Brits have embraced a new era of optimisation, with people investing more time, money and energy into improving their health and performance – but new research suggests one of the most powerful performance tools is still being overlooked: recovery, with just 23% saying resting and recovering properly is something they prioritise when working towards a fitness goal.

From premium running shoes and protein powders to wearable technology and wellness subscriptions, the pursuit of peak performance has become big business, with Brits increasingly adopting the habits and tools once associated with professional athletes.

New research from Samsung for the Galaxy Watch Ultra2, found 82% say improving their physical health is a priority, while more than half (54%) hope to exercise more regularly over the next 12 months.

Yet despite this focus on optimisation, 48% agree rest and recovery are just as important as exercise, but 18% admit they find it difficult to prioritise, and just a quarter (25%) actively plan rest or recovery days into their routine.

In fact, more than half (55%) find the recovery process a hindrance, with 89% admitting they have pushed through tiredness to hit a fitness target or step count, rather than prioritising recovery.

The research reveals a growing ‘recovery gap’ between the effort people put into training and the attention they give to recovery. While Brits are increasingly adopting athlete-like approaches to performance, from tracking workouts to chasing personal bests, many are overlooking the role sleep, recovery and listening to their body play in helping them perform at their best.

And that imbalance could be making it harder to stay on track. Fitness goals fall by the wayside after an average of 33 days, while 37% have abandoned a fitness goal within 30 days of starting it.

But Brits recognise the potential benefits of understanding their bodies better. Seven in 10 (70%) agree that understanding how their body is responding to training and recovery would help them improve their fitness or performance, while 34% say personalised recovery insights would help them know when they need to rest and recover.

Experts say pushing harder isn’t always the answer. While exercise provides the stimulus for the body to adapt, it’s during recovery – through quality sleep, rest and allowing the body to repair – that those fitness gains are made.

Olympic medallist Max Whitlock, who has partnered with Samsung, says: “Recovery isn’t the reward for training, it’s part of the training. The sessions everyone sees are only possible because of everything that happens afterwards.

“Understanding when your body needs rest is just as important as knowing when to push.” 

For many Brits, knowing when to rest is still based largely on instinct. Adults are more likely to assess how their body is responding to exercise and recovery based on how they feel physically (53%) or their level of tiredness (40%), rather than taking a set approach (15%).

This comes as on 16% admit they only take a rest day if they feel sore, tired or run down.

Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra2 helps users take a more informed approach to training and recovery through personalised health insights, helping them better understand how their body is responding to exercise, sleep and rest.

Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience VP of Product and Marketing, Samsung UK & Ireland, says: “More people are taking their fitness seriously and challenging themselves to achieve more, but our research shows there’s still a gap between how people train and how they recover. In many ways, we’re training like athletes but recovering like amateurs.

“People want to be better informed about their health and what their bodies are telling them, and this is where technology can play an important role. By turning personal health data into tailored, actionable insights, people can understand when they might be ready to push themselves and when they might need more rest.”

Energy Score on the Galaxy Watch Ultra2 brings together insights including sleep, activity and heart rate to provide a daily indication of physical and mental readiness, while Daily Cardio Load¹ helps users understand the impact their workouts are having on their body over time.

Alongside detailed sleep tracking and personalised fitness features, Galaxy Watches can help users take a more informed approach to both sides of the performance equation – knowing when to push and when recovery should take priority. 

Additional stats:

• 36% of Brits struggle to stay motivated when the initial excitement of setting their goal wears off
• 27% say having more time in their schedule would help them stay on track with their fitness goals
• 34% admit they find it difficult to fit exercise around everyday commitments

1. To use the features, at least 7 days of activity records are required, while 28 days of continuous wear is recommended for optimal accuracy. Please note that values may increase in daily situations where heart rate rises, such as during tension, anxiety or stress. ︎

At Galaxy Unpacked July 2026 in London on July 22, Dr. Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics, sat down with cognitive neuroscientist and science communicator Dr. Dong-seon Chang to explore how AI could make health management simpler and more connected.

Dr. Pak explained how the body changes from day to day and how AI can learn an individual’s daily rhythms and patterns to help transform fragmented health data into more meaningful, personalised guidance. He also introduced Samsung Health’s Connected Care vision, extending beyond devices and data to connect people — from healthcare professionals and families to partners across the broader health ecosystem.

Ultimately, the conversation pointed to a broader question of how society can embrace AI while keeping people at the centre.

Watch the video below to learn more about Samsung’s vision for healthcare that is simpler, more connected, and human-centred.

The Health Forum held at Galaxy Unpacked July 2026 also shared Samsung’s Connected Care vision for the next chapter of digital health — a future where care moves from reactive treatment toward preventive, personalised and connected experiences, supported by trusted health innovation and partnerships across the healthcare ecosystem. One technology that is helping power these new consumer experiences is the health foundation model.

Researchers from the Digital Health Team at Samsung Research America (SRA) are developing new AI technologies to continuously understand a person’s health state from biosignals, generate health insights, and offer appropriate health guidance.

Samsung researchers recently introduced two foundation models based on wearable data: xMAE (Physiology-Aware Masked Cross-Modal Reconstruction for Biosignal Representation Learning), which learns the temporal relationship between different biosignals, and HiMAE (Hierarchical Masked Autoencoder), which understands health patterns across different time scales in wearable time-series data. Both studies demonstrate advancement of health AI models that can better understand the physiological relationships and temporal structure of biosignals.

Samsung’s work on xMAE and HiMAE models was accepted to the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML), and the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR), respectively, highlighting the significance of this research.

