Instead of the next cigarette...try exercise
Short exercise sessions can improve the well-being of temporarily abstinent smokers and reduce cigarette cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
Walks alleviate cravings
- Tobacco use, particularly cigarette smoking, remains one of the most common preventable causes of premature mortality worldwide.
- A recent study from the University of Innsbruck adds to previous study findings and reports that short bouts of exercise can help reduce cigarette cravings and increase well-being in abstinent smokers.
- 10 minutes of outdoor exercise was best at reducing cigarette cravings, but an indoor exercise session also achieved improvements over the control group (sitting)
Ten minutes of brisk walking reduces the urge to smoke in the short term
The high addictive potential of cigarettes makes it difficult to stop smoking. According to a small study by the Innsbruck Institute of Sports Science (Innsbrucker Instituts für Sportwissenschaft), the following could help anyone who wants to give up smoking: Just ten minutes of exercise in the fresh air, but alternatively indoors, reduced the participants' desire to smoke and alleviated withdrawal symptoms.2,3
For the study, 16 smokers who had been smoke-free overnight each completed three different interventions: a ten-minute brisk walk outdoors, the corresponding exercise session indoors on a treadmill or they remained seated indoors for ten minutes.
The desire to smoke decreased during the exercise sessions, while it remained unchanged in the control group. The same was true for withdrawal symptoms and general well-being. Walking outside was slightly more effective than the indoor unit: after ten minutes the craving was slightly lower and the time until the next cigarette was not significant, but slightly longer (17 minutes after the treadmill versus 26 minutes after the walk). Due to the small sample size, this is only a trend and larger studies would be desirable.3
Regular exercise is an important component of smoking cessation
Current meta-analyses suggest that regular exercise has many benefits as an accompanying treatment for quitting cigarette smoking or vaping. It has a positive effect on the cardiovascular system and the respiratory system, but can also improve mood and well-being, reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety and, last but not least, counteract weight gain after quitting smoking.4,5 In addition, a large, nationwide survey in the USA, the National Youth Smoking Cessation Survey, found that exercise increases self-esteem and self-efficacy and that these two positive resources can facilitate smoking cessation.6
Exercise must be continuous
This was the first small study to compare the effects of a short exercise intervention with the control situation in a sitting position. The effect of these short exercise sessions only lasted for a short time: After twenty minutes, there were no longer any measurable differences between the groups in terms of the desire to smoke. On the other hand, short walks can be easily incorporated into everyday life and also have other positive effects on health. The authors hope that the intervention could be helpful as a supplement in smoking cessation programmes and as support for behavioural change.
It would certainly be interesting to integrate other short and easy-to-implement techniques, such as mindfulness, short guided meditations or breathing exercises that, once learnt, can be performed anytime and anywhere. Max Strom, who has been teaching stress management, among other things, for almost 30 years, explained in a TEDx talk worth listening to that breathing exercises are among the quickest and most effective tools, which he also uses successfully with professional groups such as US Navy SEALs or senior managers, for whom only methods that work reliably and quickly are considered. "Many people take smoke breaks, but they could also take a breathing break."7
- Pirie, K., Peto, R., Reeves, G. K., Green, J. & Beral, V. The 21st century hazards of smoking and benefits of stopping: a prospective study of one million women in the UK. The Lancet 381, 133–141 (2013).
- Schöttl, S. E. et al. Acute effects of outdoor and indoor walking on cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms and affective response during temporary smoking abstinence. Psychopharmacology 241, 739–752 (2024).
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Brisk walks support smoking cessation – Universität Innsbruck. (2023).
- Darabseh, M. Z., Selfe, J., Morse, C. I., Aburub, A. & Degens, H. Does Aerobic Exercise Facilitate Vaping and Smoking Cessation: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials with Meta-Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, 14034 (2022).
- Huang, X., Wang, Y. & Zhang, H. Effects of physical exercise intervention on depressive and anxious moods of college students: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Asian Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology 3, 206–221 (2023).
- Loprinzi, P. D., Wolfe, C. D. & Walker, J. F. Exercise facilitates smoking cessation indirectly via improvements in smoking-specific self-efficacy: Prospective cohort study among a national sample of young smokers. Preventive Medicine 81, 63–66 (2015).
- TEDx Talks. Breathe to Heal | Max Strom | TEDxCapeMay. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Lb5L-VEm34 (2015).