Don't Drink and Drive...Smoke and Ride - NOT!

The other day I was walking home from a morning run when all of a sudden I saw something that provoked me.

I witnessed a guy riding his bike to work while smoking a cigarette! Maybe he was trying to kill 2 birds with one stone or maybe he felt that the cycling would cancel out the ill effects of the cigarette.

Let it be clear that I would definitely not recommend smoking in general let alone while riding your bike. Here's why...

First, when you exercise, you increase your breathing rate. This means if you're smoking while biking (or exercising in general) that more nicotine and other carcinogens will be entering your body at a much faster rate...not good!

Second, when you exercise, you breathe much more deeply than at rest. As a result, smoking's toxic chemicals can penetrate deep into your respiratory pathway...much deeper than would normally occur while smoking at rest.

Now I know that this scenario seems quite peculiar to write about but I needed to get it off my chest. Obviously, not many people smoke while exercising but the 2 aforementioned conditions also hold true if you exercise in a polluted environment!

If you decide to get active outdoors then the best times to do so are at dusk and/or dawn when pollution and UV levels are their lowest.

Talk to you soon!

Yuri