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Can just 20 minutes of running boost your mood and your brain power? You bet it can! And we’re not just saying that because we like nothing better than to head off-road for an hour or so. In fact, researchers at King's College London teamed up with shoe brand Asics to answer this question and came up with some pretty sensational findings.
The research team, led by Dr Brendon Stubbs, explored the relationship between running and brain power and mental health, by testing participants in a natural environment. By using EEG technology (an electroencephalogram, or EEG, recording of brain activity), the researchers took five elite athletes and seven everyday runners out of the lab and recorded the impact that running for 20 minutes had on their cognitive and emotional function.
This research shows that with just 20 minutes of running you can have meaningful improvements in memory and in cognitive function. The team proved that, through running, you can reduce people’s impulsivity and improve their relaxation, reduce frustration and build up stress resilience.
Dr Brendon Stubbs says, “It is impossible to overstate just how significant the impact sport and exercise have on our mind. It’s absolutely vital that people regularly move their body to experience those all-important cognitive and emotional benefits for themselves. Never has there been a more important time to become active and experience the mental health benefits sport and movement bring.”
“What is really exciting is that we have shown that it is possible to take research outside the lab and measure real-world changes in people’s brain before and after they have exercised and engaged in physical activity.
The next stage for this is to replicate this study with a larger sample of people so we can further validate and demonstrate the cognitive and emotional uplift across different samples of people, and to also include people who are not used to running, to see if there are greater benefits for them. Furthermore, there may be certain times of day or certain forms of running which are beneficial for you as an individual, so personalised exercise, such as trail running, to help across those mental well-being issues could be explored for particular demographics.”
It's particularly exciting research given the lockdown drama we’ve all endured. Gary Raucher at Asics said, “We know Covid has put even more pressure on our wellbeing. We also know and believe that sport and movement can lift spirits. For us, 2021 is about unlocking the unique power of sport to uplift our minds. That starts with encouraging people everywhere to move with us at sunrise as we commit to our philosophy of 'sound mind, sound body.”
The cold hard facts are super. The evidence from the findings showed that, for all athletes, improvements in emotional and cognitive functioning were objectively noticeable. Additionally, for everyday athletes (those doing 150 minutes of exercise per week) 20 minutes of running improved stress resilience by 28%, and how they handle frustration also improved by over 100% compared to when not running.
Furthermore, when it came to brain pathways associated with cognitive performance, the everyday athlete again demonstrated a significant uplift after 20 minutes of running. This included up to a 26% increase in brain processing speed, up to a 21% improvement in memory, and as much as a 58% reduction in levels of cognitive stress.
This article originally appeared in a 2021 issue of the former Trail Running Magazine.
About the author
Stuart Haw is a Lecturer in Health Studies, researching and educating on how sport organisations and community assets can contribute to improved health outcomes and more equitable participation. Much of his work examines governance, community involvement, and the challenges faced by organisations delivering local health and physical activity initiatives.
Alongside his academic role, he competes in endurance events and trail running, having competed internationally for 5 years, reaching the 2026 Ultra Trail World Finals. Being active within the environments he study provides an additional perspective on performance, participation, and the realities of both high performance and community sport systems in practice.
