How Do Cigarettes Affect Muscle?

Cigarettes have been around for a long time, providing users with their needed relaxing sensation in every puff. However, more and more studies have also linked these beloved tobacco products to various health risks due to the chemicals present in tobacco smoke.

But when it comes to their connection to muscle development, there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. Some believe that cigarettes can negatively impact muscle protein synthesis, while others think that cigarette smoking can help with their athletic performance.

If you want to know how do cigarettes affect muscle, continue reading below. This blog article aims to answer some questions about the said things based on data and research available to the public.

Does Smoking Affect Your Muscles?

Before we dive deeper into the effects of smoking on muscle health, we must first know the importance of muscles in our body.

There are around 600 muscles in your body, each carrying out a diverse range of functions. Some are intended to pump blood, while others are there to support your daily movements. There are also muscles intended to help you lift heavy weights or even give birth. So, basically, these crucial body parts contract or relax to cause movement, which can be voluntary or involuntary. 

Some common types of muscles found in your body are as follows:

• Skeletal muscle: This particular muscle enables your movement. It forms alongside your bones, creating the musculoskeletal system or the locomotor system. Skeletal muscles are typically grouped into opposing pairs, such as the biceps and triceps on the front and back of the upper arm. They are under our conscious control, hence the term voluntary muscles.
• Smooth muscle: Smooth muscles can then be found in internal structures like the digestive tract, uterus, and blood vessels (such as arteries). They typically contract in wave-like patterns along its length. It is known as an involuntary muscle because its movements occur without conscious awareness.
• Cardiac muscle: Cardiac muscle is unique to the heart as it contracts and relaxes automatically without conscious control.

Your muscles can move optimally if they have enough fuel. Glucose, which is derived from carbohydrates in your daily food intake, serves as the fuel for your muscles. Dietary substances like calcium, magnesium, potassium, and sodium, as well as electrolytes and minerals, are likewise needed to ensure your muscles can carry out their intended functions. 

What about the chemicals found in cigarettes? Do they affect your muscles?

Based on a published study in The Journal of Physiology, the components found in cigarette smoke have been found to directly damage your muscles. As you inhale cigarette smoke, the chemicals it brings reduce the number of small blood vessels in your body that are responsible for delivering oxygen and key nutrients to the leg muscles.

Before, the medical field believed that smoking cigarettes could restrict your body from doing exercise training and many more due to lung inflammation and eventual destruction from habitual smoking.

The said study, however, suggests that cigarette smoking directly impairs skeletal muscle by reducing the number of blood vessels in your body. Once they become damaged, your metabolism and activity levels are both impacted negatively. It also puts you at risk of developing chronic diseases like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD and diabetes.

While the research failed to identify which of the chemicals in cigarette smoke cause muscle damage, it is already a huge step towards determining the effects of smoking on one’s muscles. Further research is then needed to pinpoint the chemicals as well as determine the step-by-step process by which they decrease the number of blood vessels.

How Much Does Smoking Affect Muscle Growth?

If you want to increase your muscle mass, then you should be familiar with muscular hypertrophy.

Muscular or muscle hypertrophy generally occurs whenever your muscle fibers sustain damage or injury. Your body then repairs the damaged fibres by fusing them, increasing the overall muscle mass and size. Certain hormones, such as testosterone, human growth hormone, and insulin, can likewise facilitate muscle growth and repair. 

Once activated and released from the body, these hormones enhance how your body processes proteins, inhibit protein breakdown, activate satellite cells involved in muscle development, stimulate anabolic hormones that promote muscle growth and protein synthesis, and promote tissue growth.

To make your muscles grow bigger, you should challenge them by increasing the resistance or weight you use. Strength and resistance training help your body release growth hormone from the pituitary gland, stimulate testosterone release, and enhance the sensitivity of your muscles to testosterone.

Aside from regular training, your muscles can only grow bigger and stronger if you take enough rest.

Rest is a crucial component of muscle building. If you don’t allow each muscle group to rest, you will only hinder its ability to repair and recover. It then slows down your fitness progress and increases your likelihood of getting injured along the way.

Even sleep is crucial for your muscle growth progress. Sleep deprivation decreases protein synthesis, causes muscle loss, and impairs muscle recovery. Getting enough sleep cuts the amount of cortisol, or stress hormone, that circulates in your body after going through physical training.