Health Foundation Models That Read the Body’s Signals: Why They Matter for Health 

A health foundation model is an AI model that uses self-supervised learning to learn meaningful features from unlabelled biosignal data. After being pretrained on large-scale health data, the models can be applied to perform a wide range of downstream health tasks, including biosignal analysis, developing new or improved biomarkers, and health issue prediction.

xMAE AI model: Continuous Cardiac Insight from Wearables

An electrocardiogram (ECG) on wearables directly measures the electrical activity of the heart and is useful for measuring heart rate and heart rate variability, identifying abnormal heart rhythms and risks for conditions such as atrial fibrillation.

ECG is highly accurate, but typically requires users to pause and take an active measurement. On the other hand, photoplethysmography (PPG) can indirectly measure cardiac function by detecting changes in blood flow and can be passively and continuously measured through sensors in wearable devices such as smartwatches.

The two signals originate from the same cardiac activity, but they appear with a certain time difference, much like thunder is heard after lightning is seen. xMAE is a biosignal pretraining framework designed to learn the temporal relationship between the two signals by reconstructing masked portions of the ECG signal using the more easily and continuously measured PPG signal. As a result, cardiovascular health-related features can be analysed more precisely using PPG without requiring separate manual ECG measurements.

The researchers pretrained xMAE using approximately 9,400 hours of ECG and PPG data. The model outperformed unimodal biosignal models and existing multimodal learning methods in 15 of 19 evaluation tasks, including cardiovascular disease prediction, abnormal test-result detection, and sleep-stage classification. The study also confirmed the potential to use the learned features across different sensor devices, body locations and data-gathering environments.

HiMAE AI model: Reading the Body at Every Time Scale on the Device

Health data measured from wearable devices can reveal different information depending on the time scale at which it is analysed. For example, short time segments can reveal rapidly changing signals such as heartbeats, while longer time segments can uncover patterns that accumulate over time, such as sleep or physical activity. This is similar to examining different information by zooming in and out of an image.

HiMAE is a self-supervised learning model that learns representation from wearable data across multiple time scales. It uses multiple encoders to analyse short and long segments separately, allowing the model to identify information required for each health task, such as heart rate analysis or sleep prediction, at the appropriate time scale. During training, the model reconstructs masked parts of the data. This enables it to learn key patterns in biosignals even when labelled data is limited.

A single pretrained HiMAE model handles classification, numerical prediction and data generation. The model achieved high performance while being smaller than existing models. It also improved computational efficiency to the point where it can produce results in less than one millisecond on a smartwatch-class central processing unit (CPU). Most importantly, HiMAE demonstrates the potential of on-device health foundation models for the first time—analysing raw health signals in real time, without relying on cloud servers.

The Next Step Toward Connected Care

Together, xMAE and HiMAE, represent an advance in AI models that precisely understand the physiological relationships and temporal structures unique to biosignals. Both models aim to deliver precise, continuous, personalised health insights and to generalise across many health tasks from a single pre-trained model. Hear more from the researchers behind this work below.

To explore that vision, Samsung hosted a Health Forum panel, “Rewriting the Rules of Preventive Health.” Moderated by Dr. Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics, the session brought together leaders across nutrition, fitness, clinical research and AI to examine how technology can close the gap between knowing and doing in everyday health.

▲ (From left) Otávio Penatti, Kevin Duffy, Moderator Dr. Hon Pak. Rohit Ail, Kartik Poria

The Paradox — and the “Missing Miles” of Health

Opening the discussion, Dr. Pak described a paradox at the heart of modern health: innovation and technology today has been transformational and accelerating, yet chronic disease continues to rise around the world.

“We live in the most measured era in human history — billions of people track their sleep, their stress, their heart rate every single day. And yet chronic disease keeps rising. More data, it turns out, hasn’t resulted in better health.”

He framed the disconnect as two “missing miles.” The first mile is detection and monitoring: much of what shapes our health happens outside the clinic, and until recently, continuous monitoring was neither available nor connected to the physician. The last mile is action: even after a diagnosis and a care plan, it is the individual who has to act day after day — and life is busy, and change is hard.

▲ Dr. Hon Pak

Samsung, Dr. Pak argued, is uniquely positioned to close both gaps. With technology that stays with people throughout their daily lives — across wearables, mobile phones, and a connected ecosystem — Samsung can understand not just raw biometric numbers, but the context behind them.

“We don’t just see a number — we see what’s around it: whether this is a moment you’re ready to change something, or a moment you need a bit of support. Being there, at the point where personal decisions actually get made, is hard for a hospital, or any other company, to measure or act upon.”

But no single company can do this alone. That, he said, is why Samsung is building Connected Care together with partners — closing the first and last mile to scale prevention, with AI as the enabler across both. He introduced the three focus areas that would structure the conversation: everyday behaviour, clinical credibility and privacy, and advanced AI and research.

Everyday Behaviour: Closing the Last Mile at the Dinner Table and the Gym

Diet and exercise are two of the biggest levers on long-term health — and two of the most within our control. They are also, Dr. Pak noted, where the gap between knowing and doing is widest.

Kartik Poria, Head of Product at Samsung Food, located that gap in a moment everyone recognises.

“It’s Tuesday, six o’clock. You’re tired, you’re staring into the fridge, and everything you know about eating well loses to whatever’s quickest. That moment is what we’re going after — because what you eat, day after day, is one of the biggest levers we have on preventing chronic disease.”

He described how Samsung Health and Samsung Food are coming together to tackle two halves of the same problem: Samsung Health surfaces what is happening beneath the surface — indicators such as meal logs, BMI, the Antioxidant Index and the AGEs Index — while Samsung Food’s global recipe library facilitates meal planning and its food intelligence reflect how people actually like to eat. Sitting on top is a nutrition experience grounded in behaviour change science rather than tracking alone — learning a person’s habits and working with them so the healthier pattern becomes the easier one.

“We’re not adding another thing to manage — we’re making the healthy choice the easy one, for the night you’ve got the energy to cook and the night you don’t.”

