A recent study by footwear specialists ASICS has found that nearly three-quarters of people believe that society’s obsession with the perfect body is damaging our mental health.
80 per cent are demotivated by exercise transformation images and just under half of those who took part (48 per cent) feel insecure about their bodies after seeing ‘before and after’ images.
Regular physical activity is proven to improve mental health. It uplifts mood, improves sleep, helps manage stress and can also reduce the risk of depression.
The culture of exercise transformation pictures is putting people off exercising though. So a new ASICS campaign is out to change that.
It is setting out to challenge society’s focus on exercising for aesthetic transformations.
Supported by Doctor and TV Personality Dr Alex George, Creator and Philanthropist Jada Sezer, as well as TV Host and Professional Dancer Motsi Mabuse, ASICS is disrupting the before and after exercise picture format to highlight the transformative power of exercise on the mind.
A series of images shot by photographer Sophie Harris-Taylor show each celebrity before and after 15 minutes and 9 seconds of exercise, the length of time proven to lift our mental state.
There is, of course, no dramatic physical change between the two images, highlighting that not all exercise transformations are visible.
These pictures aim to challenge people’s perceptions of dramatic exercise transformations and encourage exercise for the mental health benefits, not purely the aesthetic.
“I have been on a real journey with exercise and the reasons why I do it,” said George.
“When I was younger, I really used exercise as a weapon, to try and look thin, to look a certain way. When I went on Love Island a few years later, I was over training, and it wasn’t good for my mental health. Now, I’ve changed the way I view exercise and it’s really helped my mental health. I move for my mind, rather than to look a certain way.”
The research by ASICS found that 82 per cent of women agree that society’s obsession with the perfect body is bad for people’s mental health and an additional 64 per cent of women agree that body transformation images should be banned from social media.
Asics is a member of Sport for Business and throughout the month of November, we will be looking at a number of different areas in this interesting campaign.
