Provision of “NAGARA Exercises”*, a health program that aims to solve the problem of a lack of exercise, to corporations and local governments

According to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2020, one in every four adults and four in every five youths are not doing sufficient exercise and physical activities.

With the rise in teleworking brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors, a lifestyle with many hours spent sitting down and a sustained lack of exercise will have an adverse impact on health regardless of one’s age and generation. As companies becoming increasingly concerned about the deterioration of employees’ health due to the lack of exercise, there is also growing demand among companies to propose to their employees, as a part of their health management efforts, simple exercises that can be done at home or in the office.

To meet such social needs, we have harnessed our wealth of knowledge accumulated through the development of sporting goods and developed the “NAGARA Exercises”, which are exercises that can be done without the use of any special equipment or venue, and without especially taking time out for. Mizuno’s “NAGARA Exercises” offers a line-up of more than 200 simple exercises that can be done as a part of daily life, whilst doing work or engaged in other activities*. Even people who may feel unconnected to exercise in their everyday lives can join in the “NAGARA Exercises” easily and have fun doing it.

Since the launch of the “NAGARA Exercises”, we have received many requests from corporations and local governments in Japan that wish to address the health issues of their employees and citizens. To meet their specific demands, we have worked on improving and developing the program, such as by holding online training sessions and supporting the developing of unique exercise programs. In addition, a project that utilizes the “NAGARA Exercises” as a means of launching new sales promotion campaigns to consumers has also been favorably received, and has been adopted by more than 30 corporations and local governments to date.

Client corporations and local governments have appraised the program highly with comments such as “Participation rate was at its highest ever.” and “The degree of satisfaction with training sessions hit a record high.” Participants, too, showed great satisfaction through many positive comments such as “I enjoyed it and want to take part in the program again.”

Going forward, Mizuno will continue to contribute to health management through the development and provision of exercise programs that are tailored to the times and various needs, and help to bring about the realization of a society where more people can enjoy good health.

*Nagara is a Japanese expression that means “doing two things at the same time.”
https://www.mizuno.jp/fitness/nagara/