▲ Kartik Poria from Samsung Food

Turning to movement, Kevin Duffy, CEO of iFIT, described exercise as foundational to both physical and mental wellbeing, and explained how iFIT’s expert-led programs are becoming more accessible through Samsung Health.

“Exercise is vital for both physical and mental wellbeing — cardiovascular health, strength, mobility, sleep quality, stress management.”

Through Samsung Health, users can discover and subscribe to iFIT’s premium fitness programs, while iFIT workouts integrate with Galaxy Watch so users can track key metrics during guided sessions. With Fitness Index, they receive a holistic view of their physical fitness in a single, easy-to-understand score, with personalised recommendations. Looking ahead, Duffy pointed to Samsung’s Health Assistant as a way to bring a user’s Fitness Index, goals and activity history together to surface the most relevant workout at the right moment.

“Exercise is not just about being active — it’s about understanding your body, building sustainable habits, and having the right guidance at the right time. By combining iFIT’s expert-led experiences with Samsung Health’s connected insights, we can help more people make movement a meaningful part of their everyday lives.”

▲ Kevin Duffy from iFIT

But content and insights alone, Dr. Pak noted, don’t close the last mile. The harder question is how to move from engagement to activation. Samsung designs for real life, recognising that people slip and miss goals most of the time — and that those moments are precisely when timely, well-contextualised support matters most.

The real measure, he argued, is not how often the system nudges someone, but how many healthy actions actually happen — a doctor’s low-salt advice quietly showing up as items in a grocery cart, or a workout that meets a person where they actually are that day. Poria added that this is the true shift: from nudging people to changing the choice in front of them.

Clinical Credibility and Privacy: Trust Earned Through Evidence

Dr. Pak turned next to the question of trust — noting that wearable data is now something most clinicians have seen, but far fewer have been able to build into their day-to-day care. Closing that gap, he said, is a matter of evidence, workflow and trust.

Rohit Ail, Head of the Technology Incubation Lab at Samsung R&D Institute UK (SRUK), spoke to how his team works to generate clinical evidence in real-world settings.

“Our goal is to meet the standards expected by clinicians, researchers and regulatory bodies, and that means generating evidence in real-world clinical environments. This commitment builds on Samsung’s growing body of clinical research and validation evidence.”

He referenced ongoing collaborations across Europe, including partnerships with the NHS and clinical validation studies with leading hospitals. With San Cecilio University Hospital in Spain and Gemelli in Italy, Samsung is working on identifying and managing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk using AI and decision-support technologies; with Fondazione IRCCS in Italy, the focus is on understanding and addressing the late effects faced by adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors through AI-based digital phenotyping and a non-invasive, holistic approach.

On privacy, Ail noted that Samsung considers user data to belong to the user, with Samsung acting as custodian.

“Trust begins with protecting users’ data. Samsung takes a three-layer approach: Samsung Knox for device-level security, GDPR-compliant infrastructure, and alignment with the European Health Data Space framework.”

He added that SRUK has also developed a Decentralized Clinical Trial framework, in which participant identities remain under the control of healthcare organisations and data is pseudonymised from the outset.

▲ Rohit Ail from Samsung R&D Institute UK

Advanced AI and Research: Reading the Body’s Signals

If everyday reach and clinical trust are two of the three pillars, intelligence is what binds them together. Dr. Pak introduced foundation models as a genuine turning point — a shift from population averages to something truly personal.

Otávio Penatti, Head of the Health AI R&D Team at Samsung R&D Institute Brazil (SRBR), explained what a foundation model for health actually means.

“A health foundation model is an AI model that uses self-supervised learning to learn meaningful features from unlabelled biosignal data. At Samsung, we are advancing health foundation model research across multiple global research teams, combining expertise in biosignal intelligence, wearable AI, and personalised health insights. Building on the success of large language models, we can now interpret complex biosignals — such as ECG, ACC and PPG — not as isolated data points, but as a structured biological language. These signals can be measured through wearable devices in everyday situations, and by applying foundation models to understand these biological patterns, we have the potential to provide more accurate predictions and continuous, personalised health insights.”

▲ Otávio Penatti from Samsung R&D Institute Brazil

Three Focus Areas, One Goal

To close, Dr. Pak asked each panelist for a one-sentence vision of Connected Care in the era of AI five years from now.

• Kartik Poria (Samsung Food): “In five years, eating well won’t run on willpower — it’ll feel like having a chef and a dietitian in your pocket, turning what your body needs into what’s for dinner, day after day.”
• Kevin Duffy (iFIT): “A coach that knows your body and adapts every workout to who you are that day.”
• Rohit Ail (SRUK): “Care that clinicians trust and patients control — evidence-based and private by design.”
• Otávio Penatti (SRBR): “AI that understands the body’s language and acts before problems begin.”

Dr. Pak closed by tying the threads together: everyday behaviour, clinical trust and personal AI — three focus areas, one goal of closing the first and last mile to scale prevention while meeting people where they are.

“The future of health is connected, trusted and proactive — and it’s a road we’re glad to be traveling together.”

During the panel, Hon Pak, Head of the Digital Health Team for the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics, joined four other speakers: David Lee, Head of Samsung Next; Mike McSherry, CEO of Xealth; Alina Su, CEO of Generation Lab; and Michael Dubrovsky, CEO of SiPhox Health. Together, they presented a blueprint for the future of healthcare to an audience of approximately 1,000 global attendees.

Serving as the moderator, David Lee emphasised the critical role of partnership. “The future of health cannot be built by one company alone,” Lee said. “It must be forged through an open ecosystem of collaboration among diverse innovators.”

Building an Open Health Ecosystem

Samsung possesses a diverse portfolio of devices and platforms, spanning from semiconductors to mobile phones, wearables, home appliances and TVs. The company leverages its economies of scale to cultivate a robust, collaborative ecosystem with numerous partners across each of its business sectors.

