2024 Wellness Trends: Psychedelics, AI Coaching, Ozempic, Recovery + MORE

Written by Kate Hector

With the new year comes new opportunities to commit to your wellness, and lots of new ideas on how to best stay motivated and inspired. We’ve compiled a list of the top 10 wellness trends that will keep you on the right track in 2024. Whether it is AI coaching, psychedelics or strength training, these wellness trends will help your mind and body stay at their best.

AI Coaching

Artificial Intelligence or AI is a hot topic of conversation in just about every industry, and health and wellness is certainly no exception. AI Coaching options on strength, endurance and even nutrition have increased in popularity and will only continue to improve.

Some more advanced services for AI coaching allow you to select a goal or a plan, and provide a training plan to help you reach your goals. Other options are more random workout generators that can provide a workout based on the parameters you provide (time, difficulty, readiness to train).

AI options for strength training include Weightlifing.AI, Dan John University, and Juggernaut.AI, all around $30 per month. For those focused on endurance exercise, AI options include: AI Endurance for running, cycling and triathlon, VeloPro for cycling. TriDot and TrainerRoad both use AI or machine learning for some aspects of their platform but not for the generation of the entire training plan.

Nutrition is where AI has really taken off already, there are dozens of meal planning or nutrition apps using AI to make your grocery list or generate recipes. Prospre, Foodzilla.io and Meal Mate are just a few of many options.

These AI tools are exciting and can be fun to experiment with, but they won’t be able to provide the personalized feedback that a real human can give you. If your budget allows it, working with a personal trainer, coach or dietitian will always beat out the AI options.

Continuous Glucose Monitoring

Wearable technology has gotten even more sophisticated recently with continuous glucose monitoring options available for anyone, not

just those with diabetes. Continuous glucose monitoring gives insight into your metabolic health, and can show you in real time how your body is reacting to certain foods by measuring your blood sugar.

Continuous glucose monitoring includes a sensor usually placed on the back of your arm that connects to an app that will show you blood sugar levels throughout the day, provide notifications when your blood sugar is out of range, and provide food or exercise recommendations based on your results. Veri and Signos are two continuous glucose monitoring options.

Continuous glucose monitoring is still fairly new for those without diabetes, but the impact and negative outcomes associated with metabolic disorders are clear and well established. Basically, managing your blood sugar swings is vital for preventing weight gain, heart health issues, and other health problems.

Longevity

Living longer is always our goal, right? And longevity has been a common theme in health and wellness for many years, the difference now is advances in medicine and the number of billionaires investing in biotech startups looking for ways to improve cellular health and resilience through a process called cellular rejuvenation.

More research and information will surely come out of these startups over the next few years, but in the meantime you can focus your efforts on researched-back keys to longevity. Peter Attia covers longevity in detail in his best-selling book “Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity”.

Attia’s approach is unique because he asks what you want to be able to do when you’re 100, called your centenarian decathlon. This isn’t an actual decathlon with pole vaulting or discus throwing, it is the things you want to be able to do in your daily life as a centenarian. Maybe this is walking a mile on a hiking trail, or maybe this is lifting a suitcase into an overhead bin while traveling.

Once you’ve decided on your decathlon, you work backward from there to establish what your Vo2 max should be and how strong you should be now, in order to complete your centenarian decathlon. Our current medical system, (medicine 2.0, as Attia calls it) has extended our lifespan and prevents death from infection but does not

do a good enough job extending healthspan and combating the “four horsemen” that kill the vast majority of people (heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and type 2 diabetes and related metabolic dysfunction).

Psychedelics

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT USE ANY DRUGS OR SUBSTANCES WITHOUT CONSULTING A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL. THIS IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY.

A growing body of research has shown potential therapeutic benefits of certain psychedelics, including in the treatment of anxiety, depression, addiction and PTSD. Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy can help many people who have not had success with other medications or forms of treatment. One Denver-based psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy provider states, “Psychedelics offer powerful neurochemical benefits, as well as experiences that can be deeply meaningful and transformative.”

The four common psychedelic substances are psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and ayahuasca. While the details of each and potential risks or benefits are too extensive to go into detail here, there are many potential wellness benefits that many cultures have historically used. The stereotype of “magic mushrooms” being just a party drug for college ragers and hippies is fading, and advocates tout psilocybin as “a non-addictive, life-changing substance.”

Based on recent research, the US Food and Drug Administration has described psilocybin as a breakthrough medicine. Researchers say psychedelic drugs help neurons in the brain sprout new dendrites, which look like branches on a tree, to increase communication between cells. This increase in neural plasticity helps people see things in a more positive way, and can lead to new ways of seeing yourself by breaking down normal boundaries between the auditory, visual, executive and sense-of-self sections of the mind.

Every study involving these drugs has included a therapist to intervene if the experience goes badly and to maximize the outcome if things are going well.

Strength Training

Instagram posts claiming “strong is the new skinny” may have been filling your feed for the past couple years, but strength training is more than just a cute caption and is important for EVERYONE. Anyone interested in health and wellness needs to incorporate strength training into their routine, regardless of age or fitness goals. This is particularly important for women as we age to combat bone loss and osteoporosis that can accompany menopause.

