{"id":193275,"date":"2023-06-29T07:27:09","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T07:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=193275"},"modified":"2023-06-29T07:27:09","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T07:27:09","slug":"whether-exercise-feels-easy-or-hard-may-be-up-to-your-dopamine-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2023\/06\/29\/whether-exercise-feels-easy-or-hard-may-be-up-to-your-dopamine-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Whether Exercise Feels Easy or Hard May Be Up to Your Dopamine Levels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dopamine, a brain chemical usually linked with joy, desire, and reward, also seems to be crucial in shaping how we perceive physical effort. This insight came from a study involving Parkinson’s disease patients, conducted at Johns Hopkins University. Parkinson’s is ideal for studying dopamine because it\u2019s characterized by a gradual loss of dopamine-producing brain cells.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Perceived effort determines if you\u2019ll exercise again<\/strong><\/h2>\n

We know that people can perceive their effort during physical activity differently and this perceived effort makes has an impact on how likely are people to do an activity again. Previous studies have shown that people with increased dopamine are more willing to exert physical effort for rewards, but the current study focuses on dopamine’s role without the promise of a reward.<\/p>\n

Testing grip strength with and without dopamine<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For this new study,<\/a> 19 adults (10 men, 9 women) with Parkinson’s disease and an average age of 67 were recruited. They were asked to perform a grip strength test on 2 different days.<\/p>\n