By integrating Samsung devices with partner solutions within this open ecosystem, Xealth, Generation Lab and SiPhox Health are accelerating the realisation of connected care. This healthcare vision aims to help users lead healthier, more vibrant lives through proactive wellness management powered by Samsung’s connected device ecosystem.

Hon Pak highlighted the scale of Samsung’s reach during the discussion. “Samsung Health supports more than 77 million monthly active users,^[1] and the SmartThings platform connects 460 million users,”^[2] Pak said.

Samsung holds a strong advantage as a trusted brand within the household, the central setting for daily life and wellness. “By connecting our device ecosystem around the home via SmartThings, we can innovate the health experience where it matters most, at a time when health is shifting to the home — a space in which prevention can happen at scale,” Pak added.

To support this transition, Samsung has integrated a wide variety of devices — including home appliances, TVs and compatible third-party devices — into its SmartThings platform. This enables a broad spectrum of services that range from personalised automation routines to family and pet care.

Accelerating Innovation Through Partnerships

The panelists identified Samsung’s established ecosystem and open approach to collaboration as key strengths.

Alina Su of Generation Lab emphasised the value of this partnership. “What has been most exciting is Samsung’s genuine openness and distribution. There’s real scale and technical capability — but there’s also a willingness to collaborate, to co-create, and to move quickly with partners,” Su said. “When you combine that with the devices people already use every day, you can bring innovation to people’s lives far faster than you could independently.”

Michael Dubrovsky of SiPhox Health also explained the benefits of the collaboration. “Samsung brings the device ecosystem already living in people’s homes and on their bodies,” Dubrovsky said. “SiPhox adds the diagnostic layer that has always been missing from that picture. Together, continuous device data and continuous biomarker data create a truly complete health picture that has never existed outside a clinical setting.”

Currently, Generation Lab provides a solution to help users easily check biological age and actively manage aging at home, while SiPhox Health offers a service that enables active health management through hospital-grade blood tests in each household.

Mike McSherry of Xealth shared a vision for providing a seamless, continuous healthcare solution by bridging the gap between clinical care in hospitals and daily wellness management through deep integration with Samsung.

Empowering Open Collaborations and Ensuring Robust Security

In addition to strategic partner collaborations, Samsung has built an open ecosystem for the wider developer and researcher community. Utilising the Samsung Health Software Development Kit (SDK) Suite, they can easily create innovative wellness services leveraging advanced sensor technology and the health platform. This allows Samsung Health users to experience useful new features more quickly.

Protecting these experiences is Samsung Knox, a proprietary defense-grade security solution integrated across various consumer touchpoints, such as mobile devices, home appliances and TVs. With Knox, users can confidently manage their sensitive information within the Samsung ecosystem.

Looking at the next five years of healthcare in the context of the AI era, Pak concluded, “A daily companion that knows who I am, as well as what I need and when, will help me achieve my health goals seamlessly through lifestyle behaviors and connected innovative partner services.”

[1] The number of Samsung Health users is based on the global monthly active users (MAU) as of April 2026.

[2] The number of SmartThings users is based on the global registered users as of May 2026.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced a major update to the Samsung Health app, transforming the upcoming Galaxy Watch into a proactive, intelligent health partner. Starting June 8, Samsung will begin rolling out the app update to showcase the key health features included in the upcoming Galaxy Watch. The update makes daily health management effortless by translating complex biometric data — from overnight sleep to daily activity — into simple, actionable guidance.

“Samsung Health is evolving to connect health data measured by Galaxy Watch with AI-based insights, enabling users to understand their physical and mental condition more easily and intuitively,” said Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of the Digital Health Team for the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung Electronics will continue to expand proactive and personalised health management experiences based on the connected Galaxy ecosystem and digital health innovations.”

This advancement is a key milestone in Samsung’s overarching vision for a truly AI-powered health platform designed to help users stay ahead of their health. The newly announced health features will first be available on the upcoming Galaxy Watch.

Features Transforming Galaxy Watch into an Intelligent Health Partner

The Samsung Health update comes with the following features:

• Vitals: A Better Understanding of the Body’s Signals^[1] — Previously, Samsung Health monitored specific health metrics to help measure users’ daily Energy Score. Now, Samsung Health is taking this a step further. When users wake up, the new Vitals feature analyses five key overnight bio-signals — heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, skin temperature and blood oxygen — against their true resting baseline. It sends notifications only when it detects meaningful deviations, helping users determine if they need more rest or are fighting an illness, without causing alert fatigue.

• Heart Health Score: Improved Long-Term Wellness^[1] — Last year, Samsung introduced Vascular Load to help users monitor vascular stress and adopt a more holistic approach to health. Today, that vision evolves into the Heart Health Score. This single daily metric takes the insights previously found in Vascular Load — such as sleep, stress and activity — and combines them with body composition data. The result is a unified score that clearly identifies the habits impacting users’ long-term well-being, giving them immediate clarity on their heart health.

• Daily Cardio Load: Smarter Cardiovascular Training — When users are deciding how hard to push during aerobic exercise, Daily Cardio Load measures accumulated cardiovascular strain. By calculating daily load and maximum training capacity, it recommends optimal training targets and rest times to ensure users reach their goals without risking burnout or injury.

• Fitness Index: Seamless Progress Tracking — The Fitness Index ensures exercise routines are working by analysing metrics like heart rate, VO2 max (a key measure of aerobic fitness) and daily steps against users’ peers. By clearly identifying individual physical strengths and weaknesses, it delivers tailored content and personalised goals so users can make continuous, targeted improvements.

New Samsung Health Design for a Simplified, Personal Experience

To make these proactive insights easy to find, Samsung Health introduces a streamlined layout organised into five core pillars: Sleep, Activity, Nutrition, Mindfulness and Vitals. Within the Home screen, users can now easily access their daily wellness tips alongside their AI-powered Energy Score. This centralised view removes guesswork from health management, allowing users to quickly understand how different aspects of their routine interconnect at a single glance.

