Here we will discuss the real mechanism of How Exercise Affects Your Brain?. But, Let me start this article by telling that almost everything you know about exercise is wrong. We usually associate exercise with losing weight but that is a big misconception. In fact, exercise is the least productive way to lose weight. So if you are thinking to lose weight, exercise should be the last on your to-do list. Because exercise seems to have completely different effects than we all have thought.
A book called Spark that was published in 2008 by John Ratey, proved that Excercise has more effect on your brain than any other parts of your body. Surprised? Even I was when I read the book. Exercise turns to be a secret recipe to boost your motivation, focus, and memory. It is like a magic pill that instantly boosts your brain capabilities. In fact, Exercise boosts your mental abilities more than drugs such as Zoloft that has a significant impact on your mental abilities. How? well before we answer that question, do not forget to subscribe to my blog to never miss another new article.
Table of Contents
How does the Brain work?
Let’s first understand how the brain works in the first place! Your brain is not that fixed organ that cannot be changed, it is an adaptable organ that changes exactly like any other muscle on your body, like when you lift a weight, for example, you strengthen your arms. The more you use it, the stronger and more flexible it becomes, unlike your arms muscles. Remember that your brain is the most important organ in your body. Everything we do and think and feel is governed by how our brain cells, or neurons, connect to one another. And what connects them are neurotransmitters. There are many different kinds of neurotransmitters in your brain, but the ones we will focus on in this article are Dopamine, Serotonin and NorepinephrineI know that it sounds already a little complicated but I promise that I will simplify it as much as possible.
Effects of Exercise on Neurotransmitters
Inorder to understand , How Exercise Affects Your Brain?, must know about neurotransmitters in details. There are many different kinds of neurotransmitters in your brain. Here we will discuss about most important three of them. Let’s discuss what and how the effects of the exercise, in details.
1. Dopamine
Ball-and-stick model of the zwitterionic form of dopamine found in the crystal structure
The first one is Dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is responsible for your motivation. It seeks and searches for a reward to keep you motivated. It provides you with the motivation to do things. If you ever wanted to buy something, learn or win. It is all because of the dopamine, it searches for the potential reward that you might get out of it which drives you to do that thing so that you can get that reward. In other words, the reason that you are unmotivated is that your dopamine level is low.
Skeletal formula of dopamine
In fact, researchers tried to experiment and turned off the dopamine receptor in the brain of a rat, and the results were astonishing. The rat became so lazy that it chose to starve to death and did not move to eat the food even when the food was in the cage because it was no longer motivated. And human brains work in the same way. Your Dopamine determines your level of motivation. And the good news is that. Studies have proved that exercise instantly and significantly boosts your dopamine level, which means that it will instantly make you feel motivated. If you are wondering, How long you should exercise to get that dopamine boost. Do not worry, we will talk about that in a moment.
2. Serotonin
Serotonin
The second neurotransmitter is Serotonin. It is basically the policeman of your brain, It influences your mood, anger, and aggressiveness, and helps to keep your brain’s activity under control. In other words, if you feel anxious and depressed, or stressed out, that is probably because your serotonin level is low. And that is why all antidepressant pills are focused on increasing your serotonin level because that is what gets you out of depression and reduces your stress. And guess what again?! Studies have shown that exercise has a direct influence on your serotonin level, which means, that the best cure to depression is simply, exercise.
3. Norepinephrine
Norepinephrine structure
Now, the last neurotransmitter is Norepinephrine. It is responsible for your attention. If you are struggling to stay focused, that is more likely because of low Norepinephrine. It works like the other 2 neurotransmitters we talked about. High levels of it sharpen your attention and low levels of it make it hard to focus. Almost all of the drugs affect these neurotransmitters. Cocaine for example increases your dopamine level, therefore makes you feel really great. imagine if you could increase all of these neurotransmitters at the same time, without any drug. That is exactly what exercise is for, that’s why the author of the book calls it – the magic pill. But that not the whole story. There is something else.
Other Effects of Exercise On Brain
Exercise also boosts your memory and learning abilities and that is because of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor or BDNF in short. Studies have shown that the part of your brain that is responsible for your memory and learning has BDNF. The great part is that BDNF gets unleashed when our blood is pumping, it Grows your Brain cells and increases your learning capacity. In other words, exercise can directly improve your memory. Imagine, how would your day be, it could boost your motivation, mood, and attention instantly every single morning. And increase your memory and learning capacity on top of that. This is all about details of How Exercise Affects Your Brain? Well, all you need to do is to start your day with exercise. but how many hours do you need to exercise?
How many Hours of Exercise do You Need to Do?
According to the author of the book, 6 hours in a week is enough. That can keep your neurotransmitters high throughout the day. But it is way much better if you exercise right before studying or working. Because at that moment your neurotransmitters are at the highest level and BDNF is just unleashed. That is why you feel, energetic, motivated, and inspired after a morning jog. So right before you start working on that project, do yourself a favor and exercise for around 5 to 10 minutes. If you want to know about the brain and How Exercise Affects Your Brain?, then go and check out the book- Spark. If you have enjoyed this article, then be sure to smash that subscribe button. Thank you for reading and I will see you in the next one.
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