HealthTALK

Your Next Health Upgrade May Not Be Another Gym Membership.

Something interesting is happening in the way people are thinking about exercise.

In 2026, searches for “how to start running” reached an all-time high. Trail running also reached record search interest, while “walking club” hit a ten-year high. People are searching for Nordic walking clubs and audiobook walking clubs. Padel is attracting newcomers, adult tennis lessons are generating interest and people are not simply asking where they can exercise. They are asking how they can begin.

At first glance, this looks like another fitness trend but if you look more closely it may tell us something much bigger about health, community, race, work and even the way the next generation is choosing to build professional relationships.

For high-achieving women, that deserves attention.

When Exercise Stops Feeling Like Another Job

For decades, much of the fitness industry has spoken the language of performance. Count the calories, close the rings, beat yesterday's time, lose the weight and hit the target. It is remarkably similar to the language many successful women already live with at work. The problem is that when every part of life becomes another performance metric, even wellbeing can become work.

Connected movement offers something different. A Saturday walking group is technically exercise, but psychologically it can also provide conversation, friendship, fresh air and belonging. Running clubs provide progression without requiring elite ability. Adult tennis lessons give accomplished women permission to become beginners again. Padel offers play, competition and social interaction without requiring years of technical expertise.

Behavioural science helps explain why that might matter. Self-Determination Theory, developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, argues that motivation becomes stronger when people experience autonomy, competence and relatedness. In everyday language, we are more likely to continue doing something when we choose it, feel ourselves improving and feel connected to other people.

That final word 'relatedness' may be one of the most important health trends hiding underneath the numbers.

But Who Gets To Join The Club?

This is where the conversation becomes more complicated for Black and Asian women.

Sport England continues to identify significant inequalities in physical activity. Its latest Active Lives findings show Black adults and Asian adults remain less likely to be active than White adults, while its wider research has identified particularly stubborn participation inequalities affecting Black and South Asian women.

The reasons cannot be reduced to ethnicity or culture alone. Sport England points towards an intersection of time, cost, confidence, appropriate opportunities, socioeconomic circumstances and knowing where to go. Its research has also examined how family responsibilities, religious expectations, perceptions about sport and the availability of appropriate environments can affect women's participation.

For a high-achieving Black or Asian woman, therefore, “join a running club” may sound deceptively simple.

Does she feel represented when she arrives? Is the environment culturally welcoming? Does the activity fit around leadership, business and caring responsibilities? Does she feel safe running outdoors? Does the clothing work for her cultural or religious requirements? Can she turn up as a complete beginner without feeling conspicuous?

There is another issue we rarely discuss. Recreation itself can carry cultural meaning.

In families shaped by migration, economic insecurity or generations in which women's time was heavily connected to work, family, faith and caring responsibilities, spending Saturday morning playing tennis or walking through the countryside may not always have been regarded as essential.

For some women, leisure had to be earned after everybody else's needs had been met. So it is important to remember that success does not necessarily erase that inheritance. Sometimes it simply gives it a better job title.

Is The Pub Losing Its Monopoly On Networking?

There may be another shift happening alongside the fitness boom.

For generations, professional networking has often been built around restaurants, dinners, conferences, receptions and alcohol. The informal conversation after the formal meeting mattered. Deals were discussed over dinner. Relationships developed at the bar. Being visible frequently meant being present in spaces where drinking was part of the social architecture.

Younger professionals may be quietly rewriting some of those rules.

The evidence does not support the simplistic claim that Millennials and Gen Z are universally healthier than Gen X. It does, however, suggest different priorities are emerging.

Drinkaware's 2025 research found that one in four Gen Z respondents did not drink. Among those who did, 41% had attempted to reduce their alcohol consumption during the previous year and three in five had somebody within their social circle who either did not drink, had never drunk or was cutting back.

Work expectations are changing too. Deloitte's 2026 UK Gen Z and Millennial Survey found work-life balance was the leading career goal for both generations. Only a small minority described leadership itself as their primary career ambition, while concerns about stress, burnout and excessive responsibility were prominent.

Put those trends together and an intriguing question appears.

London's private members' club market is already experimenting with the combination of wellness, fitness and social membership. Running clubs are increasingly being discussed not simply as places to exercise but as communities where friendships and connections are formed.

Perhaps the networking breakfast of the future really is breakfast after a 5K, while the new golf course may be padel. “Let's grab a drink” could increasingly compete with “shall we walk?” This does not mean restaurants, dinners or traditional networking will disappear. It means professional social capital may be acquiring new venues and new rituals.

For senior women, particularly those from Gen X, that is worth noticing. A younger colleague's approach to networking may look less transactional and more activity-based, less alcohol-centred and more connected to wellbeing, identity and community. That is not necessarily less serious networking. It may simply be networking redesigned for a different set of values.

Don't Just Find An Exercise. Find Your People.

The interesting story behind the rise of walking clubs, running, trail running, padel and adult sports may therefore have very little to do with which activity becomes fashionable next. Something broader may be changing.

People are searching for accessible ways into movement. They are asking beginner questions. They are looking for clubs and communities. Younger generations are placing greater emphasis on wellbeing and work-life balance. Traditional alcohol-centred socialising faces competition from other ways of connecting. At the same time, Black and Asian women continue to encounter structural and cultural barriers that mean simply creating another fitness class will not automatically create participation.

Connected movement sits at the intersection of all of this.

For high-achieving women, that creates an interesting proposition. Your next walk could improve your physical health while introducing you to someone outside your professional bubble. Tennis could give you the unfamiliar pleasure of being a beginner. A running group could become a community. Padel might create the conversation that a formal networking reception never would.

The challenge is not to turn any of this into another achievement project.

You do not have to run a marathon because you started running. You do not need a ranking because you started playing tennis. Your smartwatch does not need to validate every walk. Sometimes movement can simply give you something increasingly difficult to find in a high-performance life. Health, play, people and space to think.

So HealthTalk, we have two questions.

1. What activity would you genuinely enjoy doing with other women, walking, running, tennis, padel, swimming, dancing, hiking or something completely different?

2. More importantly, what has stopped you from joining before? Time? Safety? Cost? Culture? Confidence? Not seeing women like you there? Caring responsibilities? Or simply never receiving the invitation?

Share your experience in the comments, because understanding what gets women through the door matters just as much as telling them they should exercise.