Upgraded Capabilities for Proactive Wellness

Samsung Health is also significantly advancing the core features users already rely on, delivering deeper personalisation with greater precision. As users navigate their day, Antioxidant Index^[2] now provides an even clearer roadmap of their nutritional intake. With new trend charts and daily history logs, it visually connects users’ dietary choices to physical responses over time.

Behind the scenes, the AGEs index has been enhanced to quietly work in the background, capturing automatic overnight measurements to build a long-term picture of how lifestyle choices accumulate in users’ bodies. This helps users uncover health insights that truly matter for their well-being.

Comprehensive wellness extends to external environments, as well, with Samsung offering a brand-new Hearing Health feature that integrates seamlessly across the Galaxy ecosystem. By monitoring surrounding ambient noise through Galaxy Watch, it delivers personalised analytics to help protect the user’s ears — whether they are on a loud commute or dialing up the music during a workout.

Together, these advanced refinements and new ecosystem-connected features turn everyday data into simple, practical guidance, setting the perfect stage for the future of Samsung Health.

A Seamlessly Connected Health Ecosystem

Samsung’s expansive ecosystem unlocks the true power of these new features, seamlessly managing health across users’ Galaxy mobile phones and connected devices. This frictionless integration ensures that personalised insights are always accessible, providing a unified view of user well-being.

These advancements offer a glimpse into the future of Samsung Health — a future that will be fully realised with the launch of Samsung’s next generation of Galaxy Watches, engineered to bring this proactive intelligence to life like never before.

[1] New health features are for wellness only, not for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. If concerned about health, be sure to see a medical professional. Available on Android phones (Android 10 or above) and requires the Samsung Health app (v7.0 or above). Samsung account login required. Certain features may require user activity and data accumulation over time to enable personalised results. Feature availability, supported devices, and rollout timing may vary by market, model, and other factors and are subject to change.

[2] Requires a Galaxy smartphone running Android 11+ and Samsung Health App (V6. 30.2 or above). Samsung Account login required.

This powerful combination of technology and talent has already reaped rewards. After securing a dominant win at the 2025 Chicago Marathon and shattering the half-marathon world record this March in Lisbon, the 25-year-old is now targeting success at the 2026 London Marathon.

To mark World Health Day (WHD) 2026 on April 7, Samsung Newsroom asked him to detail his data-driven training regime which embodies this year’s WHD slogan, “Together for health. Stand with science.”

With exclusive access to his Samsung Health metrics, we take an inside look into his grueling training program which has seen him cover over 100 km in just one week. Discover how insights led him to adjust his training for optimal recovery and how even a “rest day” can include a 3 km run.

Screenshots from Jacob Kiplimo’s Samsung Health app show his varied training routine, including light jogs and long-distance runs  

Congratulations on your recent world record at the 2026 Lisbon Half Marathon. What’s the secret to your success?

There’s no secret. It’s just about discipline. You have to work hard, be extremely focused, and manage your energy — knowing when to rest and when to push harder. But honestly, the most important part is that you have to really want what you’re working toward. I wouldn’t have broken the world record if I didn’t follow that formula.

You finished second at the 2025 London Marathon and are now preparing to go one step further at this year’s event. What role has your Galaxy Watch8 played in your training?

My coach doesn’t live in Uganda, so my Galaxy Watch8 has basically become his personal assistant here. Even though he’s not with me, he can get real-time analysis and reports on my running form through the Running Analysis feature in Samsung Health. We track my heart rate and pay close attention to my pace for each kilometer. During the harder sessions, I also monitor the asymmetry readings to see if I’m overcompensating on one side so I can avoid strain. Contact time is another key aspect I keep an eye on, making small adjustments to my form to ensure every stride is as efficient as possible. I always try to improve my running economy, so these insights are incredibly helpful.

Looking at your recent Samsung Health data, we can see some clear patterns in your training routine. Tell us about your regime.

Consistency is key, but athletes must not be obsessed with training. What many people don’t realize is that rest is equally as important as physical training. To compete at your best, you need to be able to maximize your energy, and the only way to do that is through consistent rest. But “rest” doesn’t always mean no training. A rest day can mean running 3 km instead of 40 km. You have to be consistent in what you’re doing, but you also need to listen to your body and know when to slow down. Technology can help a lot with this.

Jacob Kiplimo’s Samsung Health data from March 13–19 reveals how he ramps up his training routine throughout the week

Can you give us an example of how a specific insight from the Samsung Health app led you to adapt your training program?

The decision to run 3 km instead of 40 km that I just mentioned was a true story. After experiencing some lingering soreness during a recent 24 km run, I decided to turn what was intended to be a 40 km run into a light 3 km jog to ensure I could recover and have the stamina to get through 40 km another day. The Samsung Health app was very helpful for me here. It kept me informed so I could allow my body to fully recover and prevent a potential injury or burnout.

We’ve seen how a professional runner like yourself uses data to reach their goals. What advice would you give to someone who is just starting their running journey, and how can the Running Coach feature get them on the right track?

For beginners, it is very important to ease into things and be patient. You will build up stamina over time; it’s about knowing when to push yourself and when to stop. Not everyone has a personal coach with them to tailor a training plan. But the Running Coach feature provides customized programs to help even beginners train for a marathon. It tells you exactly what you should be doing during a run, motivates you, and helps you improve. New runners are fortunate to have this fantastic technology which can guide them every step of the way. It’s also great for more experienced runners looking to take on a full marathon as it provides structured training programs.

On World Health Day, the message is “Together for health, stand with science.” How does this relate to your own philosophy?

Science helps me throughout my training. I don’t know where I would be without the ability to track data on my Galaxy Watch8. I use that science to shape my daily routine. Science and technology help me to perform at my best, and I believe it can do the same for anyone.

