If you're trying to kick the smoking habit, try lifting weights, say researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine in Rhode Island. They found that smokers who completed a 12-week program in resistance training as part of a smoking cessation program were twice as likely to quit as smokers who didn't lift weights.
Prior studies have shown that exercise helps smokers overcome hurdles that quitters face, such as withdrawal symptoms and weight gain. Previous studies, however, focused mainly on women and aerobic exercise. The Miriam study is the first to research weight lifting as an aid to quitting smoking.
Before being randomly divided into two groups, both male and female smokers participated in a counseling session and received an eight-week supply of nicotine patches. One group lifted weights twice a week in 60-minute training sessions. Each week, the researchers gradually increased weight and intensity. The control group watched a wellness video twice a week.
At the end of 12 weeks, 16 percent of smokers in the weight-lifting group had quit smoking compared to only 8 percent in the control group. In addition to doubling their chances of quitting smoking, the exercise group also lost weight and body fat, while individuals in the control group who had managed to quit smoking gained both weight and body fat.
As a bonus, the effects appear to be long-lasting: After three months, 15 percent of those in the resistance-training group were still successful at quitting compared to only 8 percent in the control group.
"Cigarette smoking kills more than a thousand Americans every day, and while the large majority of smokers want to quit, less than 5 percent are able to do it without help," lead author of the study Joseph Ciccolo, Ph.D., said in a press release. "We need any new tools that can help smokers successfully quit, and it appears resistance training could potentially be an effective strategy."
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