i have been a non smoker for near on 4 years now...ive been a swimmer all my life..intermittently..i have improved vastly since giving up...has anyone else anything to add to this thread???
I stopped smoking over 30 years ago after having smoked 15 years. I often wonder if I'm paying for the damage I did to my lungs as a kid. Could I be faster/better if I had the full lung capacity I was born with?? Whatever the answer, I'll never regret having quit.
well... is it not enough to fight with water to get air in your lungs, why add smoke and nicotine and tar and and and
Congratulations on giving up smoking, I think that's awesome!
way to go on making yourself and those around you healthier. you should feel great about kicking it, and becoming a more able person.
this is the kinda stuff that I love--you've championed a habit that's harder to kick than heroin. Way to go!
when I was in college, I was on the rowing team. I smoked (uh hum), and don't know how I maintained the speed requred to do it all. Youth I guess! thank god it didn't stay with me--I kicked it and haven't turned back.
i used to smoke when I was in my teens/early 20s; however, after my mom died of complications of lung cancer, i quit soon thereafter... it helped having a husband who REALLY hated me smoking!
I'm so glad i quit, and when I think back, i have no idea why i ever started....
I noticed a big difference in my overall health, and soon after i quit (like 6mos.), i started doing sports (starting with martial arts which led to swimming...), so there you have it.
cheers i thought i was alone on this issue...i do feel more able and am so glad i stopped...my dad and his dad died of lung complications i think this really hit home maybe i'll make old age yet!!!!
I remember bits and pieces of a longevity questionnaire I took a few ago. The numbers said that smoking statistically takes 12 years off your life. That was the biggest single factor. Being married was the next biggest factor, but the formula is much more complicated -- a married man who divorces loses 9 years; single men who never marry lose 2 years for every decade beyond age 25. Exercise and nutrition can account for many years, but you have to add together a lot of separate factors.
Phil Whitten's book "The Complete Book of Swimming" has such a questionnaire. These things are based on the mortality statistics used by actuaries to determine life insurance premiums (i.e., there are big dollars at stake!), so there must be good science there, too.
Smoked on and off for about 28 years! Finally gave it up last May after swimming for about 6 months! Wish I would have quit long time ago. It's amazing how easy breathing is without putting that garbage in your lungs! Swimming continues to improve!!!!! Hoping to finish better then 4th in Savannah this year!!!!!!!
