How wellness trends in India are turning health into performance

Health and wellness were once a part of the same playbook. Today, they carry polar opposite meanings. The obsession with wellness has accelerated, turning it into a performance rather than a lifestyle rooted in health and longevity. In the process, healthcare fundamentals have quietly slipped into the background. 

As wellness trends in India become increasingly visible, so does the pressure to participate in them. Trading a good night’s sleep for an Instagrammable game of padel or swapping a sunrise for excruciatingly long runs dictated by  social media is no longer unusual. It has become a form of social signalling, both online and offline. 

The benefits of this hyper-visible wellness culture, however, may be closer to placebo than progress. Despite rising wellness participation, longevity doesn’t seem to have followed suit. In 2025, India’s average life expectancy declined for the first time in 50 years, across both urban and rural populations. 

As wellness increasingly becomes something to display, a sharper question emerges: Is it pursued for better health or better social currency? 

How wellness trends in India became hyper-visible 

The Indian pickleball market is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26 per cent, from a single court in 2017 to over 300 by 2025. The global cold plunge market size, estimated at $330.58 million in 2024, is projected to double by 2033. A Nielsen report shows that 56 per cent of Indians have invested in healthtech wearables.

These figures reflect how fitness and wellness in India are increasingly being understood through participation, tracking, and visibility. 

Wellness culture in India before it became performative

Wellness may not have featured explicitly in India’s vocabulary, but traditional lifestyles quietly embedded it through circadian rhythms, yoga, breathwork, and diets rich in natural nutrients. With modernisation and sedentary work patterns taking over, these practices are fading from daily life.

Today, wellness is widely celebrated, but the speed at which Western lifestyle trends travel to India has compressed dramatically. The trade-off is visibility over integration. 

When fitness becomes identity rather than health

Performative wellness distorts the real essence of wellbeing in a way, says Sohrab Khushrushahi, a Mumbai-based fitness and wellness coach and founder of Sohfit. “Cold plunges, extreme routines, supplements—they can look like discipline. While these can be important in some cases, the essence of wellness was never about display. It was about consistency, balance, and how you feel over time, versus how intense something looks in the moment.”

The switch from little focus on wellness to an almost obsessive preoccupation with it is especially visible among millennials. A generation that grew up before social media’s global reach, and later became the pace-setters of hustle culture, the pressure is not to simply feel better, but to demonstrate effort across every wellness touchpoint.

“I don’t think the intent is wrong; most people genuinely want to feel better,” says Khushrushahi. “But somewhere along the way, wellness became performative, something you do rather than something you live. When the metric shifts from ‘am I healthier?’ to ‘does this look healthy?’, the essence gets diluted.”

When fitness turns into an identity that must be projected, it can come at the expense  of basic foundations such as sleep and recovery, notes Divyanka Bedi, coach and founder of fitness studio The Space. 

Social media and the visibility economy of wellness

Wellness has shifted from an internal framework to a social one. What was once shaped by personal rhythm and bodily feedback is now increasingly mediated by visibility, metrics, and external validation.

“Most of us want to feel part of something bigger,” says Bedi. “Today, fitness is everywhere. You see it among actors and musicians, on social media, fashion and friendships, and even how people choose to socialise. Staying fit has become almost a universal lifestyle choice, especially post-pandemic. Because fitness is so visible, it feels more accessible and far less intimidating.” At the same time, Khushrushahi notes, the concept of wellness has narrowed down to what can be posted, tracked, shared, or validated. 

“SOCIAL PLATFORMS TRAIN US TO CHASE WHAT LOOKS IMPRESSIVE. BUT, THE HABITS THAT ACTUALLY CHANGE HEALTH ARE QUIET AND REPETITIVE” –– Luke Coutinho 

Constant exposure to polished wellness content creates comparison loops, says integrative lifestyle coachLuke Coutinho. “Algorithms rarely reward boring basics; they reward extremes, aesthetics, and dramatic transformations. When someone’s routine starts looking like a rule everyone must follow, we build noise instead of resilience.”

In 2024, Strava reported a nine per cent increase in  runs logged, reinforcing its now familiar tagline: “If it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen.” As wellness becomes something to display, its meaning risks erosion. “The workout screenshot, the trendy diet, the green juice, the perfect routine—it’s not always wrong, but it’s often more about visibility than biology. Wellness becomes a scoreboard, and bio-individuality gets ignored,” says Coutinho. When health rituals are performed for an audience, the internal work is often sidelined. “Another issue is that of platforms blurring inspiration and prescription,” he adds, pointing to the dangers of a one-dimensional approach to wellness. 

Why looking healthy is not the same as being healthy

Social media-driven wellness influence is a double-edged sword. “If a trend is safe, logical and sustainable, I see no harm. There is real value in working towards a goal as part of a wider community. That shared effort and sense of belonging can be very motivating, as long as people are not pushing beyond what is realistic or safe for them,” says Bedi. 

