Here's What You Missed At HX26

Andrew Huberman shared the best piece of advice he's ever received. Roxie Nafousi walked through the exact gratitude exercise that sparked her manifestation journey. Rose Ferguson, Healf's Resident Functional Medicine Practitioner, went deep on gut feelings with Dr. Tara Swart. Gary Brecka taught an audience of 500+ about the power of methylation, where supermodel Naomi Campbell sat in the front row. Dr. Rhonda Patrick explained why vitamin D and omega-3 are essential for healthy ageing. Claudia Schiffer was spotted browsing the latest and greatest wellbeing products at the Brand Village. And everyone, from hardcore biohackers like Dave Asprey and Kayla Barnes-Lentz to everyday wellbeing enthusiasts, kept talking about anti-optimisation.

This weekend, 4,024 people showed up at 180 Studios in London for Healf Experience (HX26), and spent 48 hours ice-plunging, learning, testing, sweating, eating, listening, and, importantly, having fun. The future of wellbeing was on full display, from the bustling Brand Village to the packed audiences at each of the 23 different talks. Decked out in Alo and sipping matchas, attendees explored the latest sleep tech with Eight Sleep, tried on the new Oura rings, learned about the power of hydrogen water from The Ultimate Human Wellness, and tested out vagus nerve stimulation from Nurosym. From 9am to 6pm each day, people sat in, listened, and asked questions at fireside chats, talks, and presentations that tapped into the future of female ageing, manifestation, gut health, the oral microbiome and more. 

"I'm so happy to be here and to have discovered Healf. I think it's amazing what they do. I'm really into this," Naomi Campbell said as she headed into Gary Brecka's packed-out talk, which closed out HX26.

Among the key takeaways of the event, the sentiment that echoed loudest was this: we've officially entered the era of anti-optimisation. You can take all the supplements in the world, and track every single biomarker you have, but without the basics — eating nourishing foods, movement that feels good, calming your brain, and getting solid rest — none of it moves the needle.

Time and again, during talks and activations, experts pointed to the importance of personalisation, intuition, and the power of "the fundamentals", those simple things humans have always done for their wellbeing. Speakers celebrated groundbreaking, advanced tech that can tell us how to sleep better or fill nutritional gaps, while also embracing the idea that we should listen to what our bodies tell us they need. Whether it was the importance of getting morning sunlight, aiming to eat 30+ different plants each week, regulating your nervous system with a gratitude practice, or ignoring your sleep scores and going with your gut, the wellbeing tide is pointing towards ancient traditions and self-knowledge.

And this is exactly why we themed our very first issue of our print magazine, The Source, around this conce. The magazine was announced during the event’s VIP dinner, which took place on the eve of HX26. Attendees arrived at 180, and dined on apple cider vinegar shots, functional cocktails and mocktails, grass-fed steak, seasonal tomatoes, and raw cacao mousse, as they flipped through their own copy of the magazine. In a keynote speech from Alexia Demetriades, Healf's Head of Content and Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, she spoke about how the magazine's theme, anti-optimisation, directly taps into a broader cultural shift among wellbeing-seekers towards intuition and personalisation. The dinner-table conversation — and countless main stage talks at HX26 — that followed made it clear: the best form of wellbeing is the one that works best for you, not your favourite influencer or celebrity doctor. 

Again and again, throughout the weekend, this theme popped up. From experts talking about how to view data as a tool that enhances the foundations, or the importance of dedicating more time to finding what works for you. "I think that we need more people being scientists of themselves," Huberman said during his keynote speech. "I'm a big believer that when you start something new, careful collection of data, and spending some time with those data, are great. As you get more advanced, you can do less of that, and occasionally touch back into things if you feel like things are going off the rails a bit. But I don't believe that we need to constantly be monitoring our numbers in every dimension. I actually think that would run counter to my view of wellness."

And whether people were arriving as experienced biohackers or simply new explorers in the wide world of wellbeing, there was something there for every type of person.

"There's quite a lot to find, there's quite a lot to see," one HX26 attendee told Healf as they walked around the brand village. "It's just nice to have it all quite tangible, actually having an experience, talking to people, learning about it firsthand. It's a lot easier. It's quite surprising how much you can actually delve into health, and how many different aspects there are to looking after your body."

From sunrise on Saturday morning to Sunset on Sunday, Healf Experience attendees...

• spent a combined ~3,710 hours sweating, breathing, and moving across 80 different workshops and workout experiences
• booked 5,000 different workshop and activation slots
• listened to over 24 hours of talks from 38 different experts, doctors, and wellbeing industry leaders
• drank ~1,400 litres of smoothies, provided by Smoov
• soaked in 270 ice baths
• asked 304 audience questions
• used 5,000 towels
• consumed 7,000+ electrolyte packets
• tested 30,000+ free samples

Everywhere you turned, people enthusiastically took Huberman’s advice to become "scientists of themselves", and the energy was infectious. As Naomi Campbell so aptly put it: "It's so inspiring to be here, it's great energy. Everyone wants to take care of themselves, and I'm all for it."

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