Harnessing the power of dopamine from workouts

 

The amazing power of Dopamine

Exercise gave me the motivation and drive to actually enlist and and give combat control a shot.  I sat around for years trying to talk myself into doing it, but it wasn't until I started seriously working out that it actually came together.  Although I didn't understand at the time, my limited research and curiosity about dopamine and how it effects our bodies has given me some interesting insights.  

I knew back then that exercise enhances our mood and and well being, but without proper understanding we cannot harness its powerful benefits, and we can certainly have too much. 

Exercise enhances dopamine levels... a lot.  It raises it as much as powerful drugs like amphetamine and cocaine.  The effects of exercise can last for hours after the actual training if approached correctly.  It's time to tune up your dopamine levels for discipline.  

The problem we face when raising dopamine levels is that so many things can raise our dopamine levels, not just exercise.  Alcohol, Tik Tok, pornography, and checking your social media status, all give you cheap ways to get a dopamine fix and raise your dopamine levels.

But more dopamine is good, right?  

No it isn't.  We all love the feeling of dopamine, even if we don't realize it.  It's the feel good brain chemical to creates motivation and positive feelings, but too much can leave us on edge and irritable.  

The problem with these cheap dopamine fixes is that it doesn't create dopamine in the same pathways that hard work does, so the dopamine high is very short lived and brings a lower baseline for yourself in a very short time.  A lower lower dopamine baseline level means that you will need even more dopamine just to feel normal.  The lower your overall baseline gets, the worse you feel.

There's other common things we may ingest that raises dopamine just as much as physical exercise like nicotine.  Nicotine raises dopamine 2.5 times over base level! Alcohol also raises our dopamine level substantially. 

You may read this and ask what the problem is with all the ways we have to raise our dopamine levels. We should all be feeling great!

As counter intuitive as it seems, this is not the case.  You probably already knew that watching too much Youtube isn't good for you, just as checking your Facebook page 40 times a day isn't either. You also know that hard work and exercise makes you feel better in the long run.  But why? Why can't we just do it the easy way?

                   Controlling your dopamine levels

If you can harness the power of controlling dopamine levels, your possibilities are endless.  The amount of drive and motivation you can receive from having the awareness of this tactic can make you someone who is unstoppable. 

If you're reading this post, you may be a lot like me.  You may be an adrenaline junkie who is looking for the next dopamine hit around the corner.  You like to work hard and play hard.  

 Now a little back history.

If you've read some of my other stuff then you know that I like to include examples of me in my videos and articles, so I'll share a very recent experience I've been through that I'm working to fix now.

All it took was beginning the running  program ( the workout plan that the Air Force put online) to begin my journey through Combat Control training.

Just starting that process hurdled me into something that I never thought I could do, only months before.

I've written before that action creates motivation, but there was more going on there.  It was like my life changed, but I never understood why. I understand a little better now.

Before I started running regularly, my life seemed like it was going down the toilet.  I experienced bouts of depression, mostly from too much alcohol and not working toward anything at all.  I wasn't even trying to take life head on in my early twenties, I was avoiding everything.

I started feeling more positive, more confident, and started approaching life differently, just from running.  It was exactly like being on a drug, without any negative side effects.

It was like I found the magic formula, which is something like this:

Do something hard, on purpose, and enter it with the mindset of knowing it will be hard.  Know that it will be difficult, but do it anyway. 

 Know that after you finish, you will have a dopamine high that can last for many hours, naturally.  It will last much longer than some cheap dopamine fix ,like buying something you don't really need off of Amazon or ingesting nicotine, because that is the way out neural pathways have always worked.  It's the only way to really feel good. It's the the way your body is designed to produce and use dopamine.  

Doing things that are hard isn't fun.  What I'm talking about here is doing things that you know are hard, but doing it anyway.

Great ways to raise dopamine levels

Examples of this may seem obvious, but I'll give you a good example that doesn't take much time and is extremely cheap financially, but it can raise your dopamine levels and have a lasting impact on how you feel many after the effort.

Cold water has, in many studies, shown to raise your dopamine after short periods of exposure. What's amazing about doing this on purpose is it will prepare you mentally for special ops training in any branch.

I'm not talking about a cold shower, I'm talking about really cold water, like a bathtub full of ice water.

Forcing yourself to do this is gonna suck, just like doing intense exercise will, but these will also mentally and physically prepare you for elite military training.  Spending time in ice cold water will cause you to enjoy elevated dopamine levels and a new invigorating experience during the day.

Another way to increase dopamine levels through doing something uncomfortable is fasting .  Beyond becoming leaner and activating your growth hormone levels, fasting creates discipline that we could all use more of.  When you put off eating during certain periods of the day, fast all day and eat one large meal, or go on a 48 hour fast, it can be hard to maintain drinking only water or zero calorie drinks throughout the day when everyone else seems to be eating.  

