Here are some effects of nicotine on your body while bodybuilding, strength training or endurance training:
- Your heart beats faster - On average, a smokers heart will beat 30% faster than a non-smoker. Because Nicotine is a stimulant it causes your heart to work that much harder to be efficient, which causes you to use much more energy during your workout, thus decreasing your performance.
- Reduces oxygen in your blood - Your muscles crave oxygen. Less oxygen in your blood negativity effects muscle growth and performance.
- Lower testosterone levels - Smoking effects the cells that produce your testosterone thus lowering your natural levels. Having normal to high levels of Testosterone is key to muscle development.
- Endurance - Smoking can cause you to not have the energy or the power left to push your muscles into fatigue. Not being able to power through your last 1 or 2 reps can drastically effect your gains.
Hope that helps,
Tim
Every sentence in the above quote references SMOKERS. Surely we can all agree that vaping nicotine, or in my case snussing nicotine, could not possibly have the side effects that smoking nicotine does? The second point listed above, surely could not apply to vaping or snussing, given the well known fact that the reason a smoker has less oxygenated blood is due to the carbon dioxide (or monoxide, whichever the case may be), smoking deposits in the blood.
As a regular snusser, I can tell you I do exercise regularly. Here's how I do it:
1. I get my caffeine buzz
2. I get my nicotine buzz from snus, usually in combination with # 1 above.
3. I get my exercise buzz, which consists of speed walking a local mountain daily, and lifting weights every other day.
I have done the above, off and on, for three years now, starting at age 43 and presently at age 46. I have done the above when I still smoked. I have done the above when I vaped. I have done the above and still do the above with a snus pouch in my mouth. In other words, I wouldn't dream of working out without snus or some form of nicotine. I ran my bodyfat down to 12.5% (eating low-carb) three years ago while smoking, although I am presently at 19% (having dropped 2% of bodyfat in the past two weeks) while snussing. I have had no side effects while working out with nicotine, no matter the form of nicotine I chose to use. Of course, my experiences are personal & anecdotal, which means YMMV, but my personal experiences let me know the above quoted facts do not equally apply to vaping or smokeless tobacco as they might to smoking cigarettes.
