Episode 99: How Does Exercise Effect Your Brain Chemicals
Posted on April 25, 2016
Now before we get into this episode I need to disclose, my understanding of brain chemistry is very broad and general so I had to do a little bit of research on this, if you’re really interested in going more deeply into your brain chemistry I recommend you follow Dr. Loretta G. Breuning because she does a lot of research on this, but where I find it lacking is how to actually form new habits that promote good brain chemistry, so what I’m going to do today is explain it in a way you can hopefully understand and then give you some tactical steps you can take to apply it into your life, so you can take full advantage of all the positive effects exercise has to offer on your brain chemistry.
To start you have 4 main feel good neurotransmitters inside your brain, Dopamine, Serotonin, Oxytocin and Endorphin. All of these can be released into your brain when you exercise.
Dopamine is your success neurotransmitter, this means when you move towards or reach a goal you get a little hit of Dopamine. If you set the goal of doing 10 push-ups and you achieve that goal you get your dopamine hit, the problem is that once you achieve that goal you no longer get the dopamine hit when you do 10 push-ups, so you need to find a new goal to achieve. Which is why it’s good to have a few different goals and be willing to be constantly growing and changing. There are many different kinds of exercise goals you can set, your can set outcome goals like doing 10 push-ups in a row, you can set consistency goals like, I’m going to exercise or at least do something active for a month, you can set process goals like every night I’m going to pack my gym bag so it’s easy for me to take to work in the morning’ What the goal is, is much less important than the fact you’re able to achieve it.
Next up is Serotonin, Serotonin is your ‘I feel important neurotransmitter.’ This one is trickier because we often rely on feedback from other people to make us feel important, for example every time you get a like or a heart on a social media post that will make your brain release serotonin, except as you probably know after a certain amounting of time it doesn’t matter how many likes or hearts you get, you stop getting that feeling, which means you need to move to find intrinsic ways to feel important, this might mean going out of your way to help someone or inspire someone, if you’re relatively self-motivated it might be a good idea to try and workout with a friend and when you see them getting results you’ll feel good because you know you played a part in their success.
Oxytocin is up next and it is responsible for the feeling of trust you get from other people. This is one of the reasons community based fitness programs are so successful, like CrossFit because you’re with other people that are just like you, that are going through all the same things you are. When you share experiences and help each other it means you trust one another, and when you trust one another you’re more likely to stick together. If you have trouble staying motivated I highly recommend you find a group of people to work with, so you can build that trust, stay consistent with them and most importantly take on new challenges together.
This brings us to Endorphin which really is THE neurotransmitter that is released during physical distress, especially when you push yourself to your limits, it’s the cause of the ‘runners high’ you might experience. It’s always released when you exercise. A few things need to happen though to keep your endorphin levels elevated every time you exercise, like I mentioned earlier you need to push yourself to your limits, this is most easily done with Interval training like sprints, hill running or weightlifting like intense circuit training and having a lot of variety in your workouts. If you’re getting bored and unmotivated to do your workouts it may be because your body doesn’t produce enough endorphin, so increasing the intensity and changing up the style of your workouts or trying new physical activities will be very important to stimulate more endorphin release.
From an applicable standpoint if you want to get the most out of your workouts and create positive brain chemistry your approach should look something like this, when you achieve your goals set new ones so you’re constantly growing, don’t be afraid to help other people if you see them struggling, find a fitness community to be a part of and don’t afraid to push yourself and try new things. Just saying this right now leads me to think this isn’t only a great way to approach fitness but it’s also a great way to approach life, don’t you want to get the most out of your life? I know I do.
