Have you ever planned to work out but just couldn’t get motivated? Or forced yourself to exercise but it just felt like a tedious chore?
You know exercise is critical for good health. And you have every intention of keeping yourself healthy. But it can be hard to work yourself up to get in a good workout.
But imagine if you could flip a “magic switch” and automatically turn on your motivation… Where you not only find yourself going to the gym easily and consistently, but you truly enjoy it… And even look forward to it!
Thanks to some groundbreaking research, that could be your new reality. Because the answer to flipping this script from chore to joy may already be inside you.
Quick Answer: If you struggle to get motivated to exercise, part of the answer may be in your gut. Motivation is driven largely by dopamine, your brain’s reward chemical, and research shows that about half of your dopamine supply is produced with the help of your gut microbiome. Certain gut bacteria even activate the dopamine signaling tied to a sense of reward from physical activity. When the gut is out of balance, a state called dysbiosis, dopamine production and signaling can drop off. Supporting a balanced microbiome with spore probiotics and targeted prebiotic fiber is a simple way to help keep this motivation-and-reward system running smoothly.
What Drives Your Motivation and Reward System?
Your motivation and reward system centers on dopamine, a neurotransmitter known as your brain’s reward chemical. Along with driving motivation and pleasure, dopamine is involved in mood, memory, attention, learning, and movement.
Your body has a built-in system that drives your motivation and fuels your brain with joyful mood boosts. It centers on a neurotransmitter called dopamine, aka: your “reward” chemical.(1) And while it’s best known for making you feel pleasure and ramping up your drive and enthusiasm, dopamine is also involved in lots of other functions including:(2)
- Memory
- Mood
- Attention
- Learning
- Movement
- Sleeping and waking
- Behavior
Dopamine plays an important role in survival. Scientifically speaking, it rewards us for doing things people need to do to survive: eat, drink, reproduce, etc.
When you’re doing something that feels good, dopamine activates and floods your brain with pleasure signals so you’ll do that thing again. And when your body is producing and using dopamine optimally, you’ll feel happy and motivated.
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How Does Gut Health Affect Motivation?
Your gut plays a major role in motivation because about half of your dopamine supply is produced with the help of your gut microbiome. Certain gut bacteria even activate the dopamine signaling tied to a sense of reward from exercise.
If all paths to getting and staying motivated lead through dopamine, that begs the question: How do you optimize your body’s dopamine production? The answer, it turns out, is in your gut.
Around 50% of your dopamine supply is produced by your gut microbiome.(3)
New research shows that the gut microbiome – the trillions of bacteria in the gut – plays a key role in dopamine production and activation.
In one groundbreaking study on the impact of dopamine and motivation to exercise,(4) researchers looked at mice voluntarily running on treadmills. The mice who got tired quickly and spent less time running had unbalanced gut bacteria. The mice who ran the longest had healthier guts… and more dopamine production rewarding their brains for doing exercise.
Fascinatingly, certain gut bacteria activate dopamine signaling that triggers a sense of pleasure and reward from exercise and prolonged physical activity. Without those beneficial bacteria, there’s just no motivation to work out… and no enjoyment when you do.
So clearly, your gut bacteria is a crucial part of the picture, but that’s not all. Gut bacteria ALSO help your body maintain the right amount of dopamine it needs.(5) In fact, your bacteria assist in creating dopamine while simultaneously producing enzymes that break down dopamine and make it usable.
Plus, your gut bacteria make sure your brain gets the message that dopamine is accessible and ready to distribute throughout your body. That’s because your gut microbiome communicates with your brain over the gut-brain axis, a two-way pathway that sends messages back and forth.(6)
But here’s the thing: When your gut is full of the wrong bacteria… or not enough of the right bacteria… those messages get garbled. And dopamine production and utilization can drop off dramatically.
Can a Gut Imbalance Lower Your Dopamine?
Yes. When the gut is in a state of dysbiosis, harmful pathogens outnumber beneficial bacteria and do not support normal dopamine production, which can leave you feeling unmotivated and finding it harder to feel pleasure.
