According to a new study from the Miriam Hospital in Rhode Island, the key to quitting smoking could be pumping iron and their study found that this form of exercise made men and women attempting to quit smoke TWICE as successful!

With a couple of friends who smoke and struggle to quit, as well as having weight issues, this could be the perfect weight for them to kill two birds with one stone!

The researchers at the Miriam Hospital recruited 25 male and female smokers who were between the ages of 18 and 65, who were all also smoking at least 5 cigarettes a day, to take part in the study. They were placed at random into two groups: One group took part in two 60-minute training sessions per week for 12 weeks, while the other group only watched a brief health and wellness video twice a week. Out of this group 16% who were in the resistance training group not only found they quit smoking at the end of the 12 week period, but they also decreased their body weight and body fat as well. Out of those who watched the video only, 8% of them quit smoking and saw an INCREASE in their weight and fat.

It does show that exercise has a lot of health benefits, those who did exercise, probably skipped smoking, so they could have more energy and could probably breath better after stopping.

At the moment there needs to be more research into this link, plus much longer term research, currently 15% of those in the resistance training group had managed not to lapse either in the last three months, which is a good sign.