Smoking and back pain - my story

Up until Monday, I was a pack a day smoker. I was traing 5 days a week, following the 3 day Hypertrophy template and 2 GPP days. About 2 weeks in, I started having some serious low back pain that felt like a muscle strain. I had been deadlifting 315 for reps and at the time this pain showed up I could barely get 100 lbs off the floor. I then switched over to the back rehab template and was progressing nicely, although by the end of week 3 I still had some nagging pain. I chalked it all up to loading mismanagement and was ready to repeat another week. Then I remembered a BBM podcast where the smoking/backpain association was briefly discussed.

Sunday night I said enough is enough and decided that i was going to quit come hell or high water, for general health but also as an experiment for dealing with this pain. Monday morning I quit smoking and had a training session Monday night. By the time I got to my training session, my back pain was nearly gone and I had the most productive training session I’d had in a long time. Today, four days later, any trace of pain I had is gone. I haven’t been this excited about my next training session in a long time.

I wanted to get this out there in case there are any other smokers here that are suffering from recurring pain. I’ll admit that I was somewhat skeptical, but it really seems that the connection is a thing. If you’re on the fence about quitting, you really should. Honestly, in just a few days i feel significantly better in many aspects. Also, big thanks to the BBM crew because I likely would not have made the connection and been so motivated to quit without them.

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Hey thats awesome man! Thats great to hear, I think that the mechanism/correlation of how smoking and lower back pain is related is interesting and nuanced. Keep us updated man!

Well, going on my 5th week of cessation and no recurrence of pain. In fact, the affected area almost feels stronger than ever. Also, foot pain I’ve been experiencing from callus buildup has also disappeared.

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