Harness the happiness

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter and one you might know as the ‘happy hormone’, as alongside its hormonal henchmen serotonin, oxytocin and endorphins, it’s released during exercise and, ultimately, stimulates feelings of euphoria.

Dopamine also plays a key role in the thermoregulatory centre of your brain, which is why changes in dopamine concentrations have been shown to affect core temperature regulation during exercise. “This is important because temperature affects motor behaviour – how much power you can generate, for instance – so the higher your dopamine levels, in theory the longer and harder you can ride,” said former professional cyclist and sports-scientist Lieselot Decroix.

“The dopamine effect has been neglected in endurance exercise,” Stealth Nutrition founder Tim Lawson told us when we were back in the UK. “There’s research that if you block dopamine production, endurance falls off the end of the cliff. The things is, anything addictive has a dopamine effect. That might explain how a last-minute cola works – something you often see cyclists do in search of more energy. In my opinion there’s not enough sugar or caffeine to elicit a real performance effect; instead, I think that last-minute surge is down to that dopamine effect.”

In essence, a dopamine hit can make exercise feel easier, thereby enabling you to dig deeper and ride faster. The problem is, dopamine is synthesised in the body so you can’t simply neck a can of dopamine. But there are foods that are broken down and synthesised into dopamine. These include the amino acids L-theanine and tyrosine, fish oil and the phospholipid ‘phoshatidylserine’. Expect to see a gel swimming in tyrosine very soon!