ASICS’ 2024 global State of Mind study, involving 26,000 participants, revealed a strong connection between sedentary behaviour and mental wellbeing with State of Mind scores declining the longer individuals remain inactive.

• (GLOBAL RESULT) Those who are sedentary for 10 to 12 hours a day reported a significantly lower State of Mind score of 62/100 versus those who were sedentary for only 4 to 6 hours a day (66/100).
• (UAE SPECIFIC) Those who are sedentary for 9 to 10 hours a day reported a significantly lower State of Mind score of 62/100 versus those who were sedentary for only 4 to 5 hours a day (67/100).
• (SAUDI ARABIA SPECIFIC) Those who are sedentary for 11 to 12 hours a day reported a significantly lower State of Mind score of 65/100 versus those who were sedentary for only 4 to 5 hours a day (77/100).

Further research into desk-based working found that after just two hours of continuous desk work State of Mind scores begin to drop and stress levels rise.

• Those who work for up to two hours continuously at their desk had a State of Mind score of 62/100, while those who work at their desk consecutively for 6 or more hours had a lower State of Mind score of 59/100.
• After four hours of uninterrupted desk-based working, stress scores rose significantly by 18% (from 49/100 to 58/100).
• Those who spend a full working day continuously at their desk (8 or more hours) report a 25% increase in stress levels compared to those who take a break after four hours of working at their desk.

However, ASICS’ new Desk Break experiment finds that just 15 minutes of movement can start to reverse these effects and help improve our mental wellbeing, stress levels and productivity.

• When sedentary desk-based workers added just 15 minutes of movement into their working day, participants’ average State of Mind scores increased by 22.5%.
• Average confidence levels increased by 13.3%, anxiety levels plummeted by 12% and perceived stress levels decreased by 14.7%. Objective stress levels, measured by heart-rate variability, also decreased by 13.3%.
• Productivity was boosted by 33.2% and focus improved by 28.6%, demonstrating the impact of just 15 minutes of exercise during the workday on performance.
• In fact, taking a daily Desk Break for just one week led to consistent stress reduction, with participants reporting feeling 33.3% more relaxed, 28.6% more calm and resilient.

As well as pinpointing the subjective mental effects of physical activity on desk-based workers, the experiment also studied objective data on the impact of movement on the brain using EEG scans of participants.

• Before exercise, and after 3 hours of desk-based working, the brain shows significant deficiencies in Theta and Alpha waves, indicating high levels of stress, anxiety and mental fatigue.
• After a 15-minute movement break, these deficiencies are reduced, showing exercise helps the brain relax, reduces anxiety, and re-energises mental processes.

Participants expressed the positive impact movement breaks would have on their loyalty to their workplace…

• 79.2% of participants expressed they would be more loyal to their job if offered regular movement breaks.
• When movement breaks were introduced, participants’ happiness at work increased by 24.7%.

Methodology

ASICS 2024 Global State of Mind Study

The ASICS Global State of Mind Study was conducted between 17 November – 21 December 2023 and surveyed over 26,000 people across 22 markets, exploring the relationship between exercise and State of Mind across the world.

The ASICS State of Mind score is out of 100, calculated based on the accumulative mean scores across ten cognitive and emotional traits – positive, content, relaxed, focused, composed, resilient, confident, alert, calm, energized.

Global State of Mind Study on Desk-Based Working

Global research was conducted in September 2024 to further explore the impact of daily and continuous desk work on our State of Mind. Over 7,000 desk-based workers were surveyed across US, UK, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, Germany and Brazil. Each market sample was nationally representative of age and gender. The study followed the same principles of the Global State of Mind Index with a focus on desk-based workers.

ASICS Desk Break Experiment

The ASICS Desk Break Experiment, led by Professor Brendon Stubbs of King’s College London and University of Vienna, a leading researcher in movement and the mind, invited desk-based workers from 16 countries to participate in a two-week experiment.

WHERE | Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA and the UAE.

WHO | Desk-based adult workers who spend over 6 hours a day working at their desk.

WHEN | July 15^th – July 26^th, 2024

THE EXPERIMENT | collected both subjective measures reported by participants (such as State of Mind, perceived stress, perceived productivity and focus), and objective measures recorded with a Fitbit (including stress score, step count and heart rate variability) and EEG (brain activity).

In week one, participants followed their regular work routine with no movement breaks during working hours. In week two, they were asked to exercise for 15 minutes after three to four hours of work. 

State of Mind score calculation | The State of Mind score is a score out of 100, calculated based on the accumulative mean scores across ten cognitive and emotional traits, each of which are scored out of 10.