• by Todd Wasserman , March 30, 2022

Yes, we’ve all read the reports of studies that say exercise is good for your brain. It decreases anxiety. It helps you pay attention. It boosts brain health.

Now, Asics is attempting to measure the damage that avoiding exercise does to one’s brain. In this ad, via Virtue, a man explains the premise of the experiment: “We’re going to have this period of a week of exercise, then we’re going to move to this period of seven days of refraining from exercise.” Fair enough.

Asics then uses something called “The Mind Uplifter,” which captures the subjects’ state of mind during the period in which they are refraining from exercise. The trouble starts on day 1, when a woman complains that “I feel like I’m missing something” and a man whines that his body is “constantly craving, like, exercise.”

Things get worse from there. Some complain they can’t go to their happy place and that they just “can’t function like this.”

At this point, people who don’t exercise may be wondering what all the fuss is about. Surprisingly, the World Health Organization says that one in four people are “physically inactive, putting them at greater risk for diseases such as hypertension and diabetes," as reported in USA Today. 

Does that means the rest of us -- 75% of the world population -- is actually engaging in aerobic exercise?

I don’t buy it. Nor do I buy that these athletes were that traumatized by not exercising or that their “confidence levels dropped by 20%” or their “calmness decreased by 19%.”

That said, this ad is a powerful incentive to exercise, and might move a few people off the couch.