So the new year begins – with turbulent global geopolitics and temperatures colder than the atmosphere after your family played Monopoly this Christmas. All things out of our control.
Something we can get a handle on this year is our health, and there’s no better time than January to set a precedent for this, with gym membership numbers increasing by almost five per cent in January last year, a month when resolutions are made – and, generally, stuck to.
We contacted some experts across the fitness and wellness space to give some pointers of easy ways to improve your health in 2026. As the old adage goes: start as you mean to go on.
Getty Images
The benefits of Lion’s Mane and other mushroom remedies for the mind and body are hardly breaking news. But the number of options for ways of consumption of functional mushrooms in 2026 is set to soar, with gummies, powders and matcha blends all now available. This year could be when functional mushrooms go mainstream – and perhaps for good reason, boasting fantastic benefits, including improved gut health, immune system support and heightened cognitive function.
Replacing your morning coffee with a Lion’s Mane blend might just give you the lift you need to face the morning. Andrew Salter, co-founder of DIRTEA and functional mushroom expert, says “mushroom coffees and superfood matcha blends sit at the centre of our movement, aligning with a broader health goal for 2026 – feeling productive, present, and resilient, not wired, and depleted.”
With much talk in 2025 around the link between muscle mass and lifespan — not to mention the protein brigade being particularly noisy — it may come as a surprise that cardio and VO₂ max testing are set to make a comeback in the coming months. Rhian Stephenson, nutritional therapist and founder of ARTAH, agrees, arguing there has been an oversight in the fitness world’s obsession with building muscle mass.
“Women have been moving away from cardio, which isn’t the answer,” says Stephenson. “This year, it’s about balance and specificity. Instead of spending hours doing aimless cardio, try a structured approach to improving your VO₂ max. VO₂ max is the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise. It directly measures cardiovascular, lung, and muscular efficiency in transporting and using oxygen for energy production, making it the most potent modifiable biomarker for longevity.”
Microplastics (Alex Hyde/Green Peace/PA)
PA Media
Microplastics, the invisible enemy found pretty much everywhere from water bottles to non-stick pans, became yet another bogeyman of health last year, being associated with increased cancer risk, inflammation and reproductive health issues. Don’t panic, however, in 2026 we’re going to start seeing more solutions to fight them. Through education and supplements, microplastic, or PFA, detoxification will be more commonplace and become a must for those concerned about the alarming health risks of this malevolent microscopic matter.
“‘Forever chemicals’ have hit the mainstream media, and widespread contamination of water, soil and food means most of us have detectable PFAS in our blood,” says Stepehenson. “There is growing evidence that dietary fibre intake, especially certain soluble fibres, can help reduce PFAS body burden in the body and blunt some of its impact. Simply put, if you can keep more PFAS in the poop, less is recirculated back to the body.”
Health diagnostics is a crowded market. Everywhere you look, you’ll be bombarded with the latest watch, ring or tracking device. But Brandon Dawson, co-founder of 10X Health, a health diagnostics company who offer at home tests, thinks we’ve got it all wrong: “In 2026, health optimisation should move beyond just steps, calories and wearables. The real breakthroughs will come from tracking the systems that actually generate energy, resilience and longevity — your mitochondria, your gut, your blood markers and your genetics.”
By taking a simple blood test, you’ll be able to receive all this key information and see what targeted, tailored exercise, nutrition or supplementation your body needs according to this cornerstone data. “When you understand how your body is producing energy, absorbing nutrients and responding at a cellular level, health stops being guesswork and becomes a strategy,” Dawson explains.
@dimitrisvetsikas1969/Pixabay
Fitness starts with mindset
People can forget that fitness doesn’t need to be a punishment. Elisa Grosso, head PT at UTURN fitness in London, is calling for people to have a more sustainable, long term approach to exercise in 2026. “The future of fitness is about helping people feel stronger, more capable, and more resilient in everyday life,” says Grosso. “Life inevitably disrupts routines.
The key to long term health is learning how to redirect – choosing to return with support, rather than giving up when things don’t go to plan.” So, if your rigorous gym attendance in January starts to fray come March, do not despair, there will still be plenty of time in the calendar to make up for it. Not worrying about it is half the battle and maintaining a positive mindset is half the battle.
