This study covered over 26,000 people from 22 countries, considering the relationship between exercise and state of mind across the world. There is a positive link between the mind and physical activity, and a direct link between exercise as a teenager and people’s state of mind as adults. The more people exercise the higher their state of mind scores, with the average Global State of Mind Score being 65/100. Lower activity levels have lower state of mind scores, and there are global differences, with the UK scoring 61/100.
Participating in physical activity during your teens particularly between the ages of 15-17 years is vital for lifelong exercise habits. 58% of people who regularly exercised between those ages continue to exercise regularly in later life, versus 53% who did not. Crucially those who were regularly active between those ages as teenagers, tend to report higher state of mind scores as adults. Furthermore each additional year a teenager remained active, meant an improved state of mind score in adulthood. An area of concern is teenagers tend to drop out of exercise earlier and therefore their state of mind scores are lowered. There is a gender exercise gap which means women report lower state of mind scores.
This highlights the importance of movement; 15 minutes and 9 seconds of activity can start to positively impact mental wellbeing, so Asics hope to inspire more people to lead active lives.
