In our last memo, we shared the finding anchoring this entire series: 75% of Americans have abandoned the peak performance mindset. They’re not optimizing, they’re just trying to feel steady.

That pattern runs through every dimension of wellbeing we studied, but nowhere does it show up more plainly than in physical health, where the gap between what the wellness industry is selling and what people actually need has become almost absurd.

47% say their top physical health goal is… getting good sleep.

Not running a marathon, not building muscle, not longevity protocols. Just the kind of deep, restorative rest that lets you wake up and actually function.

After over fifteen years of leading research for companies building products around how people live, I’ve seen this pattern before: an entire category talking to its most aspirational customer while ignoring the reality of the majority. The physical wellness space right now reminds me of where fitness was a decade ago, obsessed with the high end athleisure aesthetics, disconnected from the middle. Except the middle isn’t a niche, it’s actually most of the country.

When you dig into the barriers of taking care of their physical health, the picture gets sharper. The number one thing people told us is holding them back isn’t access or knowledge, it’s actually not having enough energy or motivation to do it in the first place. That’s a capacity problem and it hits hardest among women, Gen Z, and Gen X; the groups carrying the most in terms of caregiving, financial stress, and competing demands on their time.

“I’m tired, physically going through some stuff and mentally tired. I feel like if I say that, I’m letting my family down.” — Gen X Respondent

“I am doing very poorly. I get no sleep because I am always stressed out over bills and finances.” — Millennial Respondent

These quotes featured here aren’t outliers. These are the real voices that represent what we saw across the full dataset. They’re not struggling with physical health because they lack discipline or information, but because they’ve been running on empty for so long that even the basics feel out of reach.

The system isn’t set up for this.

Half of Americans feel our healthcare system is built for sick care, not prevention. That’s a striking number, and it reflects something I’ve watched play out across multiple research studies over the years: people don’t experience their health as a series of discrete problems to be solved. They experience it as a continuum, and by the time they’re engaging with the disconnected system, they’re already in crisis rather than getting support to stay healthy.

For many people, especially women and Gen X, the barrier isn’t even about accessing healthcare. It’s about having any energy left at the end of the day to prioritize their own body. There’s a compounding effect here that’s easy to miss if you’re only looking at the wellness data in isolation: financial stress erodes sleep, poor sleep erodes motivation, low motivation makes it harder to move or eat well, and all of it feeds back into declining mental health. These dimensions aren’t separate problems, they’re the same problem showing up in different rooms of the house.

Something is quietly shifting.

3 in 5 Americans agree that saying no to alcohol feels more normal now, even cool.

It says something important about where the culture is heading. For years the wellness conversation has been dominated by addition, “add this supplement, add this routine, add this tracker, stack another habit on top of the ones you’re already not doing.” But what people are telling us is that the shift they’re actually making is one of subtraction. They’re removing things that deplete them rather than stacking more things that promise to optimize them.

It’s a small signal, but it aligns with everything else in this data. People aren’t looking for a harder, more disciplined version of themselves, they’re looking for relief. And increasingly, they’re giving themselves permission to make quieter, less performative choices about their bodies, not because a brand told them to, but because they’re tired enough to finally listen to what they actually need.

The gap: we’re solving for the wrong starting point.

Physical wellbeing solutions are everywhere, from fitness apps and wearables to meal delivery, supplements, recovery tools, and performance coaches. We’ve never had more options for optimizing our bodies. And yet taking care of physical health still feels impossibly hard for most people, not because they don’t know what to do, but because they don’t have the bandwidth to do it.

This is where I think the industry has it backwards. Most solutions assume people have energy to invest in getting healthier. They’re designed for someone who’s already at a seven trying to get to a nine. But the data is telling us that most people are sitting at a three, trying to get back to a five. If you’re running on fumes, another program telling you to do more only adds to the burden.

The real opportunity isn’t more tools or more sophisticated tracking, it’s helping people protect the basics like sleep, movement, and rest without adding to an already full plate. It means meeting people at their actual starting point, which for many is exhausted and just trying to maintain rather than improve. And, it means acknowledging that for someone barely sleeping and constantly stressed, wellness isn’t an aspiration, it’s survival.

What this means if you’re building or leading.

For companies in the physical health or wellness space: Set “optimization” aside for a bit. Your customer may be running on empty and needs help getting back to baseline before they can think about improvement. Reframe your messaging from “become stronger, faster, better” to “let’s help you sleep better and have more energy.” Make your entry point as low-friction as possible, whether that’s free trials, no equipment needed, or ten minutes instead of an hour. The brands that will win this next phase aren’t the ones promising transformation, they’re the ones that make the fundamentals feel achievable.

For employers and people leaders: Your people’s physical health impacts everything else, and many of them are struggling with the basics right now. That goes beyond offering gym memberships. It means building a culture where taking a real lunch break or leaving on time isn’t read as slacking. It means training managers to notice when someone is perpetually exhausted, not just when their output drops. And it means treating preventive health as an investment rather than waiting until people are in crisis to offer support. The compounding effect we see in this data, where financial stress bleeds into sleep which bleeds into physical health which bleeds into performance, is happening inside your organization right now, whether you’re measuring it or not.

The bottom line:

Most people aren’t trying to optimize their bodies right now. They’re trying to get enough sleep to function and enough energy to show up for their lives. What they need isn’t another fitness challenge or biohacking protocol, it’s permission to prioritize rest and support in making the basics feel achievable again.

That’s my two cents,
Steph