Smoking & Kung Fu?

[still_logicz]

Did anyone here smoke prior/during their kung fu training? How did you stop (if you did)? And in what ways did you notice it messing up your training?

[Hau Tien]

Originally posted by still_logicz
Did anyone here smoke prior/during their kung fu training? How did you stop (if you did)? And in what ways did you notice it messing up your training?

I smoked prior to beginning my training. I did successfully quit, though.

I had smoked for 8 years at about a pack a day. I went on Zyban and made a conscious decision to quit, and it worked.

The Zyban helped, but to be honest, a large part of it was simply willpower.

As for messing up my training... it really hurt my cardiovascular abilities in the beginning. I'm just now (Like 3 years later) beginning to see big improvements in that area.

[KC Elbows]

When I smoked, and I mean when I became a hardcore smoker, it was largely stress. In a way, it was a very low level death wish. And one day, I just realized that I didn't really want to die, I just didn't want to live the way I was. So I quit smoking and worked on changing the things in my life that had me so down.

[ewallace]

Also, if you are trying to quit smoking and you drink (especially at a bar), you must quit drinking for a while as well. That's when I've seen people relapse the most.

[rubthebuddha]

the two go hand in hand sometimes -- literally.

i'd say quitting is a great thing, especially if you do wing chun. no one wants to chi sau with someoone who has buttbreath.

[jun_erh]

In "Chinese boxing: Masters and methods" most of the teachers smoke except like one guy. I don't smoke because I run, it's too hard to do both

[Killerbee]

I used to smoke and it didnt really mess up my karate or judo but since my gf doesnt like the taste and smell wehen we kiss kiss i quit. I used a book by some guy named allen carr, i read the book once and never smoked again. If you smoke you NEED this book!!

[SanSoo Student]

Smoking sucks, it messes up your lings and makes your clothes smell.

[TigerJaw]

Ip Ching smokes like a chimney and it never seems to bother him.

I gave up when I graduated. Just stopped, dead, no patches, gum or little pretend cigarettes. I think I found it easy because it came at the same time as a change in lifestyle. I moved to anew city, started a new thing, and made new friends. They do say changing your patterns helps.

[Liokault]

I just started working with a guy who smokes like a chimney so when ever we have a cup of tea im passively smoking!!

plus i have just started seeing a new girlfriend who also smokes so i passively smoke a lot during the day and it is having a huge effect on my training to the point that i had to stop for a week as every time we did anything that got me breathing i had to lean on a wall ang hack my lungs out till i wanted to vomit (nearly did once or twice but i sucked it back down).

I think i am mildly astmatic to start with but the idea of training and smoking looks impossiable to me!!

[scotty1]

I used to smoke a lot, and I quit for a while when I started training. It really got my cardio up to speed.

I have started smoking again since but only 1 or 2 a day, and that soesn't really seem to interfere with my running and so forth.

Obviously I make slower progress, but that's just the way things are.

At the moment I don't train cardio as much as I should. The more I train the less I want to smoke so when my training picks up again my smoking will slow down and probably die off.