While fasting, embrace the challenge of it, instead of thinking about how good food is gonna taste.  Like powering through a tough workout, think about all the benefits of the process of fasting like increasing insulin resistance, your body fueling off bodyfat, increased focus and energy, and increased growth hormones during the fast.  Be careful rewarding yourself afterwards, but rather enjoy the experience while you're doing it. 

The examples above are ways that you can harness the power of dopamine.  Not only does it prepare your body for the physical demands of training, you will also improve your motivation and energy levels.  

Dopamine makes us feel motivated and creates positive feelings for us to enjoy in our life.  It's natural for us to want dopamine hits all the time, especially when it seems so easy now.  The amazing process of our bodies' reward system has been wired to elevate our mood through a hard work and reward system.

Trying to be lazy and avoid hard work and instead search for cheap, easy ways to feel good will only backfire.  When we try to use alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs to compensate for this way of living, it will end in disaster. 

As I touched on before, reaching for alcohol, staying up and gambling, checking your Twitter responses, or insert any cheap bullshit dopamine rush here, it will raise dopamine for a short time, but something harmful happens over time.  It may not happen right away, but eventually it becomes a big problem.

Reaching for these small dopamine hits may seem harmless and like they bring joy to an otherwise mundane life, but it can lower your baseline dopamine levels, which can create low mood, lack of motivation, and an overall hollow feeling.  

I know this because I've experienced it.

Your baseline dopamine levels

      

Not long ago, I started a downhill spiral.  Nothing was giving me joy, everything seemed mundane, even the things I used to love. 

I kept trying to further stimulate myself, as I'd adopted a work hard and play hard philosophy. 

I'd start the day with a run.  After that, I'd take a cold shower, pop in a nicotine pouch and then get another much needed dopamine rush with a motorcycle ride to work.  While at work, on a break, I'd watch motorcycle videos on YouTube that included police chases, some road rage and maybe find some other videos to keep me stimulated. I'd also consume more nicotine. 

After work was another motorcycle ride home, but I had to include a few wheelies and a shortcut through some woods that may be private property, just to keep me interested. Of course, after work I'd have a few beers.

As you can see, my day had become full of dopamine fixes from cheap sources, along with sources that I knew were healthy for me.  I knew that activities like motorcycle riding and exercising, were good for my health, relieved stress and overall made me feel better, but I was also mixing in more and more not so healthy ways of elevating dopamine.  

Although I did mostly healthy activities to raise dopamine, I was creating a problem for myself. I was lowering my base dopamine levels and needing more and more ways to raise dopamine to normal levels, otherwise I felt extremely low and lifeless, but I didn't understand why.

             HOW TO HARNESS THE POWER OF DOPAMINE WITHOUT LOWERING DOPAMINE LEVELS IN THE LONG RUN

Dopamine is like a drug that we can create ourselves, but like anything there can be too much, especially the cheap ways

Beyond avoiding cheap dopamine fixes as much as possible, understanding how to plan and structure ways to harness dopamine in effective ways is crucial.

When we start understanding that too much dopamine can actually lower our baseline dopamine levels overtime, it makes it easier for us to make a strategy to harness the power of dopamine by planning our dopamine increase without interfering with our precious baseline dopamine levels.

One obvious way to do this is to not over do it with activities that increase our dopamine, and especially avoid the cheap ways of elevating dopamine.

Remember our body is wired to increase dopamine with hard work.  It not only lasts longer but it keeps us from over doing the dopamine increase because hard work isn't fun.  But those who do hard work anyway,  become the most content and motivated people.

It's also important not to stack dopamine raising activities together, as it can easily over stimulate you. If you recall my example, that's exactly what happened to me. 

Also, the way you approach activities that raise dopamine will effect the levels of motivation and energy after the activity is done.  It's important to be aware of that point.

For example, if you are going to do an intense workout, do the workout accepting the fact that it will be hard, but also know the reward of good feeling will be the result.

Avoid motivating yourself with a reward after a long run with a large ice cream or beer.  Because of the way our brains are wired, this will make the dopamine increase of  actual workouts less rewarding, which will result in a shorter duration of reward from the activity  and lowering your base dopamine levels, which again over time will bring you feeling lower than ever.

In summary, be careful stacking too many dopamine increasing activities throughout your day, and avoid cheap dopamine fixes as much as possible.  Harness the power of dopamine by engaging in activities with the mindset that they will be hard and enjoy the benefits that valuable dopamine increases can offer.  

Strategically plan these activities in your day use specifically use exercise and cold water to prepare for your intense training, or whatever life may throw your way.  Being aware of your baseline dopamine levels and making sure you are strategic with how you raise your dopamine can have dramatic effects on your motivation, energy and overall well being. 

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Kevin