Asics: The Desk Break

Ahead of World Mental Health Day, ASICS has enlisted acclaimed actor Brian Cox, known for his fearsome role as Logan Roy in HBO’s Succession, to deliver a warning to the world to get away from their desks and move for their mental health in a powerful Public Service Announcement (PSA). The Desk Break experiment, overseen by Dr Brendon Stubbs from King’s College London, found that when office workers added just 15 minutes of movement into their working day, their mental state improved by 22.5% with participants’ overall State of Mind scores increasing from 62/100 to 76/100. The experiment showed that taking a daily Desk Break for just one week lowered stress levels by 14.7%, boosted productivity by 33.2% and improved focus by 28.6%. Participants reported feeling 33.3% more relaxed and 28.6% more calm and resilient. 79.2% of participants said they would be more loyal to their employers if offered regular movement breaks. In the PSA, Cox plays the role of the world’s scariest boss to highlight the silent threat to our mental health—the desk we work at every day. The PSA calls on office workers to reject so-called wellbeing perks, such as free fruit and “Wellness Wednesdays“. Instead, the PSA calls on office workers to put their mental health first by taking a Desk Break, a short movement break, during work hours.