Bicycling--and other forms of vigorous exercise--changes brain chemistry, says John J. Ratey, M.D., author of Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain and an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Exercise increases the amount in your body of neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine, chemicals that allow neurons to communicate with one another. "They get a boost very quickly," Ratey says.
Scientists have long suspected that dopamine in particular plays a key role in fueling human drive. The theory is that the brain releases dopamine to spur behavior associated with survival, such as eating, having sex and winning money. Dopamine makes those experiences more salient and memorable--and more appealing, which motivates us to repeat them. So while our brains recognize that biking is fun, dopamine reinforces the point.
Notably, alcohol and nicotine trigger the release of dopamine into the same area of the brain that exercise does. "This particular pathway has been linked to reward and motivation, and it contributes to how we pursue healthy and unhealthy behavior," says Daniel McGehee, Ph.D., a neurobiologist at the University of Chicago Medical Center who studies the link between nicotine and dopamine.
It's possible to become hooked on the chemical changes that exercise brings about, Ratey says. Hard rides trigger human growth hormone, which he calls the body's "master craftsman," because it burns belly fat, adds muscle fiber and increases brain volume.
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