August 26, 2026
When did Sydneysiders get so boring??
I think to myself as I sit dripping in sweat on a Saturday night. It’s 7:30pm and 100 degrees in here. I’m sitting between 13 other people also starring out into the abyss of the magnesium pool, trying not to watch the clock.
I mean you can probably take a guess where we are. Soak is pumping for a Saturday night - considering its smack bang in the middle of an Inner West corporate industrial complex.
But it got me thinking, how the heck did we get here?
When did we decide sitting half naked, sweating with a bunch of strangers in a sauna was the best way to spend a Saturday night? And then we jump into a 3 degree bathtub and freeze our nips off?! Was this the pinnacle of my weekend? What!?!
It all sounds a bit crazy when you put it like that. Gone are the days of bar hopping through the Cross, losing your friends at the club, and watching the sunrise on the walk home, heels in hand, promising we’ll never stay out that late again.
But clearly I’m not the only one who low-key looks forward to these sweaty Saturdays in. Goodbye hangxiety and hello romanticized sobriety, maintaining a semi-healthy circadian rhythm, and getting our Sundays back.
But this isn’t about the bathhouse or our Oura rings.
This is about Sydneysiders lifemaxxing, to the MAX.
When I finally came down from cloud nine after getting married in Spain a few months ago, I got the feeling that everyone was sick of being in Sydney.
What gave it away? Touchdown in Sydneyland and all I heard was, “I need to get out of here, Sydney is so suffocating”. An eerie sense of needing to “escape”. The need for a really long holiday (and maybe not coming back). With every pilates studio offering digital-detox wellness retreats, promising emotional release. Slowing down. A reset. Mindfulness. Touching grass.
Now it’s no secret that Sydney is the cliquiest little saturated suburb.
But is it our city that’s the problem? Or is it us? The very people who live here? Stuck in our once-romanticised ritualistic routines, turned wellness wheel that’s impossible to get off.
Now I only just scrape in, but 95% of my friends are fully qualified [millennials], and we’re constantly trying to do it all. Between hiking The Dolomites to find ourselves, or seeking enlightenment through rocket flows.
Cycle-syncing, Qigong, lymphatic drainage and anti-inflammatory diets.
5am alarms. Run club is the new Tinder. Protein coffee. Wait no it’s matcha now, caffeine with a new personality. And don’t even think about using milk from a cow.
Low alcohol this, functional-fizz that. 0% here, there and everywhere. Mocktails charged at cocktail prices. And didn’t you hear? Creatine’s curing Alzheimer's!
We’re all just trying to be our healthiest selves. The wellest of well. Biohacking like our lives depend on it.
It’s alot, honestly. And impossible to keep up with the newest ways to be well.
The most optimal BMI? The most drained lymphatic system? The fullest hair? The plumpest lips? The earliest riser? The fastest metabolism? The smoothest forehead? The best Hyrox time? The cutest (often uncomfortable) pilates fit that never looks like it did on Tiktok?
I mean, yeah for sure, all of the above would be nice. And let me make this clear – I’m not shitting on lifemaxxing by any means. This is a much (ironically healthier) alternative to removing ribs and injecting GLP-1s with that looksmaxxing era.
But when did wellness become a competition? What happened to everyone embracing a bit of balance. Proudly living in their own skin? Doing a bit of column A, a bit of column B and still having time to reply to your mum’s text from 3 days ago.
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We know trends are cyclical. But some should have stayed in the past more than others.
It’s devastating to see a resurgence of heroin-chic. Along with low rise jeans and matching velour Juicy tracksuits (they can both stay in 2001). This rise, parallel to Y2K nostalgia - tiny handbags, frosted lip gloss, vinyl and digi-cams - all received a warm welcome from our younger counterparts. Ironically, this is all new to them. Whereas us millennials lived and breathed analogue technology and questionable fashion trends.
Yet this is where generations are meeting in the middle.
It’s a coping mechanism.
Kids are rejecting the algorithm. Coining ‘brain rot’ to diagnose their own scroll-addiction before we could finish blaming Meta. Seeking tangibility, something real in this hyper-digital world. Millennials rediscovering a piece of their past. Simpler, familiar times. Something that feels like home.
And just like lifemaxxing - the looksmaxxing, slowmaxxing, productivitymaxxing. Some maxxing more harmful than others - all says a lot about what’s happening in our world right now.
And that’s made us kinda boring.
We’re eating out less. Drinking less. Spending less. Socialising less. Yet somehow, we’re busier and more exhausted than ever. This girl math, ain’t girl mathing.
But it does equal feeling more isolated than ever.
Was this a reaction to the economic crisis we’re living in? The unlikelihood of ever owning your own home? The weekly grocery bill shock or the exhaustion of lining up behind 100 people at yet another Inner West rental inspection?
We’re spending every bit of energy optimising our lives, taking back that little bit of control we have left. While the rest of the world is on fire and the future is looking pretty damn bleak.
Somewhere along the way, we became “so busy” that we neglected the connections that make us human. At a time when we need those connections most.
According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, it looks like we’re attacking from the top. Pouring everything we have into “Self-Actualisation”. Rather than chipping away at the fundamental tiers that will inevitably lead us to the top... Assuming you build from the ground up.
We’ve even designed a custom menu for our own brains. From dopamine menus to dopamine fasting. Self-actualisation in it’s own neat little spreadsheet.
Caught up in this “desire to reach our full potential”, we neglected the emotional connections that give us safety, stability and a sense of belonging. Constantly putting on a brave face, rejecting vulnerability. Leaving our society feeling more isolated and lonely than ever.
But, it’s not all bad. This lifemaxxing could actually be one of the better maxxings. Rather than using it to escape, but as a way to make sustainable habits, challenge ourselves and try new things that lead to new connections and sense of community.
With priorities shifting, more money than ever is being thrown at sauna memberships, vitamin IV drips, boutique classes, detox retreats and the strangest combination of supplements you ever did see.
We don’t need to be sold another retreat, vitamin or 5am wake up call. What we’re actually missing, is each other.
New Balance gets it. Their KICRUN Club series in Sydney isn’t selling sneakers at 7am on a Saturday. It’s providing a reason to show up. No pace pressure, no branded banners shoved in your face. Just an excuse to get bodies moving together, with connection at the core.
The brands that get it, won’t be calling for harder optimisation. They’ll be quietly connecting to communities in the background. Building relationships without the hard sell. The third spaces where connection happens without force. But a genuine interest.
Showing up as an excuse to be together.
The whitespace is sitting there, sweating it out between us at the bathhouse.
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