Given the importance of doing regular training and getting enough rest, it would be interesting to see where cigarette smoking stands in terms of muscle growth.

Cigarettes contain nicotine, a stimulant found in tobacco plants. It is often linked as the main source of relaxing sensation that many smokers feel and enjoy temporarily. Once it reaches your brain, it increases your levels of dopamine, which gives people a good feeling.

But a study from 2007 involving 16 individuals has revealed that smoking cigarettes can somehow disrupt muscle growth or muscle protein synthesis. 

As you smoke cigarettes, their nicotine content is said to have reduced protein production for muscle repair and suppressed genes needed to maintain muscles.

Additionally, nicotine from cigarettes may worsen muscle breakdown. A more recent study in 2020 found that cigarette smoking induces inflammation and impedes oxygen delivery to your muscles, which leads to muscle-related issues. The only way to reverse the detrimental effects of smoking cigarettes on muscles is to quit smoking.

Does Smoking Make Your Muscles Weaker?

There are many possible reasons why your muscles have become weaker over the past few weeks or months.

To date, there are three types of muscle weakness.

• Primary muscle weakness: Primary or true muscle weakness is an inability to perform normal actions with the muscle, even on the first attempt. This typically occurs when your muscle’s force-exerting capacity has been reduced, regardless of the effort made. When this type of weakness develops, the muscles may appear floppier and less bulky than usual. 
• Muscle tiredness: Sometimes known as asthenia, muscle tiredness is a feeling of weariness or exhaustion experienced when using a muscle. Even though your muscles can still perform their functions, you would require more effort to manage and move them. This type of weakness is often attributed to a decrease in the muscle’s ability to rapidly replenish its energy supply.
• Muscle fatigability: When you have this particular type of muscle weakness, you may experience your muscles getting tired rapidly and taking longer than usual to recover. This often accompanies muscle fatigue but is also particularly evident in certain rare conditions, such as myasthenia gravis and myotonic dystrophy.

There are a number of potential causes of having weak muscles. They include lack of exercise, aging, muscle injury, pregnancy, and long-term conditions such as diabetes or heart disease. Other possible causes include stroke, multiple sclerosis, and depression.

Muscle weakness, unfortunately, can be attributed to cigarette smoking. Smoking affects your blood supply since it can somehow cut off the amount of oxygen that gets into your circulation, which then leads to weaker muscles.

Remember, oxygen plays an important role in the daily functions of your muscles. As you take in oxygen from the air you breathe, it is carried to your bloodstream to circulate. Your heart and blood vessels then transport the oxygen-rich blood into your working muscles, allowing them to contract and produce work. If you smoke regularly, its nicotine content reduces the number of your small blood vessels, cutting off a certain amount of oxygen supply to your muscles.

Smoking can contribute to the narrowing of your arteries, a condition also known as peripheral arterial disease. While poor diet is often blamed for this condition, smoking can also be the primary cause. Since your blood supply has been slowed down, you won’t be able to use your muscles optimally and keep up with the increased demand for physical activities, making them weak in the long run.

Aside from nicotine from tobacco smoke, cigarettes can also make your muscles weaker due to their carbon monoxide content. 

Carbon monoxide often binds to your red blood cells, displacing oxygen along the way. The reduced oxygen content of your blood then leads to an increase in lactic acid, a substance that triggers muscle burning, fatigue, heavier breathing, and increased soreness after exercise. 

The presence of a higher level of carbon monoxide in your body likewise interferes with your respiratory and muscle proteins, making your muscles weaker.

Consequently, the decrease in your oxygen level reduces your physical endurance, which makes it challenging for you to excel in sports and even perform everyday tasks like walking up stairs. 

As you smoke, your resting heart rate becomes more elevated compared to a nonsmoker’s due to decreased oxygenation. Your heart then has to work harder to deliver sufficient oxygen to your body.

If you want to consume nicotine without the associated carbon monoxide from cigarette smoke, you can opt for nicotine pouches instead. Available at NativeSmokes4Less, they are advertised as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes since they don’t produce chemicals that can weaken your muscles.

How Does Smoking Affect the Muscular System?

The muscular system of your body is comprised of specialized cells called muscle fibers. It basically works through contractibility. And as discussed earlier, muscles are intended for movement, accounting for almost all body movements in your body. 

Of course, they don’t function alone. Instead, the muscles work alongside joints and bones to carry out visible movements like walking and running. They are even responsible for producing subtle movements like facial expressions, eye movements, and respiration. 

