10 Years, 10 Trends: How Health & Performance Have Changed in a Decade

At the time, it wasn’t destined to be a big book. The publisher originally debated whether to do it at all: “Is it a Formula 1 book? Is it a biography? Self-help? This will be difficult to sell.” 

They aimed for a print of 3,500 copies. At 5,000 copies, they’d pop the champagne. They were way off. To date, Voittamisen Anatomia (or “The Core” in English) has sold just shy of 250,000 copies. 

As our team updated the science for the newly released 10-year anniversary edition, we got a unique glimpse back in time. What has changed in 10 years? How has the market and science around health and performance developed? 

We make ten highlights – one for each year of an eventful decade. 

1 | From Fringe to Foundation: Wellbeing Matters 

In 2015, the ideas around holistic health impacting your life and performance were cutting-edge (some of our clients called it “radical” at the time). Today, it’s common knowledge. Sleep, stress, nutrition, recovery, and holistic health aren’t just for athletes – they’re human performance essentials.  

In updating the book’s science, what surprised us was how much hadn’t changed. The foundational elements remain valid. Science has caught up with what we saw coming: performance without wellbeing isn’t sustainable.  

Now, we’ve just gone deeper on each of those elements: from step count to VO2max; from sleep quality to jet lag optimisation; from working habits to performance psychology. 

2 | The Cycle of Wellness Booms & Busts 

“Once I get a grip of one health trend, it’s replaced by the next, often opposite trend,” a client said. 

Health trends cycle fast. The last decade has been filled with short booms: the sleep revolution, triathlon challenges, breath work, mindfulness, keto-diet, juices, CrossFit, nootropics, red light therapy, …  

One day we’re fasting, the next day only intermittently, then it’s over-rated. First plant-based is in, then it’s the carnivore diet. Last year we were freezing in cold plunges, now we’re sweating in the sauna. 

It’s human to chase the quick fixes, so this dynamic is unlikely to go away.  

But if you’re chasing healthspan and sustainable performance? The rewards still go to those who commit to one thing: consistency. 

3 | Quantified-Self Became Mainstream Tech 

In 2015, tracking your sleep or heart rate made you a pioneer. Now, it’s everyday behaviour, accessible to anyone. Fitbit, Oura, Whoop, CGMs, even in-ear sensors – we’ve turned our bodies into dashboards.  

What was a “quantified self” movement limited to a few biohackers evolved into mass-market wellness tools.  

We’re more aware, better equipped, and – in theory, at least – more ready to make changes. Yet, what many are finding out is that more data doesn’t always mean better decisions.

4 | The Normalisation of Mental Health 

In 2015, we wrote that musculoskeletal problems were the highest financial health burden. By 2025 that is no longer the case: mental health disorders have taken over the top spot.  

Once a taboo topic, we now widely talk about burnout, anxiety, exhaustion, bipolar, and panic attacks. From Olympic champions to CEOs, the mental cost of ambition and pressure is no longer hidden away – it’s shared. Mental health is not a personal weakness to be buried, it’s a strategic priority for performance.  

On a personal level, it took me years to call my burnout by its name. In the next decade, let us focus on equipping ourselves with solutions, too.   

5 | We’ve “Discovered” the Female Health Gap 

For decades, women’s health was an afterthought in science and sport. Women were often thought of as “small men”.  

We now know better. Hormonal cycles, menopause, perimenopause, stress reactions, and gender-specific performance factors are finally part of the conversation. Looking back, it’s almost staggering how invisible the female health gap remained for so long. Even in the testosterone-filled world of motorsport, the likes of F1 Academy and More than Equal are doing their part to acknowledge it, research it, and design for it. 

6 | Generational Shifts Reached a Tipping Point 

The workplace revolution had been a long time coming. Looking back, the search for balance, meaning, and autonomy were trends that had been picking up steam for decades.  

Then Covid hit, and those underlying trends were accelerated. Today’s employees – young and old – want more than pay. They expect good work: purpose, fairness, balance, good leadership, open discussion around work-life tradeoffs. This isn’t a Gen Z rebellion – it’s the culmination of a shift decades in the making. 

Looking ahead though it doesn’t mean the workplace is a one-size-fits-all. Accommodating an age span from 20 to 70 is no easy feat. 

7 | Identity is Becoming the Engine of Performance 

Dr. Aki was a pioneer in putting a person’s identity and purpose at the heart of performance. He called it the Core, and boiled it down to three central questions: 

• Do you know who you are? 

• Do you know what you want?  

• Are you in control of your life?  

Seemingly simple questions that can take a lifetime to answer. Traditional performance psychology has focused on pressure, grit, and motivation – but today, we understand that sustainable change starts deeper within, from your identity. Who you are deeply shapes what you do. And if that’s Dr. Aki’s lasting legacy, I’m certain he would be proud. 

8 | Teams are the New High Performers 

Western society loves to spotlight the star individual. The genius founder, the high performer, the born athlete, the champion F1 driver. 

But success is not a solo act, and it never was. While individual brilliance is needed, it is rarely enough for sustainable success. Dr. Aki understood this by running his F1 training camps for Racing Teams, not just the drivers. Our performance psychologists today cannot emphasise this enough: high-performing teams – from F1 to scale-ups – rely on effective feedback, emotional resilience, relational trust, and healthy debate. One-on-one dynamics, not just org charts, determine outcomes. Team psychology is quickly becoming the new competitive advantage. 

9 | Longevity Became a Billionaire’s Obsession 

We should have seen this coming: The generation that disrupted industries through technology is now getting older. As your body becomes weaker, your brain blunter, and your hair greyer, the question is obvious: How do I slow (or stop!) this thing called aging?  

Today, longevity is the ultimate luxury and biohack. We’ve built our intensive individual coaching programmes around longevity for the past decade (only we talk about ‘healthspan’), and we know there’s so much one can do to live longer, healthier, happier. But this is also, sadly, a market rife with hype. From peptides to fasting to DNA-based nutrition to metformin / rapamycin / resveratrol, we’re all Peter Attia now. Separating the science from snake oil is the next great challenge. 

10 | Cognitive and Brain Health is the New Leadership Frontier 

During Covid, companies went all-in on wellbeing. A few years later, we saw the bust: services downgraded, benefits stripped, apps quietly removed.  

What we’re seeing gaining a foothold today is this: boosting cognitive health, especially for leaders and top talent. Why? Traditional leadership development has been skills-first: leadership training, business coaching, L&D courses. But if those leaders are exhausted, overwhelmed, and in constant crisis mode? New skills or knowledge simply do not stick.  

The key to unlock it? Brain health. Cognitive resilience, neural plasticity, and recovery capacity are essential to effective learning. HR needs a rethink: from over-investing in skills, they need to address the under-investment in the cognitive factors that enable needed learning and growth. 

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Last week, we celebrated the launch of the 10-year anniversary edition of Voittamisen Anatomia in Helsinki. Aki’s friends and family were in attendance, as well as many of the clients, partners, and colleagues who have since then become a part of his mission.  

Someone in the audience asked me: “What will we be celebrating 10 years from now?” Beyond seeing the first female F1 Champion, my hope runs deeper.  

If the last 10 years were about proving why health and performance matter, the next 10 should be about building the conditions where they can truly thrive. That’s what I believe we’ll be celebrating in 2035: not only individual stories of resilience and achievement, but a society that makes it easier – not harder – to live well, and consequently, perform better. 

Learn more about the Voittamisen Anatomia book here. The English version will follow later this year.