The Mind Uplifter™ Tool & How Sport Impacts the Mind | ASICS

Mind Uplifter™: How Sport Impacts the Mind

The power of movement through sports improves more than just your physical strength. Sports and exercise can have a positive impact on your mental state as well.

“It can help you cope with stress, help you sleep better and make you feel better,” says ASICS FrontRunner member Tina Darcel.

The ASICS Mind Uplifter™ tool benefits your workout by visually showing how sports can impact your wellbeing, allowing a greater connection to the sports you enjoy.

What is the Mind Uplifter™ tool?

The Mind Uplifter™ tool allows participants to see how sports impact their mind. This tool has users answer questions, in addition to reading their facial expressions and lines of their face shapes. By doing this pre-workout and post-workout, runners receive a score out of 100. The uplift is the percentage of how much your score increased between your pre-exercise score and post-exercise score.

The information collected is sorted by ten different emotional and cognitive categories including Confidence, Positivity, Calm and Focus.

“The Mind Uplifter™ tool made me think about my run differently, it helped me focus on why I was running and the results post run absolutely aligned to my feeling of calmness and contentment,” said ASICS FrontRunner member Chris Campion.

What is the goal of ASICS’ Uplifting Minds research?

The Uplifting Minds research is a global study that shows the relationship between athletic activity and mental health on a large scale. ASICS President and CEO Yasuhito Hirota explained that the goal of the Mind Uplifter™ tool is to “empower as many people as possible to experience the physical and mental benefits of movement."

Many global, local and virtual athletic events are added to the Mind Uplifter™ tool. This is to see how much uplift a given event achieves when users note that they’re participating in it. "By taking part in any number of our different events and activities running across the year, you’ll contribute to vital research to help us further understand the uplifting effect of sport on the mind,” Hirota said.

Determining how sport impacts the mind

ASICS has collaborated with bioinformatics company EMOTIV, along with London-based Dr. Brendon Stubbs (leading exercise and mental health researcher), for a study showing how the activity of sports impacts the brain. During a 6-month-span, the study used EEG and self-reported data to examine a group of 42 athletes.

Dr. Brendon Stubbs “The unique way in which we are applying our initial findings will eliminate the translation of this research for people everywhere to experience and reliably measure the uplifting power of sport like never before,” said Stubbs regarding the project.

Preliminary study and results overview

ASICS, EMOTIV and Dr. Brendon Stubbs gathered data using advanced EEG technology as well as self-reported data from runners before and after exercising. This research is ongoing.

The EEG study measured a series of brain pathways that influence emotional and mental functions. After a short amount of exercise, results showed that recreational athletes experienced greater cognitive and emotional uplift than the elite athletes involved in the project. The following results are preliminary:

• 13.4% increase in alertness.
• 15.9% increase in calmness.
• 14.3% increase in content emotions.
• 13.3% increase in relaxation.
• 11.4% increase in composure.
• 9.7% increase in energy.
• 2.9% increase in focus.

Uplifting one million minds

The Uplifting Minds project launched on Global Running Day 2021. Using the Mind Uplifter™ tool, runners all over the world can see the mental and emotional results of exercise.

Users can share their Mind Uplift on social media with the hashtag #UpliftingMinds.

“Exercise is the most transformative thing you can do for the brain. It improves mood, energy, memory and attention as well as provides long term health benefits,” said Lotta Kockum, a health expert and ASICS FrontRunner member.

How to participate in Uplifting Minds project

Runners from around the world can participate in the Uplifting Minds project on your smartphone or desktop by following the steps below.

1. Go to http://minduplifter.asics.com on your smartphone’s or desktop’s browser.

2. Scan your facial expression to read your emotional state.

3. Answer several short, scientifically-developed questions to gauge your brain function.

4. Complete at least 20 minutes of exercise.

5. Repeat steps two and three.

6. Review your Mind Uplift results.

7. Share the results on social media with #UpliftingMinds.

8. See how your results contribute to the World Uplift Map.

Mind Uplifter™ FAQ

The Mind Uplifter™ tool is changing the way exercise impacts athletes of all types. Here are a number of frequently asked questions about the tool.

Who created the Mind Uplifter™ tool?

The Mind Uplifter™ tool was developed with the assistance of Dr. Brendon Stubbs following a study from bioinformatics company, EMOTIV.

What is the World Uplift Map?

The World Uplift Map shows data from the Mind Uplifter™ tool. All users have the option to contribute their Mind Uplift results to the global research study and have them displayed on the World Uplift Map to see how others have been uplifted around the world.

Does Mind Uplifter™ store my data?

All information is submitted anonymously and nothing is stored without consent. Your facial scan will be used only to derive your Mind Uplift results and will not be stored by ASICS. View the privacy policies and terms of service for more information.