Husband on manditory fitness program(he's a smoker)

[Lollie61]

Hi Cathe,

My husband has been placed on a manditory fitness program. He is a small man (28 waist,5'9" tall) and he has a very high metabolism. He is also a heavy smoker. Although he does not smoke in the house (outside only ) he smokes in the car and at his office. When he works out he has to monitor his heart rate so he is using one of our heart rate monitors. He ran today and he said he was in his target heart rate zone for 2 mins. then his heart rate sky rocketed. His max is suppose to be 180. It was well past that. Could his smoking have anything to do w/ his heart rate soaring like that? I don't know what the heart rate was but from talking to him it must have been high.

Thanks, Lollie

 

[FitnessGoddess]

Hi Lollie,

There are a lot of things that will contribute to a sky rocketing heart rate while doing cardio. Smoking is one of them. Why would he want to be on a "fitness" program that doesn't include smoking ceasation? I'm an ex-smoker who really enjoyed smoking & REALLY tries not to be an obnoxious ex-smoker--if I'm around people that smoke, I do not gripe about it. I don't generally tell people they should try to quit. In fact, I generally try to keep my mouth shut about it--my husband is an obnoxious ex-smoker & I want to punch him in the mouth sometimes! LOL

Anyway, that said, your husband will never achieve "fitness" if he smokes. His heartrate will always be higher. In fact, I would venture to guess that his resting heart rate is higher than normal as well. Which is just another sign of being unfit.

Not good news, but it's the truth.

 

[Lollie61]

Hi Deborah,

My husband is in the military and he failed several of his fitness tests. The military put him on a fitness program. If you were to see my husband you would think he was very fit because of his high metabolism which his family has. My daughter also inherited it. But he is a heavy smoker. He said he has cut down on the smoking. Since he doesn't smoke that much at home I was unaware of how much he smoked at work which is A LOT!! But, there are a lot of people at his job who smoke. Being the daughter of two chain smokers and having a parent who died from smoke related illness I am aware of some of the life threatening illnesses of smoking. I wasn't sure how smoking affected you fitness related.

Thanks for your answer and I will share this w/ him.


Ciao!

Lollie