Neuroplasticity and Exercise – Do you need to change up your routine to maintain the same mental Buzz?
Your brain is not stagnant, if you look at it form a binary perspective its simple: your either increasing your cognitive ability or your decreasing it. There are a number of different ways that you can train your brain, increase the number of neurons(grey matter) and active connections that are transmitting signals (white matter). Many studies have shown that physical exercise is beneficial for your brain, it creates new neurons and triggers the release of “feel good” chemicals (dopamine). Our brain is essentially a series of pathways for electrical signals, each new thought or action builds a new pathway. Our most consistent habits tend to have the largest pathways for neuron activity and the new or fading habits have the smallest. When the pathway for exercise has been activated, the brain floods with dopamine causing our bodies to feel good. Only naturally, we seek to repeat this activity. Our brains remember these feelings and begin the desire them more and more, this is how habits are formed (and unfortunately addictions).
Now that we explored the brain a little, lets take a step back into the fitness world.
Can you develop a tolerance to certain exercises? Just like an addict needs to up the dose to feel the same level of satisfaction, does the same apply for exercise and working out? Do we need to increase the intensity to feel the same reward? We know that our bodies adapt to exercise over time, decreasing our physical gains from the repetitive movements, but does the same apply with our mental well being? A lot of questions here, I know for me personally, when I reach about three months of doing a particular circuit consistently (once a week) I notice a lack of focus, a boredom if you may. The motions become easier and the work level seems to decrease, it all makes sense too. I’ve reached a point where my neurological pathway has become wide, this wasn’t a new skill for me anymore the challenge has significantly decreased. This is the crossroad where I’ll incorporate my workout with something new that presents a new series of challenges, thus creating new pathways. Interestingly, when I bring that old workout back into my routine (3 to 6 months later) the challenge returns, my pathway has weakened. I’m tasked with trying to remaster the movements I once preformed and rebuild an old neurological pathway.
Although no scientific studies -to my knowledge- focus on the relationship between preforming the same exercises repetitively and the decreased level of “Feel Good” chemicals released(building a tolerance) , I am a believer from personal experience that the two are linked. Keep the Dopamine flowing, keep creating new pathways, keep learning and challenging yourself, realize and remember when routines used to make you feel good and re-incorporate them into your life today. You have the power to rewire and increase the activity in your brain, the combination of this and healthy eating can do amazing things for your physical and emotional well being.
I leave you with this – Never be scared to Change it Up
Don’t follow the leader, Create your new Pathways.
