Q: Hi Mike, just how much effect will smoking have on my gymming results, health and fitness, if i am doing everything else right?

A: Depends on how much you smoke, but obviously the more your smoke and the longer you go on like that, the more damage you'll do to your health. You'll start running out of breath on cardio exercise faster and won't be able to recover between weight training sets as quickly or as fully. Finally you of course greatly increase your chances of cancer down the road. So it's your call as to your priorities. An occasional smoke or two with friends may not hurt you at all but if you smoke a pack a day you'll definitely do harm to your fitness progress and to your overall health.