The running process itself is a relatively hard thing, but after running, we will feel comfortable and calm, and get a very "smooth" psychological experience.
All kinds of anxiety, depression, boredom, and unhappiness of running are often swept away, which is one of the important reasons why many people use running as a way to reduce stress.
Sports brand ASICS conducts a global study of the impact of exercise on mental and mental state, covering 16 countries and regions around the world.
On April 13 this year, ASICS released the results of a study called the State of Mind Index, which fully demonstrates the impact of "positive movement" and "suspension of exercise" (such as the reduction of people's closed home exercise due to the epidemic) on mental state.
The global psychological state index with a full score of 100 points, with an average score of 64 points, shows that in the past year, people around the world have been under certain pressure.
In the ranking of various countries, China ranked first, with an average score of 77 points, indicating that the psychological state of Chinese is still quite good, which is related to the increasing enthusiasm for sports in the Chinese and the rapid increase in the number of runners.
The findings suggest that a week's pause in exercise is the equivalent of a week's sleep deprivation.
Pausing exercise for one week will lead to a significant decrease in the participants' self-confidence, optimism, and stress resistance.
The study also showed that exercise has a positive effect on mental state, with key conclusions including:
1. The greater the amount of exercise, the higher the psychological state index may be;
2, young people do not exercise often, their mental health is not good, and on the contrary, if the older generation of people exercise a lot, the psychological state index score may be higher than those of young people who do not exercise;
3, exercise for 15 minutes can lift the spirit, you do not need to exercise for a long time to harvest mental health.
In other words, just running for 15 minutes can significantly improve emotional and mental health.
Running brings joy and pleasure, and when it comes to the emotional and psychological improvement of exercise, we will discuss two important substances produced by the brain related to happiness and reward.
One is dopamine (Dopamine) and the other is endorphin (Dopamine), exercise seems to promote the secretion of these two substances, so who plays a role in the joy of running, and what is the difference between the two?
Dopamine is not essentially about producing pleasure
Instead, it generates motivating and rewarding behaviors
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter produced by the brain, and Swedish scientist Alvid Carlson and three others won the 2000 Nobel Prize for studying this substance, which is related to excitement, happiness, exercise and other information transmission.
Swedish scientist Alvid Carlson
For years, people have described dopamine as the source of human pleasure, that is, dopamine means happiness, which is the root of happiness in the brain.
But as people's understanding of dopamine continues to deepen, the idea of dopamine as a source of happiness is basically outdated.
When we taste food, when we fall in love, when runners achieve PB in marathons through hard training, we do feel happy, and then there will be the secretion of dopamine;
But when we become obese by coveting high-fat and high-sugar foods, when drug addicts need to satisfy happiness by constantly smoking drugs, when we play games all night and can't stop brushing Douyin WeChat Weibo, this happiness is obviously not what we hope for.
Dopamine does not necessarily mean pleasure, and the essence of dopamine acts on the brain's reward system, causing us to generate desires that direct corresponding behaviors.
Just because you want something or do something doesn't mean that something or it's going to bring you happiness, it's that the process you want drives you to have behaviors that you can actually get, a process that you must know —addiction.
The utility of dopamine is to expect a reward, not to receive a reward. As mentioned above, dopamine brings cravings and fantasies, a process that, if repeated and intensified, can lead to addictive behavior.
Can be compared with the current mobile phone addiction, we are often just in the non-stop click "next", even if very tired and reluctant to let go, this is the dopamine reward mechanism to tell you, "the next one will be very cool."
Dopamine just makes us look forward to the next, and the process of anticipation itself is pleasurable.
There have been too many cases of abuse of dopamine mechanisms in modern society, a phenomenon known as "dopamine hijacking", of which drug use is typical.
So it is wrong to rely too much on dopamine, and people cannot be at the peak of happiness for a long time.
The strong secretion of dopamine will make the human brain tired, which also verifies the philosophical significance of the old saying "happiness and sorrow".
For runners, in a sense, running itself does not directly bring happiness, and running is even sometimes more painful, which is the root cause of many people's inability to develop running habits.
So in a sense, running cannot be completely explained by dopamine, but we do feel happy after running, which helps to stimulate the desire to run for some runners;
In addition, physical health, weight loss success, vitality, marathon PB, etc. also have strong happy attributes, but also help to stimulate the motivation to run for a long time.
Endorphins are compensated after effort
It has to do with a sense of accomplishment
Endorphins (endorphins), also known as endorphins, are morphine-like substances secreted by the pituitary gland, which can bind to morphine receptors and produce the same pain and euphoria as morphine and opiates, equivalent to natural analgesics.
Endorphins are related to a sense of accomplishment and are more tranquil, and endopheptides can help people maintain a youthful and happy state.
Humans have made it clear that the brain itself can produce two endogenous opioid substances, namely enkephalins and endorphins, which are usually included with endorphins.
In addition to the cerebellum, endorphins are distributed in other parts of the central nervous system, and these endogenous opioid systems have a wide range of functions, including analgesia, thermoregulation, appetite (which is one of the important explanations why sweets bring euphoria), sexual behavior, and blood pressure regulation.
Endorphins are one of many substances associated with pleasurable experiences
Exercise promotes the secretion of endorphins
This brings a sense of pleasure
Exercise can produce a good feeling, apparently directly related to endorphin secretion, producing a state of euphoria and excitement similar to that experienced while taking opium.
Studies have shown that aerobic exercise not only increases the release of endorphins and other endogenous opioids, but also increases endorphin levels after running training, which is the material basis for exercise to give people a good feeling.
Dopamine is the momentary heartbeat, and endorphins are the longest. If dopamine is a stormy pleasure that comes and goes quickly, then the action of endorphins is gentle and long-lasting, allowing the human body to feel a sense of ease, warmth, intimacy, and calm.
This feeling does not necessarily mean the excitement and excitement of dopamine craving, but this warm feeling can be just as addictive.
Of course, the production of endorphins is very stingy, and you need to pay for hard work and sweat. The secretion of endorphins requires a certain exercise intensity and a certain amount of exercise time to make it secrete.
Previously, we thought that exercise for more than 30 minutes could effectively stimulate endorphin secretion, but this ASICS study tells us that 15 minutes of running may promote endorphin secretion.
Dopamine doesn't necessarily bring pleasure, it's just that the brain's "do it again" reward mechanism drives the enslavement of people. Endorphin production, on the other hand, is more active and healthy.
True happiness is to pay hard work, and the acquisition of this happiness is that endorphins are at work, so to achieve long-term happiness, we need continuous effort and progress.
The joy of running is often felt more strongly after running, this is not a timely pleasure, this is a compensation after paying, is a sense of achievement, and the achievement itself is not easy to obtain, can be easily obtained is not an achievement.
Therefore, some people have summed up endorphins, endorphins belong to the "first bitter and then sweet" type of substance, compared to dopamine addiction, endorphin addiction may be healthier and more positive.
summary
In a sense, exercise can promote the secretion of two happy substances, dopamine and endorphins, but their mechanisms of action are not the same.
The joy we feel at the beginning of the marathon is produced by dopamine, the ecstasy after successfully crossing the finish line is produced by dopamine and endorphins, and the satisfaction and achievement of runners in pursuit of a healthy lifestyle are the effects of endorphins.
Endorphin secretion doesn't necessarily require strenuous exercise, in fact, a 15-minute run may lead to endorphin secretion, run, because it is a source of happiness!
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