Beyond movement, muscle contraction helps in maintaining posture, stabilizing joints, and generating heat. Posture like sitting and standing is supported by continuous muscle contractions that hold the body in stationary positions. Tendons, which extend from muscles over joints, contribute to joint stability. Additionally, muscle metabolism generates heat, which helps in regulating your body temperature.

The combination of muscles, bones, tendons, joints, and others make up the musculoskeletal system. Hence, when you’re talking about the muscular system, you also have to consider the condition of other body parts that are responsible for your body movements.

Based on the key functions of the musculoskeletal system, you should truly take care of it to make sure you can move optimally and carry out day-to-day functions without any compromises.

Smoking, unfortunately, can affect this particular system in many ways. 

• Smoking weakens your bones. When you smoke cigarettes regularly, your risk of developing osteoporosis and fractures increases. Cigarettes, after all, are found to reduce the blood supply to your bones, slow down bone-forming cell production, decrease calcium absorption, and accelerate estrogen breakdown.
• Smoking affects musculoskeletal system tissues. Smoking cigarettes can also affect your musculoskeletal system, increasing your risk of getting injured. Studies have found that smokers have nearly twice the risk of rotator cuff tears compared to nonsmokers due to weakened tendons. They are also known to most likely develop overuse injuries like bursitis or tendinitis, face a higher risk of traumatic injuries like sprains, and attain low back pains and rheumatoid arthritis.
• Smoking slows down fracture and wound healing. Nicotine in tobacco smoke hinders bone-forming cell production, which delays fracture healing. Smokers may also experience higher surgical complications like poor wound healing and infection due to reduced blood supply to the body tissues.
• Smoking ruins athletic performance. If you are smoking regularly, you only slow down your lung growth and impair lung function, reducing oxygen availability for your muscles that you may need for any physical activity. You may also experience shortness of breath three times more often than those who don’t smoke. You can even run or walk as fast or far as non-smokers.
• Smoking makes you thin. Smoking cigarettes can make you thinner and increase fracture risk. Nicotine signals your brain to eat less, preventing adequate nutrition. If you want a body with adequate muscles, you should align your body weight close to your height and age, which you can achieve easily if you stop smoking cigarettes.

Do Cigarettes Cause Muscle Loss?

Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, has become a major public health concern for many authorities around the world as it is known for providing negative health consequences not only to smokers but also to non-smokers.

Some health risks associated with cigarette smoking include cancer, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, lung diseases, and harmful reproductive health effects.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, there are 480,000 people in the United States alone who die from these diseases. Imagine the number of people who die from cigarette smoking when you combine all the data all over the world.

Aside from major health concerns, cigarette smoke can also lead to minor yet important health consequences that smokers should worry about, especially if they are concerned about their muscles.

One of the health consequences of cigarette smoking is muscle loss.

Muscle loss, or muscle atrophy, is characterized by your muscles appearing to be smaller than normal. It happens due to significant loss or thinning of your muscle tissues, which can be attributed to many factors. These factors include malnutrition, aging, genetics, a lack of physical activity, and certain medical conditions.

There are two types of muscle atrophy.

1. Physiologic atrophy: Also known as disuse atrophy, this occurs when you don’t use your muscles sufficiently, leading to a decrease in size and strength. This often happens to individuals who lead sedentary lifestyles, are malnourished, lack regular exercise, engage in prolonged sitting, are on bed rest, have generic disorders, are unable to move their limbs due to stroke or other conditions, or experience age-related atrophy.
2. Neurogenic atrophy: Neurogenic atrophy, alternatively, occurs due to nerve problems or diseases. If the nerves that connect to muscles are injured, this type of atrophy may occur. The damaged nerves are expected to fail in triggering muscle contractors, which leads to a decrease in muscle activity. As a result, your body perceives a lack of need for these muscles and begins breaking them down, resulting in a reduction in muscle size and strength.

Since cigarette smoke contains a number of harmful chemicals, medical studies have found that inhaling them can lead to muscle loss or muscle atrophy. When the chemicals from cigarette smoke enter your circulatory system and reach the skeletal muscle tissues, they can potentially impact your metabolism and protein levels, which then causes muscle damage.