Jacob Kiplimo training for the London Marathon with his Galaxy Watch8 

From a young runner in Uganda to a world-record holder, Jacob Kiplimo proves what happens when relentless dedication meets smart technology. Whether you are an elite athlete striving for the podium or someone taking your first steps towards a healthier lifestyle, Galaxy Watch8 provides actionable insights to help you build healthier habits and reach your goals.

Samsung’s Antioxidant Index^[1] on Galaxy Watch8^[2] transforms what once seemed like science fiction into everyday technology. In five seconds, a thumb scan returns precise carotenoid levels – the industry’s first measurable nutrition index.

By miniaturising lab-grade sensor technology with exceptional accuracy, it turns your diet into an actionable metric for healthier ageing. Establishing this new benchmark in wearable health tracking required years of intensive R&D, countless prototypes and unwavering grit.

Breaking New Ground in Nutrition Tracking

Back in 2018, Samsung saw a critical gap in wearables: we could count every step and calorie, yet there was no simple way to measure how our diet impacted our health. Deeper nutritional insights were locked behind expensive and time-consuming lab tests, out of reach for many people.

As people live longer, the focus is shifting from simply increasing lifespan to improving the quality of those additional years.

“In this context, antioxidation naturally gains attention as a method to slow down ageing,” explains Dr. Hyojee Joung, a Seoul National University^[3] who guided parts of the tech’s development. “If antioxidant management is neglected, Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) accumulate in the body, increasing the risk of chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.”

This realisation made antioxidants the cornerstone of Samsung’s mission. Engineers and scientists focused on carotenoids – key antioxidants and proven indicators of fruit and vegetable intake – to create a device small enough to sit on your wrist, yet powerful enough to turn complex antioxidant data into simple, actionable health insights for everyone.

The first prototype of the spectroscopy-based antioxidant sensor

A clinical-ready version of the sensor

A prototype designed for use in skincare products

Challenge #1: How to Shrink the Lab-Grade Sensor Technology

From day one, the dream of a nutrition-tracking wearable hit an immediate snag: traditional methods for measuring carotenoid levels like Raman spectroscopy are laser-based, non-invasive and precise, but rely on bulky machines that are far from wearable. So the team’s first mission was to shrink the lab-grade tech into a coin-sized sensor.

After seven years of rigorous testing and optimising since the first prototype, the team developed miniaturized sensor, a groundbreaking tech that combines multi-wavelength LEDs with a custom photodetector array to provide accurate carotenoid readings in a compact design.

“Our breakthrough was integrating reflectance spectroscopy with LEDs, which allowed us to miniaturize the technology while maintaining a high level of accuracy,” explains Jinyoung Park, a developer from Digital Health team at Samsung Electronics.

Antioxidant sensor LED-PD sensor modules

Unlike lasers, which emit a sharp, narrow wavelength, LEDs emit a broader wavelength range. By analysing how much light is absorbed by the skin at multiple wavelengths through photodiodes,^[4] the watch estimates carotenoid levels with impressive accuracy. The advanced algorithms that continuously calibrate in real-time also support precision while delivering personalised insights to each user.

The LED-PD Watch prototype testbed

Challenge #2: How to Ensure the Tech Reaches Everyone

Creating a coin-sized carotenoid sensor was a major milestone, but the next challenge was ensuring it could work accurately and reliably across diverse skin types, making it truly accessible to everyone.

To overcome challenges like melanin interference in darker skin tones, Samsung’s engineers opted to use the fingertip for measurements since it has the least melanin across all ethnic groups. They also added simple tweaks, like light fingertip pressure during scans, which helps temporarily reduce blood flow and hemoglobin interference, making the results more accurate.

Extensive trials conducted at Samsung Medical Center,^[5] included hundreds of participants, validating the sensor’s performance. This paved the way for a feature that seamlessly transitioned from the lab to users worldwide, offering an inclusive solution designed for everyday life.

How It Works

Carotenoids are the natural red, yellow, and green pigments found in fruits and vegetables. Since our bodies can’t produce carotenoids on their own, the levels stored in the body offer a clear snapshot of how much fruit and vegetables someone has been eating.

This is where your Antioxidant Index score comes in, reflecting your carotenoid levels based on these categories:

• Very low: Less than 50% of the daily WHO recommendation of 400g per day.
• Low: Between 50%–100%.
• Optimal: 100% or more.

“Skin carotenoids metabolise and accumulate in tissues gradually, so short-term changes in fruit and vegetable intake won’t immediately appear in the score,” explains Dr. Hyojee Joung. “Our research shows that increased carotenoid intake leads to a meaningful rise in skin carotenoid levels after about one to two weeks, making the Index a valuable tool for tracking consistent, long-term dietary habits.”

Lifestyle factors like sleep quality, stress levels, and physical activity also influence the Index, making it a well-rounded indicator of overall health. Paired with other Galaxy Watch8 features like sleep coaching, activity tracking and Vascular Load monitoring, the Antioxidant Index offers a holistic view of your well-being, empowering smarter decisions for healthier ageing.

The Antioxidant index feature measures carotenoid levels in seconds with the sensor on the back of the Galaxy Watch8 and provides additional nutritional insights on paired Galaxy smartphones.

Your Health, Reimagined

“New wearable sensors can play a role in helping people build healthy eating habits by tracking and encouraging sufficient daily intake of fruits and vegetables,” says Professor Yoonho Choi from Samsung Medical Center. “Over time, this simple practice can help support long term health and reduce the risk of age-related diseases, making it a very effective way to support overall wellbeing.”

Antioxidants are an emerging area of focus, but research has been limited due to the challenges of accurate measurement. Galaxy Watch8’s Antioxidant Index goes beyond current industry developments and delivers meaningful innovation.

