If you thought exercise didn’t hold enough benefits, it looks like it also can help you quit smoking. Kicking the habit is one of the toughest challenges in the world, but from this article is looks like you can increase your chances of success by tying it into an exercise regime:

Should I Quit Smoking Before I Start to Exercise?

Why a little sweat may boost your ability to kick the habit.
by Martica Heaner, PhD, MA, MEd for MSN Health

Q. I’d like to quit smoking and start exercising, but I know that both habits will be tough to stick to. Should I try to quit smoking first and start exercising later?

A. Some people get overwhelmed if they make too many drastic lifestyle changes all at once. But others thrive, especially if adopting one good habit reinforces another good habit. With smoking, you may find that exercising while you stop smoking will make kicking cigs easier. And that’s because they are fairly incompatible habits.

Let me explain.

When you exercise, especially if you do cardio activity such as running, cycling, dancing or Zumba, your body requires extra oxygen to move more. Immediate physiological changes occur: Your breathing rate increases so you can suck more air — and oxygen — into your lungs, to be carried through your blood to the working muscles. Also, your blood vessels expand, increasing your circulation, and your heart beats faster to pump more of that super-oxygenated blood around.

Once you exercise regularly, your body adapts and sustained physiological changes occur: Your lungs can inflate more, taking in more air — and oxygen. Your lungs can deflate more, excreting some of the stale dead air that can linger and limit breathing capacity. Your heart gets stronger and this means that you pump more blood out to your body per beat, and your heart works less hard to push out the same amount of blood. Read more here.