While it is clear to those who exercise frequently that their workouts lift their general mood, the physiological explanation is not so simple. What affect does exercise really have on the brain? Well, to start, there are four main neurochemicals that affect mood: Serotonin, Epinephrine, Dopamine, and Endorphin.
Serotonin elevates mood, increases feelings of satiety, and lifts depression. It is that satisfied feeling you have after a long run, or a plate of pasta. It is also that feeling of comfort you get from spending time with friends and family.
Serotonin can become depleted with stress, anxiety, starvation, or inactivity, leaving you depressed, irritable, and exhausted. Conversely, serotonin is strongly elevated after a long run, or workout, even at moderate intensity levels.
Epinephrine is responsible for the “fight or flight” response that occurs when you get scared. The effect epinephrine has on the body is an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, elevated temperature, and a stimulated nervous system.
In today’s fast-paced world, you probably experience epinephrine on a daily basis. Chronically racing to get things done, being late, traffic, juggling too many tasks, and starvation can all stimulate epinephrine. Epinephrine can become depleted with stress or anxiety, leaving you exhausted, mentally drained, and depressed.
Dopamine is the neurochemical that is responsible for sleeping cycles. While you may not recognize when dopamine is correctly balanced, you certainly know when your sleeping cycles have been disrupted. Commonly described as “jet lag”, a disruption in your sleeping cycle is caused by an imbalance in the dopamine level. Dopamine stores can become depleted with stress, or anxiety, an intense trauma, or starvation.
Endorphins are the neurochemicals that act as the body’s “natural painkillers”. Endorphins are responsible for the decrease in physical pain with exercise. Many runners will attest to the fact that chronic pains seem less noticeable during and immediately after a run. Endorphins are also responsible for the ability to disregard, or not even notice pain, when engaged in physical activity.
Endorphins can allow you to perform activities that would otherwise be stopped by pain. Endorphins are also partly responsible for the “runners high” that is often reported by runners.
The endorphin response to exercise increases with frequency of the exercise. Interestingly, substance abuse can deplete the endorphin response to exercise. However, all people, regardless of history, will experience a rise in endorphin levels with exercise.
When you perform exercise at very high intensity levels, epinephrine levels tend to become elevated, more so than with low to moderate intensity level exercise. Power lifting, weight training, sprinting, interval training, plyometrics, and ballistic training can all create a rise in epinephrine levels. Likewise any sport that relies more on explosive, start and stop efforts than a consistent moderate intensity effort, would create a significant rise in epinephrine levels.
This means that sports that utilize more fast-twitch muscle fibers than slow twitch muscle fibers will have a noticeable impact on the epinephrine levels. When you recruit fast twitch muscle fibers, you create the same fight or flight response that would be created in response to real trauma. This response generates very high levels of epinephrine and adrenaline.
While explosive forms of exercise and sports generate a rise in epinephrine and adrenaline, low to moderate intensity exercise tends to create a rise in serotonin. Long distance running, cycling, hiking, swimming, yoga, and sports that rely more on endurance than power create a rise in serotonin levels. Therefore, any sport or exercise that recruits slow twitch muscle fibers will increase serotonin levels.
When you use slow twitch muscle fibers, the purpose is to be able to perform moderate intensity exercise for a long period of time. Completing a difficult task, such as a long run, creates an increase in positive emotional states, which would positively affect serotonin levels. The rise in serotonin that is experienced with moderate intensity exercise, seems to be similar in nature to the rise in serotonin that is experienced when one is surrounded by good friends and family.
When the serotonin levels rise, the dopamine levels tend to rise in accordance. This means that exercising, or engaging in sports at low to moderate intensity levels would have a positive impact on dopamine levels.
You’ve experienced the good night’s rest that is typical following a good workout. It seems that low to moderate intensity exercise has a positive effect on dopamine levels, while exercise that is very intense can lower dopamine levels, causing a disruption in sleep.
While dopamine and serotonin are strongly elevated by moderate intensity exercise, you experience a rise in endorphins regardless of the type or intensity of exercise. However, endorphin response to exercise becomes stronger with exercise frequency. The more exercise we perform, the more endorphins we produce.
By now, you’ve hopefully have realized the multiple positive effects exercise can have on your mood. Try it out! See how much better you feel after a workout!
About The Author: Bobby DeMuro is the Founder of FusionSouth, a personal training/sports conditioning firm in Charlotte, NC. He is also the Executive Director of NoFizz Charlotte, a non-profit dedicated to bringing awareness on the importance of proper hydration. He resides on Lake Norman with his 2-year old boxer, Dakota.
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