The Effect of Cigarette Smoking History on Muscular and Cardiorespiratory Endurance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of cigarette smoking history on physical fitness in younger adults. Small, insignificant differences in BMI between non-smokers and smokers were shown regardless of cigarette smoking history duration. Although the differences in muscular endurance increased in the samples with progressing cigarette smoking history duration, a highly significant difference in aerobic endurance was observed between the group of non-smokers and smokers with a history of smoking up to 5 years and persisted at the same level in smokers with a history of smoking for longer than 10 years.

KEYWORDS:

• Cigarette smoking
• muscular endurance
• cardiorespiratory endurance
• weight
• BMI
• members of the Armed Forces

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia and the Institute for Defence System Research and Development of the Republic of Croatia.The views presented in the article do not reflect the position or official policy of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Croatia or the Institute for Defence System Research and Development of the Republic of Croatia.The authors thank Colonel Prof. Dario Matika, PhD, Director of the Institute for Defence System Research and Development of the Republic of Croatia for his support during planning and conducting the study. The authors thank the staff of Sports Diagnostic Centre of the Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb, Croatia, for their assistance in completing this project.