However, Coutinho says looking healthy is materially different from actually being healthy. Consuming a certain amount of protein and fibre, clocking in 10,000 steps, tracking health metrics, swapping sleep for a game of padel, investing in big-ticket wellness retreats, and experimenting with every hyped-up treatment can appear effective and feels beneficial until it becomes clear that several subjective factors determine real success. “Social platforms train us to chase what looks impressive. But, the habits that actually change health are quiet and repetitive—regular meals, consistent sleep, stress regulation, and meaningful movement,” clarifies Coutinho.

When wellness becomes a performance, basics feel boring, and boring is often mistaken for ineffective, cites Khushrushahi. “You’ll see someone hitting the gym religiously but sleeping two hours a night, taking supplements but skipping meals, indulging in late-night scrolling and compensating with stimulants the next day. The irony is that the most impactful health basics are also the least glamorous: sleep, regular meals, hydration, daily movement, sunlight.” While the number of hours slept, minutes spent meditating and journaling, or the kitchen staples that went into a wholesome meal don’t always make it to social media, they compound over time, with results that last life long. 

Chasing viral wellness trends without self-introspection can invite unwanted spin-offs. “A body that’s under-slept or stuck in chronic sympathetic activation doesn’t respond well to intensity. It gets more inflamed, more reactive, and more tired. Movement should support you, not deplete you. Nutrition should nourish you, not punish you. Recovery should be part of the plan, not a reward you earn,” says Coutinho. “The basics are the engine. Everything else is an accessory.”

Burnout, sleep debt, and the limits of optimisation

When extremism becomes a sustained wellness strategy, burnout is inevitable. “When wellness becomes a part of your identity, and how you present yourself, it can, sometimes, come at the cost of basic wellness foundations. Restrictive diets, excessive training without recovery, constant supplementation, or chasing optimisation without pause all lead to imbalance in the body,” shares Bedi.

Disrupted circadian rhythms, inadequate rest, and poorly aligned diets can undermine health at a far deeper level than is often acknowledged. “Your liver actively detoxifies when you’re in a state of deep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is between 10 pm and 2 am, as cited in Ayurveda, and proven by modern science. When you miss those four hours of deep restorative sleep, you are destroying your ability to heal damaged tissues, muscles, and nerves,” says Dimple Jangda, an Ayurvedic doctor and health coach. “When sleep debt is carried forward the next day, it starts showing in the form of fatigue, inflammation under the eyes, in organs, and the colon. Your peristalsis is not moving downwards, leading to constipation, anxiety, stress, mood swings, irritability, and lack of coordination and concentration. In such a state, a vata and pitta imbalance could occur. The insulin spike that comes from lack of sleep can start harming your pancreas.” According to her, replacing social validation with practices that are more in sync with nature would offer longer-term benefits.

“WHEN SLEEP DEBT IS CARRIED FORWARD THE NEXT DAY, IT STARTS SHOWING IN THE FORM OF FATIGUE, INFLAMMATION UNDER THE EYES, IN ORGANS, AND THE COLON” –– Dimple Jangda

When wellness is assessed by how it looks rather than how it functions, the perception becomes skewed, driven by social clout rather than real gains. “Judging wellness at face value means glorifying toned bodies, aesthetic routines, ritual checklists. But health also involves digestion, sleep quality, hormonal balance, emotional regulation, immunity, and energy. When we chase visible wins, we often ignore function, and the body pays for that later,” warns Coutinho. “It also creates a nervous system problem. Comparison keeps people mentally on—always evaluating, always behind, always needing to do more. That stress builds fragmented habits and eventually leads to burnout.”

Why intuitive and time-tested wellness still matters

In an unwavering quest for longevity and succumbing to the internet’s wellness theatrics, we’ve forgotten what wellness truly entails. The time-tested rituals the previous generations followed have become background noise, but experts believe their merits still persist.

Unlike reel life, to truly accomplish wellness goals in real life takes intent, not exorbitant solutions. “Getting fit is actually very simple. Move your body. Exercise for at least 150 minutes a week. Lift weights. Eat your vegetables and fruits. Get enough protein. Choose whole grains and quality carbohydrates. Limit overly processed foods and drinks. Get sunlight. Prioritise sleep. Maintain strong social connections. Follow these consistently, and you will achieve optimal health. None of these require fancy tools, extreme routines, or large investments,” says Bedi. “Performative wellness may be positive in times when it pushes people out of their comfort zones. But at the end of the day, it’s all about listening to your body and knowing when to dial it back.”

Walking, stretching, and mobility exercises are simple and sustainable, notes Coutinho. He underlines the importance of a nervous system downshift by indulging in short pauses, deep breathing, and quiet moments amidst bustling lives. 

“Remember, internal wellness is quiet. It doesn’t announce itself every day. And it definitely doesn’t operate on a rigid, one-size-fits-all timeline,” says Khushrushahi. Wellness should make life easier to live, not harder to keep up with, he concludes.