To avoid a relapse after you quit smoking, you need to replace your former unhealthy habit with healthy ones. Exercise is important because people commonly eat more after they quit smoking and gain weight. Regular exercise, including breathing exercises, also improves your mood and helps you relax so the compulsion to calm yourself with a smoke won't be as strong.
Just Breathe
Now that you're breathing smoke-free air, train yourself to get the most of it. Lie on your back and place your hands on your stomach, at the bottom of your rib cage, middle fingers lightly touching each other. Breathe deeply through your nostrils and pull the air into your abdomen rather than your chest. You'll know you're breathing properly when your expanding stomach forces your middle fingers to separate. Hold the breath for two seconds, then gradually release it through your mouth. Repeat this for five minutes, the University of Missouri says.
Reduce Your Cravings
Your lungs may not be ready for high-intensity aerobic exercise such as running, but the most moderate aerobics can improve your health and likely reduce your cigarette cravings. In a 2009 study, researchers at the University of Exeter had some smokers do 10 minutes of moderate exercise on stationary bikes after 15 hours without nicotine, while a control group of smokers did no exercise. The exercising smokers reported fewer cravings while exercising and afterward. When shown images of smoking while in an MRI machine, the exercising smokers' brains were less affected than those of the smokers who didn't exercise.
Boost Your Metabolism
Nicotine artificially raises your metabolism. When you quit, you could gain weight even if you don't eat more because your body isn't metabolizing calories the way it did when you smoked. Strength training -- whether lifting weights, using resistance bands or doing pushups and pullups -- bulks up your muscle tissue, and since muscles require more calories for energy than fat tissue, your metabolism speeds up.
Make Exercise a Habit
Look for opportunities throughout the day to do moderate exercise you didn't bother with when you were smoking. When you go to work or to the store, park further away than usual and trot briskly to your destination. Walk or ride your bike to nearby places rather than drive. Look for opportunities to raise your heart rate the same way you looked for chances to sneak off and have a smoke.
References
- University of Missouri: Breathing Exercises
- "Psychopharmacology"; Acute exercise modulates cigarette cravings and brain activation in response to smoking-related images; K. Janse Van Rensburg, et al.; Apr. 2009
- George Washington University: Exercise and Quitting
- Franklin and Marshall College: Why Should I Strength Train?