A healthy gut microbiome is full of a diverse population of beneficial probiotic bacteria. But it’s very easy to knock that microbiome out of balance. A single course of antibiotics… a junk food diet… a stressful day… any of those can create an unbalanced gut, a condition called dysbiosis.
When your gut is in a state of dysbiosis, harmful pathogens outnumber beneficial probiotics. The harmful bacteria don’t support normal dopamine production.(7) In fact, dysbiosis is known to do quite the opposite. Studies even show that dysbiosis can worsen or cause neurodegenerative conditions linked to dopamine deficits (like Parkinson’s disease).(8)
So if you’ve been feeling unmotivated and having a hard time feeling pleasure, it’s time to have a look at what’s going on in your gut.
How Do You Keep Your Gut in Balance?
Keeping your gut in healthy balance takes two steps: send in a fresh supply of beneficial bacteria with spore probiotics, then nourish them with targeted prebiotic fiber such as FOS and GOS.
Getting and keeping your gut microbiome in healthy balance takes two important steps:
Step 1: Send in a fresh supply of helpful bacteria.
One of the quickest ways to crowd out the bad bacteria is by sending in some probiotic reinforcements. Unfortunately, taking any old probiotic won’t do the trick here. It takes a particularly hardy type – spore probiotics – to quickly transform your gut microbiome.
Strains like Bacillus subtilis HU58™ naturally produce defensive compounds that chase away unwanted bacteria. Bacillus coagulans, another powerful spore probiotic, promotes healthy growth of a wide variety of beneficial bacteria.
Another benefit: Spore probiotics have a unique protective casing that helps them survive stomach acid and other hazards. And unlike “regular” probiotics that need to be refrigerated, spore probiotics easily withstand the high temperatures of your digestive tract. And, some strains of spore probiotics are so resilient, they can survive past your stomach acid unharmed and make it to your gut 100% alive and ready to go to work.
Step 2: Nourish probiotic bacteria with targeted prebiotics.
To support a flourishing probiotic population in your gut microbiome, you need to nourish them with prebiotic fiber – their preferred food. But not any old prebiotics will do. Specific prebiotics such as FOS (fructooligosaccharides)(9) and GOS (Galactooligosaccharides)(10) support beneficial bacteria and increase diversity for a healthy, well-balanced gut microbiome.
Taking these two simple steps can keep your gut microbiome in optimal shape, providing the support your body needs for optimal dopamine production… so you can feel motivated and happy.
Frequently Asked Questions About Gut Health and Motivation
How is gut health connected to workout motivation?
Motivation is driven largely by dopamine, and about half of your dopamine supply is produced with the help of your gut microbiome. Certain gut bacteria activate dopamine signaling tied to a sense of reward from exercise, so a balanced gut can help you feel more motivated to move.
What is dopamine?
Dopamine is a neurotransmitter often called the brain’s reward chemical. Besides driving motivation and pleasure, it is involved in mood, memory, attention, learning, movement, and sleep.
How does an unbalanced gut affect dopamine?
When the gut is in a state of dysbiosis, harmful pathogens outnumber beneficial bacteria and do not support normal dopamine production. This can lead to reduced dopamine production and signaling, which may leave you feeling unmotivated.
How can I support a balanced gut for more motivation?
A two-step approach helps: send in a fresh supply of beneficial bacteria with spore probiotics, then nourish them with targeted prebiotic fiber such as FOS and GOS. Together these help keep the microbiome in healthy balance.
Why spore probiotics instead of regular probiotics?
Spore probiotics have a protective casing that helps them survive stomach acid and heat, so some strains reach the gut alive and ready to work, unlike many standard probiotics that need refrigeration.
Just Thrive Gut Health Products
Get Motivated With Just Thrive
You want to be healthy… and exercise is an important part of that. Helping yourself stay motivated will go a long way toward meeting your health and fitness goals.
