As stated earlier, smoking adversely affects both the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of the body. It becomes apparent then, that an individual cannot perform at an optimum physical level if they smoke. One hindrance in proving the link between smoking and decreased performance has to do with the nature of the ailments that smoking causes in the body. Most serious health problems that are a result of smoking are progressive in nature and take considerable time to develop. In addition, much of the research is done with younger athletes who have not had time to develop the more chronic problems associated with smoking.
Some research addresses the more acute effects that smoking has on performance.
Airway resistance has been shown to increase as much as threefold in both chronic smokers and nonsmokers following 15 puffs on a cigarette in a 5 minute period. This added resistance was also shown to last an average of 35 minutes. One interesting discovery was that the effect is minor at rest or during light exercise when oxygen requirements are small. As exercise becomes more vigorous however, the effects become more detrimental. In another study, chronic smokers were evaluated working on a treadmill at 80 percent of their Max VO2 immediately after smoking two cigarettes and then after a day of abstinence.