For what it's worth, I hurt my ankle from running too much 2 days ago. I took the day off yesterday from the usual 10km/6mile multi-session jog and the Adderall just didn't hit like it usually does. None of the usual mild-euphoria, intellectual endurance, cleaning fanaticism... it's as if the 'tolerance' woes that many of you speak of hit me like a ton of bricks.
Today on the other hand, I hit the treadmill twice and bada-bing, bada-boom, the magic's back. Tolerance isn't inevitable. If you want the magic past the initial free-lunch period, you have to work for it to work.
If you want to keep your receptor sites sensitive and amp up your brain's dopamine, forget about the memantine/DXM/Selegiline... (or at least don't regard supplement X/Y/Z as the primary answer).
Exercise, IS the ultimate nootropic. It has the power to do vastly more than pills and augment said pills tenfold in one fell swoop. It's the magic bullet that brings the Adderall magic day-in-day out without the need for taking any days off or elevating the dose.
If you want Adderall to work again like it used to, I challenge you to obtain a pedometer, ensure you get at least 10,000 steps a day with at least 2 sessions of fast walking/jogging/running, everyday for two weeks.
If your Adderall doesn't kickass again, call me out.
Is it because exercise upregulates dopamine receptors?
Well, :D I'm glad you asked. :D
It does far far more than just up-regulating dopamine receptors.
(For a very eloquent synopsis of what exercise does for brain, the book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain can do a far better job than I at detailing the benefits. I highly recommend downloading the audiobook somewhere if you aren't the reader type.
http://www.amazon.co..._pr_product_top
)
- Exercise boosts BDNF/IGF-1/Dopamine/Serotonin/Norepinephrine/'insert pretty much any positive brain chemical here' and it does so in a way that it's just the right amount in just the right place.
- It bulks up vascular infrastructure so more blood/nutrients/nootropics/drugs can reach more parts of the brain.
- It's a good form of stressor for newly born neurons that gives them a resistance to stress later on. So not only are they more likely to mature and stick around but also, when under emotional/physical strain, they have a much higher stress threshold so they can work as expected.
- Intense cardio releases endocannabinoids which is hypothesized to be what causes 'runners high'. So if you ever smoked pot in the past or currently do (not advisable), intense cardio can deliver similar feel good/mood effects.
Plus a whole lot more.
But back to your question and Adderall, yes, it up-regulates dopamine receptors and allows for even more of the drug to reach more parts of the brain... This is relevant to any drug or nootropic too. So if racetam X or research chemical Y isn't performing, cardio will augment it as well as take away the ever prevalent 'irritability', 'brain fog',' short term memory impairment' that people report.
So, what's the best form of exercise to get this? HIIT? Resistance training?