Strength training includes the use of free weights, resistance bands or your own body weight to strengthen muscles, tendons and bones. Strength training is closely tied to longevity, because a combination of age-related changes, inactivity, and inadequate nutrition conspire to gradually steal bone mass, at the rate of 1% per year after age 40. This bone loss causes bones to be more susceptible to fracture, even from minor falls or stress. Osteoporosis is responsible for more than 2 million fractures per year, and six out of 10 people who break a hip never fully regain their former level of independence. Weight-bearing aerobic exercises (running, walking, hiking etc.) are no replacement for dedicated strength training.

Many studies have shown that strength training can help slow bone loss, and even help build bone. Strength training exercises, especially those that focus on balance and power, increase stability and overall strength. This helps further reduce fractures by cutting down on falls in the first place.

Ozempic

The type 2 diabetes drug Ozempic has been in the news lately because of its rise in popularity as a weight loss drug. The active ingredient in Ozempic is semaglutide, and many studies point to this ingredient as a pharmacological option to combat obesity when combined with lifestyle changes. One study found a 15 percent decrease in body weight over 68 weeks in participants who received semaglutide. The study concluded, “In participants with overweight or obesity, 2.4 mg of semaglutide once weekly plus lifestyle intervention was associated with sustained, clinically relevant reduction in body weight.”

Using Ozempic as a weight-loss drug when you aren’t overweight or obese is clearly a problem. We should always be wary of anything that appears to be a magic solution, and abusing this or any method of weight loss to the extremes is cause for concern and can also cause significant muscle loss.

There really is not enough research yet on the long term health impacts of using Ozempic for weight loss, and the best way to combat metabolic dysfunction is to focus on nutrition, diet, sleep and other lifestyle changes.

Some longer-term studies show extremely serious side effects with Ozempic use, including nausea, committing, diarrhea and more concerning gastroparesis (paralysis of the stomach), bowel obstruction and pancreatitis. If you’re overweight or obese and considering Ozempic, it is important to first take a functional medicine approach that focuses on the root causes of the problem, and of course discuss all options with your doctor.

Mind-Muscle Connection

Do you ever find yourself zoning out at the gym or just logging your workout with little focus? It may be tempting to just check the box of getting your workout done, but a lack of focus on the task at hand may be reducing the effectiveness of your strength training.

Studies have shown that focusing on specific muscles during strength training can increase activation of those muscles. This additional activation allows you to lift more, and therefore get stronger and get the most out of each strength training session. Focusing on the muscles you are working with each exercise also helps improve your form in each rep.

Hyrox

Right now you may be asking, what is hyrox? But by the end of this year it may be as common as Color Runs, adventure races or CrossFit competitions. Hyrox describes itself as, “the sport of Fitness Racing you’ve always been training for.” Competitions focus less on technical movements than CrossFit competitions do, and success is largely based on aerobic fitness. Hyrox combines both running & functional workout stations, where participants run 1km, followed by 1 functional workout station, repeated eight times. The functional workout stations in each competition include: SkiErg, sled push, sled pull, burpee broad jumps, rowing, farmers carry, sandbag lunges and wall balls. The nice thing about these movements is that you can likely achieve them without much specific training.

Competitions take place in expo centers or arenas and can be done as part of a team. If you’re ready to try out a Hyrox competition this year, focus on aerobic zone 2 training, and don’t forget to run!

Active Recovery

Recovery between workouts can be just as important as the workout itself. There are so many tools available to aid in recovery, including foam rollers, recovery boots, massage guns, muscle scrapers. More expensive options if you’re ready to commit are ice baths or even an at-home sauna.

Research on each recovery modality is mixed, but if they work well for you and make you feel good then they are worth the time and effort. Having the mentality of recovering between each workout, and spending time resting on the couch in recovery boots certainly won’t hurt your next workout.

Cold plunging is one of the most researched-backed recovery methods. Cold body therapy has gained popularity recently and is linked to numerous health benefits and can be achieved just by taking a cold shower. Cold therapy has been linked to an increased metabolism, reduced inflammation, improved quality of sleep and better focus.

Taking recovery seriously also means fueling appropriately before, during and after each workout. Going into a workout under-fueled, or not taking in carbohydrate and hydration during longer endurance workouts will reduce the amount of work you’re able to do and decrease the effectiveness of each workout.

Serious Sleep

Sleep is the most effective recovery tool available, and there is no replacement for it! Sleep is how our bodies repair and build muscle, process memories and give our bodies and minds the rest we need. As I’m sure you’ve heard, the National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours for healthy adults. Many studies have shown that sleeping less than around eight hours per night on a regular basis increases your risk for many medical conditions including heart disease, kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression.

If you are ready to take sleep seriously this year there are tons of resources and tips available and the key to great sleep on a regular basis varies from person to person. Generally the tips that all experts agree on are:

Don’t keep your phone in your bedroom, and try to put away all screens at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
Optimize your sleep space by reducing light and noise, and keep your bedroom cool.
Have a consistent routine that includes the same bedtime and waking time each day, relaxing (screen free) activities before bed and try to get some natural light exposure in the morning (even better when combined with exercise).
Limiting caffeine and alcohol will also have a positive impact on your quality of sleep. Any caffeine after 2 pm can impede your ability to fall asleep, and leave you craving more caffeine the next day. And while alcohol causes drowsiness, even one drink can lower sleep quality. For a deeper dive into sleep, the brain and body check out the Matt Walker Podcast.

Overall, there are so many options to optimize your health and wellness. Some are simpler than others, and finding what works best for you is the best way to go into 2024 feeling your best. What are you looking forward to working on as part of your health and wellness in 2024?