A study has then found that smoking cigarettes can lead to weight loss, muscle mass reduction, and muscle fibre atrophy. One possible way to reverse muscle atrophy among smokers is to quit smoking, which has been somehow proven by a separate study.

Other ways of reversing muscle atrophy include doing exercise and eating a healthy diet.

Do Bodybuilders Smoke Cigarettes?

One thing you can do to increase your muscle mass, reduce body fat, and improve overall health and well-being is bodybuilding. Bodybuilding, with the right set of physical activities and nutrition, can help you attain a leaner, stronger physique. Plus, you can attain better cardiovascular health, increased bone density, and improved immune functions.

Some things bodybuilders do to achieve their respective body goals include the following.

• Do bodybuilding exercises. Bodybuilders are able to achieve their body goals by doing bodybuilding exercises. Exercises like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, shoulder presses, lunges, dips, pull-ups, and many more can help in building a strong and muscular physique. And to ensure they are effective, bodybuilders incorporate the proper form and gradually increase weight to further stimulate muscle growth and strength.
• Change diet. Part of the routine bodybuilders follow to optimize skeletal muscle function and enhance muscle health is dietary changes. Proper nutrition is crucial for bodybuilders, as consuming incorrect food types can hinder their progress. To fuel their workouts and support muscle growth, they consume the appropriate number of calories daily. Additionally, they consume protein for muscle fibre repairs and rebuilding, as well as a combination of healthy fats and complex carbohydrates for energy. They then avoid processed foods and sugary snacks.
• Rest and recover. Bodybuilders, lastly, prioritize rest and recovery. They already work hard most of the time whenever they do workouts. But to support muscle recovery and hormone balance, they sleep seven to eight hours each night. They then incorporate stretching, foam rolling, and other recovery practices to alleviate muscle soreness and enhance their overall well-being.

Notice that bodybuilders don’t do anything that would ruin their progress. They even incorporated sleep as part of their routine, making sure their body recovers optimally before they crush other workout sessions. To make sure they don’t run into problems during bodybuilding, they stay away from smoking. They likewise avoid nicotine intake since it only affects their sleep quality.

Smoking, as mentioned earlier, has been providing detrimental health effects to individuals. Since smoking somehow cuts off the amount of oxygen that gets passed through your circulatory system, it will only hinder bodybuilders from building muscles since they may get tired more easily. Muscle growth and strength will also be limited if they will be smoking regularly.

Cigarettes likewise slow down lung function and reduce lung growth. This leaves bodybuilders who will be smoking to literally gasp for air whenever they do bodybuilding exercises, even if they only use light to medium weights.

While a small percentage of bodybuilders smoke, it’s generally recommended for those who are into bodybuilding to steer clear of cigarettes. 

Does Smoking Affect Your Workout Results?

Working out is often a choice that you can make if you want to improve your body shape, lose weight, or simply elevate the quality of your health. But if you complement regular exercises with smoking cigarettes, you may find it difficult to see the results of your workout.

The progress and changes of your workout often show up slowly, especially if you just recently started. However, keep in mind that you can already feel the effects of your workout even if they don’t manifest physically in the first few months.

According to Jess Brown, the founder of The Glute Recruit, there are three signs that can tell you your workout sessions have become effective:

1. You feel good after working out. If you feel accomplished after a workout session, it’s a sign that you’re on the right track. Remember, exercise should make you feel good and energized, not like a chore you have to complete for the sake of it. If you find yourself needing an excessive amount of time or effort to finish your workouts, it’s a sign that you’re not progressing. It may even lead to injuries or the inability to focus on your goals in the long run.
2. You can easily challenge yourself further. Progressive overload is a term you can often hear whenever you are working out, especially if you are out there in your local gym. This often means that you gradually challenge your muscles over time by adding weights or reps to your workout sessions. When you do this, it prompts your body to adapt and build back stronger. To know if you are improving, gauge your progress by recording your workouts, specifically the number of sets or reps you can finish at a given weight of a specific exercise. 
3. You look forward to workout sessions. Lastly, you can gauge the effectiveness of your workout sessions by your anticipation of repeating them consistently in the long run. Consistency, determination, and even grit are essential for improving your fitness level and muscle growth. Remember, a single gym session doesn’t define your progress; it’s a gradual process that requires patience and gradual embracement. If you see yourself consistently working out over the next few months, it’s a clear sign of your progress.

