Australia’s most exclusive and luxurious health and longevity hub, Saint Haven, is coming soon to Sydney and I was lucky enough to get a sneak peek!
Imagine a space where every detail - from nutrition to strength training to pilates to biohacking and recovery - is combined to help you extend your health span. It’s no hyperbole when I say, it’s not just another gym - it’s the future of fitness, longevity, and anti-ageing.
And it really got me thinking about longevity.
I’ve always thought living to 100 means nothing without your health. Who cares if you live an extra 20 years if those years are spent in pain, discomfort and lying in bed? Longevity isn’t just about adding years to life; it’s about adding life to years.
And besides, the fact is when you’re 30, 40 or 50, you are not too worried about what’s going to happen when you’re 100. You want to feel and perform your best now.
Saint Haven is all about combining ancient wisdom with cutting-edge science to help you become fitter and stronger, think more clearly, recover more quickly and have a better quality of life now, not later. And to achieve this, they focus on eight key pillars, each backed by science and designed to support superb performance, recovery, and anti-aging.
But, you don’t have to be a member of an exclusive luxury health club to use these lessons in your own life!
Pillar 1: Strength & Conditioning
Strength is more than just looking muscular and being able to bench press heavy weights. Being strong and having adequate lean muscle mass is your fountain of youth, protection against frailty, chronic disease, and early death. Research shows that just 30- 60 minutes of strength training each week can reduce the risk of premature mortality by 20%.
More muscle mass also translates to faster metabolism, better hormonal function, and healthy energy levels. However, being strong is not enough.
Physical fitness has five components- strength, muscular endurance, cardiovascular fitness, flexibility and body composition.
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) covers your muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness. It has also been proven to burn 25- 30% more calories than steady-state exercise, making it one of the most efficient ways to biohack your metabolism.
If you incorporate mobility and flexibility exercises before and after, you can cover most of the fitness components in a very short time.
Pillar 2: Movement & Mindfulness
Our brains are now processing nearly 500 times more information each day than our ancestors did, leaving us overstimulated, stressed, and often anxious. Long workdays, excessive screen time, artificial light, and limited exposure to nature compound this cognitive overload, accelerating mental fatigue and even impacting sleep quality.
Mind-body practices, such as yoga, Pilates, meditation, and breathwork, act as powerful antidotes. Far from being “soft” or purely spiritual, they are backed by science as effective tools for longevity and resilience. Research shows that yoga and controlled breathing can reduce symptoms of anxiety and poor mental health by over 40%, while clinical Pilates lowers the risk of injury in athletes and active individuals by around 30%.
These practices not only calm the nervous system and reduce cortisol but also improve brain plasticity, emotional regulation, and overall cognitive health. In the context of biohacking, mindfulness is a strategic way to extend healthspan and optimise performance.
Pillar 3: Social Connection
Biohacking extends beyond supplements, gadgets, or advanced technologies. Did you know that human connection is one of the most potent longevity tools we have?
Strong social bonds act as a buffer against stress, improve immune function, and are directly linked to healthier ageing. In fact, research shows that robust social ties can increase survival chances by up to 50%, making connection as powerful as exercise or nutrition in predicting lifespan.
This is one of the secrets of the Blue Zones, where people routinely live into their 90s and beyond. Their lives are built around daily social rituals like shared meals, community gatherings, and multi-generational support systems that provide both purpose and belonging.
In contrast, loneliness has been identified as a risk factor for chronic disease and premature death, with effects comparable to smoking or obesity. Investing in relationships is one of the most evidence-based anti-ageing “hacks” available, that’s also good for your soul.
Pillar 4: Food & Nourishment
Nutrition is one of the most powerful forms of biohacking. Every meal is either fuelling performance or fuelling disease. A whole food diet rich in pasture-raised meats, wild-caught seafood, and seasonal organic produce provides essential micronutrients, amino acids, and antioxidants that support cellular repair, mitochondrial function, and regeneration.
