Need reminding how powerful women really are? As more of us step into the world of endurance sport, the very mindset behind wellness is being rewritten. Here’s what the experts have to say.
There was a time when wellness was synonymous with stillness, conjuring up images of yoga classes conducted in hear-your-own-breath type silences. Fitness, meanwhile, lived in a separate category. It was louder, faster and, let’s be honest, sweatier, too. (It was also, in many ways, dominated by men).
But as more and more women challenge themselves through endurance sport, with booming interest in everything from marathons to Ironmans, those boundaries are becoming less defined.
Most importantly, though, this shift is not about fitness becoming softer or more feminine. Instead, new and powerful questions are being asked of the broader health and wellbeing category – helping push the whole industry forward. The focus: not simply how we train, or even how we recover – but how we sustain our health and energy as women, throughout our lives.
“In 2026, consumers are increasingly focused on optimising their everyday lives, taking control of their wellbeing to become the best versions of themselves – mentally, physically and emotionally,” says the head of wellness at Boots, Kirstie Thorley-Mitchell. “While everyone’s training goals are different, the idea of performing at our peak has never felt more attainable.”
That sense of possibility – of peak performance not as an extreme, but as something accessible and ultimately enjoyable – is reshaping the wellness industry from the inside out. And women, in particular, are driving its evolution.
Here’s what the experts have to say about the future of ‘running like a girl’.
A new era for recovery
Credit: Third Space
Let’s start with a shocking statistic: Did you know that only 10 per cent of current fitness research actually includes women? That means, almost all of what we think we know about training is built on the physiology of men.
And that data gap is not just a problem for representation – it’s been skewing how the industry has been viewing female fitness and recovery for generations. Now, as more and more women enter performance spaces, the pressure is on for that, finally, to change.
“Women are training harder, pushing further, and operating at incredibly high levels, but the recovery conversation hasn’t always evolved with them,” says the director of wellness at Six Senses London, Taffryn Kinsey Ellis. “Female physiology is different to men’s. Hormonal cycles, stress responses, and energy patterns all play a role in how the body recovers, so what works for men doesn’t always translate.”
“From a physiological perspective, recovery supports muscle repair, hormonal balance, nervous system regulation, injury prevention, and cognitive clarity for everyone. But for women, it carries an added layer of intelligence,” adds the UK yoga lead at Virgin Active, Vanessa Hatton Riveiro. “Our physiology is cyclical, not linear. Hormones like oestrogen and progesterone influence energy, tissue repair, temperature regulation, and stress response. That means our recovery isn’t fixed – it shifts across the month and throughout different life stages.”
That’s hugely significant because to give greater awareness to the role of hormone health in our fitness and wellness routines (and we definitely need to), we have to start ripping up the old rulebook on what being ‘fit and well’ looks like. As Hatton Riveiro summarises: when powered by a female-first focus, “recovery is no longer passive; it has to be strategic.”
“As training loads increase, so too does awareness of the physiological stress placed on the body – from muscular microtrauma to hormonal fluctuations that can uniquely affect women,” affirms the integrative aesthetic doctor and GP Dr Shabana Daya. It has long been overlooked, for example, that prolonged training can lead to chronically elevated cortisol (your stress hormone), a particular problem for women, as this “can disrupt production of oestrogen and progesterone by suppressing the hormonal signals that drive their release,” reveals Dr Daya.
The best way to avoid that? It’s simple: give yourself time to relax and rest.
But that’s a more powerful statement than you might think. It ultimately means recovery cannot be viewed as simply about easing soreness or improving performance in the short term anymore – and it never should have been, especially for women. Recovery and the wellness practices that power it become a critical tool for protecting long-term hormonal health.
That reframing, “has brought a parallel shift in how recovery is perceived,” says Dr Daya. “It’s no longer an afterthought, but an integral, even aspirational, part of performance and wellbeing.” And, the industry is having to adapt to keep up: “the modern individual is curious, and they want to understand what’s happening in their body and why something works,” continues Kinsey Ellis. “So spas [and gyms] need to move beyond just offering treatments; they need to offer insight, guidance, and real outcomes.”
That refocus is pushing wellness innovation forward.
Wellness as lifestyle, not escape
Credit: Third Space
Gone, too, are the days when wellness was something you dipped into briefly – a spa day here, a yoga class there – before returning to ‘real life’ more or less unchanged. There has been a broader recalibration of how we define progress – especially as women balancing health and wellbeing in the midst of our busy lives.
“What we’re seeing is a move towards intentional recovery. Guests are thinking about how they sleep, how they eat, how they move, and how they recover as part of a bigger picture,” says Kinsey Ellis. “It’s no longer about switching off for a moment; it’s about sustaining energy, clarity, and resilience over time.”
