When combined with other smoking cessation aids, physical activity can help you quit in several ways.
“Exercise is a natural solution to a lot of women’s concerns about giving up smoking—dealing with withdrawal symptoms, coping with stress and avoiding weight gain,” explains clinical health psychologist Bess Marcus, PhD, of the Brown University School of Medicine.
Exercise buffers bad moods, cravings and other nicotine withdrawal symptoms
Quitters who work out still experience some unpleasant feelings, but they aren’t as bad as those reported by non-exercising quitters. And exercise may be an especially helpful mood-stabilizer for midlife women, many of whom are already wrestling with the emotional and hormonal turmoil related to perimenopause. “Tobacco detox is a double whammy for women over 40,” says Vikki Chavez, a Quitnet.com tobacco treatment specialist. In the short term, a quick bout of activity, even a five minute walk, has been shown to be effective for combating cigarette cravings, according to exercise psychologist Guy Faulkner, PhD, who co-authored a 2008 review of 13 trials on exercise and smoking cessation for the Cochrane Collaboration.
Exercise helps ease stress and prevent relapse
Some research suggests that physical activity increases self-efficacy. In one trial conducted by Judith J. Prochaska, PhD, of the University of California, San Francisco, recent quitters who started a walking program reported increased energy, less difficulty with staying smoke-free, and greater confidence that they could stay quit. While the evidence is inconsistent, many researchers believe that, on an emotional level, exercise helps quitters feel competent and in control, and helps transform his or her identity from a smoker to a healthy person. And the exercise intensity may not even have to be vigorous. Preliminary research suggests that some find yoga to be a good substitute for smoking, possibly because the deep breathing calms them in a familiar way. “Women who have spent their lives dragging on a cigarette are now taking deep breaths to help manage stress but they are doing it without the nicotine,” explains Marcus.
Exercise fights the weight gain associated with quitting
The fear of filling out is strong for midlife smokers who’ve noticed a slow in metabolism, but starting or increasing physical activity can keep the extra pounds at bay. “Women in a smoking cessation program with vigorous exercise were twice as likely to quit smoking and gained half as much weigh as women in the same program who did not exercise,” says Marcus, who adds that working out may also help women fight food cravings.
The link between exercise and abstinence is unclear, but further research will try to pinpoint exactly how much—and how hard—you have to move. “It will be difficult to identify one mechanism that explains all the benefits,” says Faulkner. “It may be that different mechanisms operate at different times for different people: It’s the distraction, it’s feeling good about doing something good for yourself, and maybe, when it’s intense, perhaps something biochemical is going on, like the creation of mood-boosting endorphins.” What is known: exercise doesn’t hurt quit attempts, and regardless of how much it helps one’s effort to stop smoking, it seriously boosts overall health.