There are two types of signals between your nervous system (the brain being part of the central nervous system) and your muscles

The first signal is carried from the brain down to your muscles (efferent messages) and

the second signal is carried by the receptors in your joints (afferent messages) and informs your nervous system about the body’s position in space. We will go back to this concept when we talk about how we can build powerful and resilient joints.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

Lets imagine again. Think of your neurons as a soccer team. Each player (each neuron) functions independently but belonging to a team. The process of passing the ball from one player to another (chemical messages, neurotransmitters) requires some connection. That’s how Neurotransmitters operate.

According to the neurological encyclopedia, the transmission of information from one neuron to another depends on the ability of the information to traverse the gap (also known as the synapse).

In this section, we will study how physical exercise can benefit the different neurotransmitters.

The ones we will study are: acetylcholine (ACh), dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine and endorphins .

The neurons depending on their action can be either excitatory (excite target neurons),inhibitory (inhibit target neurons) or modulatory (neuromodulation)

Pshychological benefits:

Serotonin:affects emotions, arousal, and sleep (INHIBIT,MODULATORY)

norepinephrine:influences wakefulness and arousal, as well as learning, memory, and emotional mood (EXCITE).

According to the Mayo clinic “Exercise fights depression by activating the neurotransmitters — chemicals used by your nerve cells to communicate with one another — associated with avoiding depression. Those neurotransmitters are serotonin and norepinephrine.”

Endorphins:reduce pain by inhibiting neurons that transmit pain messages to brain

In a recent article published on Pubmed.com “Beta-endorphin response to exercise” by Goldfarb AH, Jamurtas AZ.”Exercise of sufficient intensity and duration has been demonstrated to increase circulating beta-endorphin level”

Brain-Muscle benefits:

Dopamine : role in motor disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease, as well as Tourettes, Schizophrenia (INHIBIT,MODULATORY).

According to the Holistic online website, “Apart from increasing the oxygen supply to the brain, exercise may also slow down the loss of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps to prevent the shaking and stiffness that can come with old age. A severe shortage of dopamine results in the exaggerated tremors of Parkinson's disease. Dopamine decreases in the brain by about one percent a year from our mid-20s, and if we lived to be 100 years old, we would all appear to have Parkinson's disease. Since exercise can slow down dopamine loss, it is particularly beneficial, as we grow older. Exercise can also prevent our reaction times from slowing down.”

Brain and synapses benefits

Acetylcholine (ACH): role in arousal, attention, memory, skeletal muscles, motivation (EXCITE) Loss of –Alzheimer’s.

According to The Franklin Institute “When acetylcholine is released at a neuromuscular junction, it crosses the tiny space (synapse) that separates the nerve from the muscle. This initiates a chain of events that lead to muscle contraction”.