Avoiding ultra-processed foods, refined sugars, and industrial seed oils reduces chronic inflammation, one of the primary drivers of ageing, insulin resistance, and cardiovascular disease. Research consistently links diets high in ultra-processed foods to higher all-cause mortality, while diets rich in nutrients improve longevity and resilience.
Food can be your medicine and the foundation of a healthy lifespan, or it can be your poison, accelerating disease. Every bite is a choice. What do you choose?
That’s why we created Chief Nutrition, extraordinarily clean snacks and supplements free from ultra processed anything.
Pillar 5: A touch of luxury
In biohacking, luxury is about restoration. Luxury can be found in simple acts, such as walking on the beach, dipping in the ocean, or taking mindful breaks, activating the parasympathetic nervous system, lowering cortisol levels and improving heart rate variability.
Research shows that time in nature reduces blood pressure, inflammation, and stress, while recovery practices such as sauna or hydrotherapy improve circulation, muscle repair, and even reduce cardiovascular risk.
True luxury is the conscious choice to step out of stress and into renewal. Biohacking tools are not here to replace time in nature, but they come in handy when you are too time-poor to spend the day in the mountains or you live too far from the beach to regularly walk barefoot on the sand and jump in the ocean.
Pillar 6: Insights & Tracking
You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Wearable technology, blood work, and DNA testing now make it possible to track sleep, stress, hormones, and performance metrics with precision. These insights allow you to spot imbalances early, tailor interventions, and personalise your approach to health and longevity.
Research indicates that feedback-driven monitoring can enhance adherence to exercise programs, improve weight management, and significantly increase sleep quality. Tracking heart rate variability (HRV), for example, provides a direct window into nervous system balance, while continuous glucose monitoring helps identify hidden metabolic dysfunction.
By turning guesswork into measurable progress, tracking creates powerful feedback loops, making biohacking evidence-based and results-driven.
Pillar 7: Ancient Wisdom x Modern Science
The intersection of ancient remedies and modern science offers some of the most profound longevity biohacks. From Roman bathhouses to Finnish saunas, humans have long utilised natural therapies to promote health and well-being. Now, science is confirming their power.
Sauna use four to seven times per week reduces the risk of cardiovascular mortality by 50% and also enhances strength-building efforts. Meanwhile, cold exposure improves mitochondrial function, stimulates the vagus nerve, and increases metabolic rate by three to five times, making it a potent fat-burning and resilience-boosting tool.
Pillar 8: Recovery & Reverse Ageing
In biohacking circles, aging is seen as a disease that can be slowed, and in some cases, even reversed. Recovery is the gateway to this process. Without adequate rest, the body cannot repair tissues, balance hormones, or adapt to the stress of training. Sleep alone plays a critical role in regulating growth hormone, melatonin, and cellular repair, all of which are essential for healthy ageing.
Hence, before investing in advanced biohacking tools, it’s essential to master the fundamentals, such as quality sleep, deep relaxation, breathwork, and intentional recovery protocols.
When stress and recovery are balanced, training leads to adaptation rather than burnout, creating the conditions for resilience, regeneration, and a longer healthspan. When you address the basics, some biohacking tools can help to supercharge your recovery.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, for example, has been shown to oxygenate the body at a cellular level and slow markers of biological ageing by up to 20%.
About Saint Haven
Saint Haven is designed entirely around these pillars: strength, mindfulness, social connection, nourishment, luxury, tracking, ancient wisdom, and recovery.
We are incredibly excited to announce that Saint Haven is coming to North Sydney in early 2026. Across 6 levels, our first Sydney location will be our largest club to date
About the author
Veronika Larisova came to Australia from the Czech Republic to study Sport and Exercise Science in 2003, igniting her passion for discovering the ‘recipe’ for everlasting health, fitness, and well-being. She’s now an Accredited Exercise Physiologist, Strength Coach, Nutritionist, and Personal Trainer.
She’s also a co-founder of Chief Nutrition, makers of extraordinarily clean snacks and supplements designed to help you stop eating junk and feed your own extraordinary life.
Outside of work, Vee loves running and proudly calls herself an ultra-marathoner after completing a life long dream of competing in the Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in 2018.
