An fMRI study on runner’s high and exercise-induced hypoalgesia after a 2-h-run in trained non-elite male athletes

While elite long-distance runners experience hypoalgesia and sometimes runner’s high after running, these phenomena are rarely explored in non-elite runners. Therefore, we examined the effect of a 2-h-run on mood and pain processing in 15 non-elite male runners using repeated painful and nonpainful pinprick stimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Pain ratings, pressure pain stimulus responses, and euphoria ratings were...