both men and women were twice as likely to be able to quit smoking

Seriously thinking about quitting smoking? Why not take up a little bit of weight lifting too in order to massively increase your chances of success! New research done by a team of researchers at the Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island resulted in evidence showing that both men and women were twice as likely to be able to quit smoking if they undertook regular sessions of resistance training. This research is not completely new because it has already been shown that exercise improves the success rate of quitting smokers and has a big impact on reducing cigarette cravings.

The leader of this research team Dr Joseph Ciccolo explained that smoking was killing over a thousand American people every day and yet less than five percent of them were able to do it without getting some form of help. He said that using strength training sessions just twice a week could make the difference between a successful quit smoking attempt and a failure.

For Dr Ciccolo's study a group of 25 volunteers both male and female between the ages of 18 and 65 were enlisted.  All of the volunteers smoked at least five cigarettes daily and had been doing so for at least a year.  They were all given a smoking cessation counselling session and an 8 week supply of nicotine patches. 

The volunteers were then randomly placed into two separate groups one of which had two, 1 hour-long training sessions a week over a twelve week timeframe. The workout included ten specific exercises which involved medium load weightlifting with an increase in intensity every three weeks. The other group had to watch health videos twice weekly.

After twelve weeks, sixteen percent of those volunteers in the weight training group had not only completely quit smoking but had also lost weight and improved muscle tone. In the other group however only eight percent of those volunteers had quit smoking and they actually increased in weight and body fat.

Admittedly the study was small however the evidence seems to show that enrolling into a weight training group when you quit smoking could possibly be the best thing for you. Not only would you reduce the cravings but you would also prevent yourself from putting on weight which happens to so many ex smokers.

The research was published in full by the clinical journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.