Your Next Creative Tool: Sneakers
Brains that move make better stuff. Stop sitting there sweating the brief and try straight up sweating, period.
35 studies. 3,000 people. One clear takeaway.
We tend to associate ideation, especially in the high-velocity marketing world, with sitting down at the desk to grind. But the research says: not so fast. Or, rather, get faster.
A recent meta-analysis of 35 studies, covering more than 3,000 participants, found that physical activity has a consistent, measurable, and significant effect on creative thinking. People who moved—walked, danced, jogged, stretched—came up with more original, more adaptable, and just plain more ideas than those who stayed still.
Creative performance improved by nearly 50% in participants who engaged in daily, habitual movement.
Don’t go to the gym regularly? You can still benefit from this science. Even one-time activity sessions—a short walk, a single workout—sparked a noticeable creative lift.
The effect cut across all ages, all types of tasks, and all kinds of idea evaluation metrics. So whether you’re brainstorming taglines or designing a campaign flow, movement appears to be a universal creative enhancer.
This builds on earlier work—like the 2014 Stanford study that had participants come up with novel uses for everyday objects while walking or sitting. The result? Walkers generated 60% more creative ideas than sitters. And the effect held even after they sat back down.
In both the metaanalysis and Stanford study, movement didn’t just help people think of more things. It helped them think differently. Their ideas were more divergent, flexible, and resonant.
So what’s behind the boost?
Researchers point to several interwoven systems:
Psychological: Physical activity improves mood and reduces stress, two things known to free up mental space for play, risk-taking, and insight.
Cognitive: Movement enhances executive functioning, memory, and attention, thereby harpening your ability to generate and evaluate ideas.
Physiological: Exercise increases blood flow to the brain and releases neurochemicals like Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), a protein that plays a major role in brain health and function
At Playstorming, we’re not surprised by any of this. We’ve always believed that good ideas come from alive systems—and that includes the body. Creativity doesn’t live in the intellect alone. It lives in rhythm, breath, bounce, even imbalance. Letting your mind wander while your body moves forward towards the solution.
So the next time you’re stuck, don’t push harder at the desk. Go for a walk. Move through the block. You’ll come back clearer, looser, and—odds are—with something worth writing down.
Keep on walkin’ the walk,
The Playstorming Lab
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Citation:
Rominger C, Schneider M, Fink A, Tran US, Perchtold-Stefan CM, Schwerdtfeger AR. Acute and Chronic Physical Activity Increases Creative Ideation Performance: A Systematic Review and Multilevel Meta-analysis. Sports Med Open. 2022 May 6;8(1):62. doi: 10.1186/s40798-022-00444-9. PMID: 35523914; PMCID: PMC9076802.
Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: The positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 40(4), 1142–1152. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036577