And so will keeping your gut microbiome in healthy balance, full of dopamine-supportive beneficial bacteria.
You can keep your microbiome balanced with Just Thrive Probiotic and Precision PREbiotic.
Just Thrive Probiotic contains four clinically studied strains of spore probiotics including:
- Bacillus subtilis HU58™
- Bacillus clausii
- Bacillus coagulans
- Bacillus indicus HU36™
Precision PREbiotic contains a blend of clinically-test prebiotics:
- Fructooligosaccharides (FOS)
- Galactooligosaccharides (GOS)
- Xylooligosaccharides (XOS)
This two-step plan can help support and nourish a healthy gut microbiome… and keep you feeling great and going strong.
Try Just Thrive Probiotic and Precision PREbiotic today to keep yourself motivated, happy, and healthy… And when you bundle both together – with the Just Thrive Core Health bundle – you’ll save 15% off the retail price!
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We’re betting you’ll love how you feel… But if for any reason you don’t feel a difference, you can ask for a full product refund at any time… Whether it’s been 3 months or 3 years later. Even if the bottle is empty!
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Sources
- Bromberg-Martin ES, Matsumoto M, Hikosaka O. Dopamine in motivational control: rewarding, aversive, and alerting. Neuron. 2010 Dec 9;68(5):815-34. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.022. PMID: 21144997; PMCID: PMC3032992.
- Juárez Olguín H, Calderón Guzmán D, Hernández García E, Barragán Mejía G. The Role of Dopamine and Its Dysfunction as a Consequence of Oxidative Stress. Oxid Med Cell Longev. 2016;2016:9730467. doi: 10.1155/2016/9730467. Epub 2015 Dec 6. PMID: 26770661; PMCID: PMC4684895.
- Xue R, Zhang H, Pan J, Du Z, Zhou W, Zhang Z, Tian Z, Zhou R, Bai L. Peripheral Dopamine Controlled by Gut Microbes Inhibits Invariant Natural Killer T Cell-Mediated Hepatitis. Front Immunol. 2018 Oct 17;9:2398. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02398. PMID: 30386344; PMCID: PMC6199378.
- Dohnalová L, et al. A microbiome-dependent gut-brain pathway regulates motivation for exercise. Nature. 2022 Dec;612(7941):739-747.
- Han W, et al. A Neural Circuit for Gut-Induced Reward. Cell. 2018 Oct 18;175(3):665-678.e23.
- Hamamah S, Aghazarian A, Nazaryan A, Hajnal A, Covasa M. Role of Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis in Regulating Dopaminergic Signaling. Biomedicines. 2022 Feb 13;10(2):436.
- González-Arancibia C, Urrutia-Piñones J, Illanes-González J, Martinez-Pinto J, Sotomayor-Zárate R, Julio-Pieper M, Bravo JA. Do your gut microbes affect your brain dopamine? Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2019 May;236(5):1611-1622. doi: 10.1007/s00213-019-05265-5. Epub 2019 May 17. PMID: 31098656.
- Huang Y, Liao J, Liu X, Zhong Y, Cai X, Long L. Review: The Role of Intestinal Dysbiosis in Parkinson's Disease. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2021 Apr 22;11:615075. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.615075. PMID: 33968794; PMCID: PMC8100321.
- Mao B, Gu J, Li D, Cui S, Zhao J, Zhang H, Chen W. Effects of Different Doses of Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) on the Composition of Mice Fecal Microbiota, Especially the Bifidobacterium Composition. Nutrients. 2018 Aug 16;10(8):1105. doi: 10.3390/nu10081105. PMID: 30115879; PMCID: PMC6115998.
- Azcarate-Peril MA, Ritter AJ, Savaiano D, Monteagudo-Mera A, Anderson C, Magness ST, Klaenhammer TR. Impact of short-chain galactooligosaccharides on the gut microbiome of lactose-intolerant individuals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017 Jan 17;114(3):E367-E375. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1606722113. Epub 2017 Jan 3. PMID: 28049818; PMCID: PMC5255593.
