The Summer Wellness Essentials You Need To Know About

The functional drinks market has exploded in recent years and to keep up with demand, more brands are delivering fizzy drinks with a difference, whether it’s Living Things’ low sugar, all-natural prebiotic sodas (the watermelon lime flavour is the perfect summer refresher) or XOXO’s gut friendly options that contain 6g of fibre per can. If you like your functional drinks fermented, England rugby icon turned wellness entrepreneur Jonny Wilkinson has recently relaunched his raw, unpasteurised kombucha brand, One Living. The six flavours also contain added B vitamins and adaptogens for cognitive function. 

If you’ve yet to get on the (magic) mushroom train, Dirtea, purveyors of excellent mushroom-based powder blends, have now launched their own range of gummies, which contain up to 3000mg of functional mushrooms and essential vitamins. Choose from lion’s mane to enhance focus, cordyceps to improve energy, tremella to increase glow and chaga to support immunity. Sugar-free and in tasty fruit flavours they’re potent but palatable.

What better way to kick off the Olympic celebrations than with your very own Olympian challenge with United Fitness? Taking place in London on Saturday 27th July, the event combines boxing at KOBOX in Chelsea with Pilates, yoga, gymnastics and cycling at Boom Cycle in Battersea. Tickets cost £50 per person but why not go one better and book with a group of girlfriends for £200 for a group of five? 

For something a little less action-packed, health and wellbeing expert Ciara MGinley has founded Finding Quiet, a space where you can reset and reconnect if you’re feeling overwhelmed or overtired as the summer holidays hit. As well as hosting meditation sessions, Ciara also invites other like-minded experts to her hosted luxury day retreats which allows for a more sustained switch off.

Apple watches are part of most of our fitness lives now but the latest incarnations, the Series 9 and Ultra 2 come with even more features to support your daily health and fitness habits. The S9’s SiP chip is the brand’s most powerful yet and as well as having an 18-hour battery life, also comes with a clever hands-free gesture to make life on the go easier. Just double tap your index finger and thumb together twice to do everything from answering calls to stopping a timer and playing music. If you’re a cyclist, you can now use your watch to connect Bluetooth cycling accessories and stream cycling metrics to your paired phone while you ride. Later this year you’ll also be able to ask about or log your health data with just your voice too. 

Finally, trying to focus on a deadline, working out in a busy gym or getting some distraction-free downtime can be difficult with constant noise and commotion around you. LOOP’s earplugs, the Quiet 2 are designed just for this and feature double tips which provide 27dB of noise reduction when you need it most. Better still they’re comfortable in the ears and are properly portable so are great for travel.  

Wimbledon might be over, but tennis season is still in full swing. To stock up on kit essentials head to Vuori. The Court Collection has been designed specifically to support and enhance your game and the lightweight fabrics are perfect for layering up or down depending on the (unpredictable) weather; we love the One Shot Tennis Dress which is moisture-wicking, fully lined and has in-built shorts for better coverage. If the game is rained off, wait it out in style in the cobalt-blue Willow Jacket. 

It’s not often swimwear manages to combine pretty with performance, but Australian brand Une Piece manages it. The Original Sexie Rashie not only looks good (and comes in several prints) but it’s functional and supportive too. Featuring waist panelling and InvisiBust support technology for sturdy hold and shape, it’s also made from UPF+50 fabric which blocks 98% of UV rays and is ultra-chlorine resistant.