Most significantly, this ‘bigger picture’ approach means wellness has been reframed as something proactive, rather than a reactive ‘nice to have’, or a desperate measure when our lives simply get too much.
“Rest is no longer something we earn after burnout – it’s something we build into how we live, move, and train. The shift from intensity to longevity means the ‘no days off’ mindset is also giving way to something more sustainable: training for life, not just for output,” agrees Hatton Riveiro.
What’s emerging, too, is a cultural rebalancing of where wellness sits in our broader routines: “For years, recovery sat in the shadow of performance – the quiet afterthought to the ‘real’ work. But as more women step into endurance sports, strength training, and high-performance lifestyles, the conversation has matured: it’s no longer just about how hard you can push, but how well you can restore,” continues Hatton Riveiro. “Recovery hasn’t suddenly appeared – practices like restorative yoga, breathwork, and nervous system regulation have been around for decades. The difference now is perception. What was once seen as optional, even indulgent, is being reframed as essential and elevated into something that feels both effective and desirable.”
Across gyms, hotels and wellness spaces, the same pattern is therefore emerging: integration over separation. Recovery is becoming part of the workout itself – embedded into class schedules, programming, and gym spaces.
“Recovery is no longer an afterthought – it’s an essential part of performance, particularly as more women look for smarter, more holistic ways to support their bodies,” agrees Raffaele Ruicco, general manager at The Westin London City. Through initiatives like RunWESTIN, the hotel’s run club, for example, movement and recovery are combined into a single experience with wellness drinks, massage tools and compression treatments all built into the ritual. “It’s about giving runners the tools to recover well, feel stronger, and ultimately enjoy the experience more.”
“The shift from ‘train harder’ to ‘recover smarter’ reflects a growing awareness that performance, longevity and hormonal health all depend on how well we rest,” agrees the UK nutrition and wellness lead for Virgin Active, Becky Townsend. “At the same time, recovery has had a luxury upgrade. Think less obligatory stretching, more infrared saunas, ice baths, compression therapy and beautifully designed wellness spaces. What was once functional is now experiential – part ritual, part reset.”
Beyond muscles: the nervous system era awaits
Credit: Third Space
Perhaps the most profound shift, though, is this: fitness is no longer just about the body.
“Fatigue isn’t just physical – it’s neurological,” says Hatton Riveiro. And, as this understanding takes hold, “the conversation has expanded beyond muscles and into the nervous system, so practices that support downregulation – shifting the body out of ‘fight or flight’ and into ‘rest and digest’ – are becoming central to our fitness and wellbeing routines.”
The result is firstly a shift in thinking; one that reflects the idea that you can’t exercise your body optimally without supporting your mind. But, there’s wider consequences too, including the creation of a whole new category of training.
Rather than focusing purely on physical output, this new approach takes into account your ‘total stress load’, working to control it through activities that regulate your body’s internal state, while you still pursue your endurance activities. The aim is simple: to help you both perform and relax more effectively. But it’s telling that the practices that are most commonly utilised in this approach – from breathwork-led classes, restorative yoga, parasypathetic activation techniques such as yoga Nidra and sound baths, and multi-sensory approaches such as contrast therapy – are currently wellness activities predominantly loved already by women. (Now it’s men and the broader fitness industry that are catching up).
“The nervous system, sleep and nutrition are where everything begins,” agrees Kinsey Ellis. “If you’re not sleeping well or fuelling your body properly, recovery can’t happen. At Six Senses, we focus on helping guests regulate their nervous system, improve sleep quality, and understand how to eat in a way that supports energy and repair. Breathwork, sleep programmes and nutritional guidance all play a role here. Then, we look at physical recovery to support the body more directly, for example, through cryotherapy, compression, infrared and flotation therapies, which help reduce inflammation, support muscle recovery, and speed up repair – particularly for those training or travelling frequently.”
In this context, recovery is no longer treated as a single activity, but as a system with multiple entry points that you can choose depending on what you need and what works best for you. And, “what’s been most interesting is the shift in mindset over the last year. People aren’t just attending these wellness sessions as an add-on – they’re recognising them as essential,” concludes Hatton Riveiro.
Ultimately, one thing is certain, then. The future of wellness is not about doing more – but about doing things differently and women are taking the lead. And in doing so, we are not just changing how we interact with fitness. We are redefining wellness entirely.
Becki Murray is Citizen Femme’s Beauty and Wellness Director. As one of the only UK journalists to hold a Distinction-grade diploma in cosmetic science, she combines her unique knowledge with an editor’s eye to help you make smarter choices about beauty, wellbeing, and aesthetics. Becki also heads up CF’s spa guide so you could say she’s an expert in the science of relaxation too…
We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
Lead image: Third Space
