Day 11 after quitting vapingTen minutes of walking

By Yevhenii, who smoked for 26 years · Updated 30 Oct 2026 · 2 min read

In shortIn experiments, a single bout of activity lowered the desire for nicotine for up to fifty minutes, and fifteen minutes at an easy pace was enough. It takes the edge off rather than switching a craving off. Walk for ten minutes before your worst hour.

What's happening in your body

One of the better tested tools against a nicotine craving fits in a lunch break. In a review of experiments where people abstained and then either exercised or sat still, every study that made that comparison found that a single bout of activity lowered the desire for nicotine and the discomfort of withdrawal. The effect began during the exercise and lasted for up to fifty minutes afterwards.

Hard exercise was not needed. Fifteen minutes at an easy pace worked, and so did five minutes of simply tensing and holding muscles. The participants were smokers abstaining for a few hours, and the craving they were fighting was for nicotine, so treat it as a tool to test on yourself.

What to expect

The effect is quick and temporary, which is what you need from it, because a craving only has to be outlasted. The first minutes of a walk can still bring one, especially if a walk used to come with a vape in the hand. That usually fades if you keep going. Expect the walk to take the edge off rather than switch the craving off. If effort brings chest pain or pressure, breathlessness out of proportion to the pace, or dizziness, stop and see a doctor.

Try this

Find the hour when your cravings are worst and put a ten-minute brisk walk just before it, fast enough that you can talk but could not sing.

What else you could do

Compare the hour that follows with yesterday's; the Diary shows when each craving came. When you cannot leave, the shortest version from the review works at a desk. Press your palms together hard, or tense your thighs and hold for a count of ten, a few times over. Stairs instead of the lift. A walk after dinner. If there was ever a sport in your life, this is a good month to go back to it at an easy level.

Sources. Measured in smokers, the target is nicotine craving. Taylor AH, Ussher MH, Faulkner G. The acute effects of exercise on cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms, affect and smoking behaviour: a systematic review. Addiction, 2007.