.

What many people don't understand about smoking is that it's not the nicotine that's bad but the hundreds of toxins that are in the smoke that are responsible for the numerous life threatening effects of smoking. It could possibly be that the nicotine is partially responsible for the increase in hormonal output and therefore could be constructively used for this purpose.

Mind you this is jumping the gun but still very interesting.

By Anonymous ( - 210.8.165.10) on Sunday, February 25, 2001 - 01:45 am: Edit

To a large extent, the intensity of you workouts are effected by your cardio level, smoking severely f..k's up your lungs and your cardio, thus preventing you from giving 100%, I used to smoke 35 a day, that was a 18 months ago, since then, the intensity of my workouts has improved a lot, mind you, a month after I quit, I gained 4kg of fat...but that was the only downside....good luck!

By Arkan da Bomb (194.117.133.4) on Tuesday, June 19, 2001 - 10:00 pm: Edit

Just chew frikin nicotine gum!