Wellness industry is adapting for men: social, emotional solutions contrast with traditional, tough approach

Loneliness is driving the need for relationship-based activities among men, prompting the rise of men-only emotional support groups and bonding retreats

Warrior-type fitness challenges and adventures typical of ‘male’ wellness offerings are giving way to, or merging with, softer approaches to boosting well-being

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Participants bonding during a Menspedition event in Portugal. The wellness industry is waking up to men’s needs the way it has done to women’s – with emotional support groups and bonding retreats.
Photo: Instagram/menspedition

Published: 6:15pm, 5 May 2024

The wellness industry has always been more focused on the feminine yin than the masculine yang, and that is especially true of emotional and spiritual offerings, which have generally been designed to appeal to women.

Male wellness has consisted mostly of strength-related activities that emphasise the traditional grin-and-bear-it conceptions of masculinity.

“While wellness has provided a space for women to open up, explore their emotions and build community, the same can’t be said for men,” write Skyler Hubler and Cecelia Girr, analysts at global advertising firm TBWA’s trendspotting and analysis unit Backslash, in the 2024 Global Wellness Trends Report from the Global Wellness Summit.

“Men have been left out of the equation altogether, or, when they have been served wellness, they’ve been served clichés centring around the physical,” they write.

“Think warrior-type fitness challenges and outdoor adventures – all exercises of strength and extreme mastery where masculinity comes wrapped in wellness.”

Skyler Hubler is an analyst at global advertising firm TBWA’s trendspotting and analysis unit Backslash. Photo: Backslash

A wave of social and emotional wellness solutions for men is changing this – including men-only emotional support groups and relationship-based male bonding retreats.