Samsung’s ability to measure antioxidant levels with precision, acknowledged by experts as a benchmark for future research, represents a breakthrough in health monitoring. By helping users identify risks early and take proactive steps towards better health, Samsung is paving the way for a smarter, more proactive approach to wellness and redefining the role of wearables in preventative healthcare.

[1]Requires a Galaxy smartphone running Android 11+ and Samsung Health App (V6. 30.2 or above). Samsung Account login required.

[2]Samsung Health features are intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, treatment of any medical condition or sleep disorder. The measurements are for your personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice. Samsung account login required.

[3]Seoul National University is a leading academic institution in South Korea.

[4]Photodiodes are semiconductor devices that convert light into electrical signals.

[5] Samsung Medical Center in Seoul, South Korea, is a leading medical institution known for its patient-centered care, advanced medical technologies, and specialized centers such as the Comprehensive Cancer and Proton Therapy Centers.

• Jamie Laing drops new spoken word track, Morning People, urging the UK to ditch the snooze button and take charge of their day
• Named “Morning People”, the track blends Jamie’s signature wit with practical health & wellness tips
• New research reveals 68% say poor sleep affects their daily lives
• Commissioned by Samsung Health, the campaign calls on the nation to seize the day and achieve their wellness goals with the help of AI-powered wearable tech including the Samsung Galaxy Watch Series & Galaxy Ring
• Samsung have announced new features to help consumers set up habits to improve sleep, heart health, fitness and nutrition as part of the upcoming One UI 8 Watch, which will be available on the newest Galaxy Watch Series

Jamie Laing is urging the nation to hit snooze on snoozing via a surprise music collab aimed at energising mornings and championing wellness.

The Podcast Host, Ultramarathon Runner, and Reality TV Star has turned Motivational Speaker for the spoken word anthem which aims to transform Britain’s bleary-eyed mornings into turbocharged triumphs.

Titled “Morning People”, the track showcases a bold, synth driven battle cry for better mornings, smarter sleep, and data-driven days — complete with an inspirational animated lyric video.

Drenched in dopamine-bright visuals, the video follows an animated Jamie leaping into action with the help of Samsung’s Galaxy Watch Ultra & Galaxy Ring — from guided breathing to movement nudges and mindfulness moments. It’s wellness with a beat drop.

The new campaign encourages consumers to become more morning people, with AI-powered sleep tracking, personalised training plans and Energy Score – a daily measurement of your physical and mental energy and readiness. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Series & Galaxy Ring deliver actionable insights so users can stay on track and keep motivation high ^[1].

From “Check in with your breath, your mood, your mind” to “Use your feet / Find your rhythm ”, Jamie delivers genuine advice with warmth and charisma — all designed to help a sleep-deprived nation build better habits and wake up feeling ready to ditch the snooze button and “carpe the heck outta that diem”.

“If you can beat the morning, you can win the day” says Jamie. “That’s why I love what Samsung Health is doing — helping people understand the body and the mind, and how tech can empower you to live your best day.”

The track follows Jamie’s headline-making 150-mile ultramarathon — a feat that earned him the title of the UK’s official Morning Motivator. And now he’s using his platform to help others start their day right, with a focus on rest, recovery, and routine.

It comes following research that the average Brits only sleeps for 6 hours, with four in 10 admitting that it is stopping them from reaching their full potential.

Ever-changing temperatures (35%), overthinking past decisions (32%), and pain or discomfort (28%) topped the list as issues stopping Brits from getting their 40 winks.

It also emerged that 59% of the nation don’t class themselves as morning people as research shows nearly a third (30%) of Brits hit snooze on a weekday morning twice or more.

Half the nation revealed they feel grumpy (50%) and stressed (34%) in mornings following a rough sleep and over three-quarters (78%) believe their mental wellbeing would improve if they managed to sleep consistently well.

A third of Brits will cancel their plans following a bad night’s sleep (32%) and 33 per cent blame a lack of sleep for snapping at someone, craving junk food (23%) or making an error at work (21%).

Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience VP of Product & Marketing, Samsung UK&I, said:

“Sleep is the foundation to our approach to health, as it influences physical and mental wellbeing, yet our research reveals that many of us aren’t getting enough. That’s why we are taking action, providing innovative tools to help people understand and improve their sleep. By offering insights, coaching, and inspiration like the Morning People track, we are empowering better starts and helping the nation seize the day.”

The study commissioned by Samsung Health, ushers in a new era of wellness powered by AI.  The wearable technology including the Galaxy Watch Series & Galaxy Ring paired with Samsung Health, is designed to optimise wellness and recovery, helping users seize the day and reach their goals from the moment they wake up.

Samsung Health’s newly announced features^[2] include Bedtime Guidance^[3], to help you optimise your sleep; Vascular Load^[4], which measures stress on your vascular system while sleeping; Running Coach^[5], to help strategize your training; and Antioxidant Index^[6], to measure your carotenoids for healthy aging. All designed to help users develop healthy habits, using instant health feedback as a motivating tool.

The new features are part of the One UI 8 Watch, which will be available on the newest Galaxy Watch series.

For more information, please visit: https://www.samsung.com/uk/mobile/explore-samsung-health/ for more details. 

[1]Requires smartphone operating on Android 11 or above with Google Mobile Services and the latest version of the Samsung Health app. Samsung account login and Galaxy smartphone is required for certain AI features

[2]Samsung Health features are intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, treatment of any medical condition or sleep disorder. The measurements are for your personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice. Samsung account login required. Vascular Load, Running Coach and Antioxidant Index are available on Android phones (Android 10 or above) and requires the Samsung Health app (v6.30.2 or later). Vascular Load and Antioxidant index are Labs features that you can preview before its official launch. If you don’t want to use these experimental features, you can turn them off in Samsung Health settings.