Now, if you complement smoking with your regular exercise, you may actually hinder your body from progressing. When you smoke cigarettes regularly, you are only harming your ability to exercise effectively. It can also hurt your athletic performance in many ways.

When you smoke, it can only make your arteries narrow, which reduces blood flow to your heart, muscles, and other body organs. It then makes your workout sessions more difficult since your muscles don’t get oxygen fast enough, especially during difficult exercises.

Your heart rate is also affected by smoking. Cigarettes can increase your resting heart rate, which is the number of beats per minute your heart produces when you’re not active. As you work out, your heart rate may potentially rise to dangerous levels, increasing your risk of death.

Even your lung capacity can be affected by cigarette smoking. The tar in cigarette smoke coats your lungs, reducing their elasticity. Additionally, smoking can produce phlegm that can congest your lungs. Once you start working out, it would be challenging for your body to perform multiple sets of a specific exercise, even without using weights since you cannot use oxygen effectively.

All these effects make cigarettes detrimental to your workout results. After all, you might find it difficult to see progress, and if you can’t push yourself during key exercises, you might give up early and stop exercising altogether. Do cigarettes make you skinny? While nicotine can suppress appetite and slightly boost metabolism, the overall harm to your health, including reduced stamina and muscle loss, outweighs any perceived benefit.  This puts you at risk of getting illnesses and losing muscle strength.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does smoking affect your muscles?

Yes, smoking can have several negative effects on your muscles. Firstly, nicotine and other harmful chemicals found in cigarettes constrict your blood flow, hindering muscle growth, strength, and recovery. Secondly, smoking increases the carbon monoxide content in your body, reducing oxygen availability to the muscles and resulting in quicker fatigue during physical activities.

Can smoking affect a pulled muscle?

Smoking can negatively affect the healing process of a pulled muscle due to the nicotine and other chemicals in cigarettes. These chemicals constrict blood vessels, which reduces your blood flow and oxygen delivery to injured tissues. This limited blood supply will only slow down muscle repair, delaying your recovery from strains, pulls, or tears for a long time.

Why does smoking cause muscle pain?

Smoking can cause muscle pain since it can impact your blood circulation and oxygen delivery. Nicotine and other chemicals in cigarettes tighten your blood vessels, reducing the flow of blood to your muscles. This only limits the amount of oxygen and nutrients your muscles receive, leading to muscle fatigue, cramps, and pain, especially during or after physical activity.

Does smoking affect leg muscles?

Smoking cigarettes does affect your leg muscles negatively since it can cause your blood vessels to constrict, limiting the circulation of blood to the legs and reducing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients needed for muscle performance. Smoking also contributes to a buildup of carbon monoxide in the blood, decreasing your oxygen levels and causing your leg muscles to tire more quickly.

Can I still build muscle if I smoke cigarettes?

Yes. However, smoking cigarettes may only hinder your progress due to their accompanying nicotine and other chemicals. They may limit your blood flow, oxygen, and nutrient delivery to muscle tissues, delaying muscle growth and recovery. They can also increase inflammation and oxidative stress, which can damage muscle cells and slow down repair processes. 

Can smoking cause muscle imbalance?

Smoking can cause muscle imbalances due to its negative impact on circulation, oxygen delivery, and muscle recovery. The chemicals in cigarettes constrict blood vessels, which impairs muscle strength and endurance. Additionally, smoking may reduce your lung capacity and stamina, affecting your ability to exercise effectively and causing you to favour certain muscle groups over others.

Does quitting smoking increase muscle?

Quitting smoking can increase your muscles since your blood circulation can improve significantly, leading to better oxygen and nutrient delivery to your muscle tissues. This benefit supports your muscle repair, recovery, and growth after every workout. Moreover, quitting smoking reduces inflammation, which is often associated with delayed muscle development. 

Summary

Based on a number of studies in the medical field, cigarettes can truly affect your muscles negatively. They only impede the growth of your muscles since they contain chemicals, especially nicotine, that restrict your body from maximizing oxygen optimally. Your muscle repair and recovery can also be delayed significantly if you continue smoking cigarettes while working out.

Now, your muscle growth, especially if you have a smoking history, may be delayed for a short period before you notice the progress of your workouts. However, it’s important to remember that your muscles can indeed grow in size and strength as soon as you quit smoking cigarettes. 

Therefore, you should not give up, be patient, adhere to your workout plan, and stick to your healthy diet to achieve your desired body goals within a few months.