[3]Bedtime guidance is available on Android phone (Android 11 and above) requires Samsung Health app (v6.30.2 or later). It is based on 3 days of sleep analysis of user’s circadian rhythm and sleep pressure.

[4]Service only available with Galaxy Watch Ultra or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To measure vascular load, it is required to wear Galaxy Watch when sleeping for at least 3 days out of recent 14 days.

[5]Service only available with Galaxy Watch Ultra or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To use running coach program, user needs to take a running level test and get a level before starting the coach program.

[6]Service only available with Galaxy Watch Ultra or later released Galaxy Watch Series. To measure, place the centre of your finger on the sensor at the back of the Watch and hold it for 5 seconds. While Anti-oxidant index can be measured using any finger, the thumb is recommended for the most accurate result. Repeat measurement due to uneven skin texture may lead to inaccurate results.

I’ve spent years witnessing technology change the way people live their lives. The way we work, connect and make decisions is entirely different from a generation ago; but until recently, eating routines, movement, and rest have largely been unchanged.

Technology today, in particular the rise of wearables, is now helping us also become aware of our health and track many elements of it. Everything from when to sleep and exercise and even what to eat. We’re at the dawn of truly predictive, personalised health intelligence.

This seismic shift is where every mouthful of food, every step taken, every wink of sleep is not just a mundane choice, but an act of self-care. Where technology moves from passive companion to active guardian – anticipating our needs and nudging us towards our goals.

What’s more, younger generations are running away from unhealthy choices. Recent data suggests run clubs have seen a 59% increase in global participation in 2024^[1], with people making friendships, and one in five of them resulting in a date. Health technology is not a passing fad or trend but something that is accelerating every day and making a real difference to people’s well-being.

This week, at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, we announced new Samsung Health features^[2] to help improve sleep, heart health, fitness, and nutrition. These new features are designed to help empower our consumers to lead healthier lives through proactive care and holistic health management.

My colleague Dr. Hon Pak, Senior Vice President and Head of Digital Health Team, Mobile eXperience,  talks about how sleep is the cornerstone of our approach to health, as it influences physical and mental well-being, social relationships, and even work performance.

Picture waking up, like many of us do, and checking your watch or ring. Instead of telling you how you slept, it guides your next choices by telling you “here’s why you slept well, and here’s what to do next”, or flagging any potential sleep issues.

The next frontier is preventative health, where technology doesn’t just monitor our wellbeing, it helps shape it. It’s happening all around us now, thanks to a seismic cultural shift which at Samsung, we are adapting to quickly.

A groundbreaking new Galaxy Watch feature we announced this week will measure vascular load^[3], the amount of stress on your vascular system while sleeping. The vascular system carries blood throughout the body to deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste, making it a strong indicator to determine good heart health.

I also spoke this week about our new Antioxidant Index^[4] – an industry first feature to measure carotenoids. Antioxidants are the nutrients found in many healthy foods, which help prevent chronic illnesses and promote healthy ageing. Importantly, antioxidants neutralise free radicals, which damage cells and accelerate aging. Behavioural factors, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, UV exposure, stress and lack of sleep, can accelerate aging by increasing free radicals in the body.

You will be able to use your Galaxy Watch and its advanced, light-activated BioActive sensor to measure carotenoids in just five seconds, which are antioxidants found in green and orange vegetables and fruits, stored in your skin.

You’ll quickly see how these insights reflect behavioural changes. For example, drinking carrot juice can show changes in the index. This transforms abstract nutrition into measurable outcomes that drive sustained healthy behaviours.

So, as we look ahead to the future of health tech, one thing is becoming undeniably clear: health will become the filter through which we make every choice. Not just the big decisions, like how we treat illness or manage fitness, but the small, everyday ones. What we watch. What we eat. What we buy. Because soon, the data will be right there with us, moment by moment, guiding us toward what our bodies and minds actually need.

And in that world, brands will have a new kind of responsibility. It won’t be enough to be relevant by trend or preference. Brands will need to prove their role in supporting people’s well-being—in showing how they truly fit into a better, healthier life.

That’s where we’re headed. We will continue to be more intentional with our health tech innovation. It will be deeply human focused, rooted in biology, mood, need, and real-time context.

At Samsung, we’re not just creating products that cut through the noise. We’re creating technology that cares. Because in the end, the greatest innovation isn’t in what we build, but in how we help people truly thrive.

Annika Bizon, Mobile Experience VP of Product & Marketing, Samsung UK&I.

[1]https://press.strava.com/articles/strava-releases-annual-year-in-sport-trend

[2]Health features are intended for general wellness and fitness purposes only. The measurements are for your personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice. Samsung account login required. Vascular Load, Running Coach and Antioxidant Index are available on Android phones (Android 10 or above) and requires the Samsung Health app (v6.30.2 or later). Vascular Load and Antioxidant index are Labs features that you can preview before its official launch. If you don’t want to use these experimental features, you can turn them off in Samsung Health settings.

[3]Vascular Load is available on Android phones (Android 10 or above) and requires the Samsung Health app (V6.30 or above). Samsung account login is required. To measure vascular load, it is required to wear Galaxy Watch (Galaxy Watch Ultra, Watch8 and later release Galaxy Watch series) when sleeping for at least 3 days out of recent 14 days. Vascular load monitoring is for fitness and wellness only. If you have been diagnosed with cardiovascular disease or are recovering from surgery, be sure to follow your doctor’s treatment plan. Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, treatment of any medical condition or diseases. This is a Labs feature that you can preview before its official launch. If you don’t want to use this feature, you can turn if off in Samsung Health settings.

[4]To measure, place the centre of your finger on the sensor at the back of the Watch and hold it for 5 seconds. While Anti-oxidant index can be measured using any finger, the thumb is recommended for most accurate result. Repeat measurement if there is uneven placement of finger. Requires Samsung Account login and Samsung Health app 6.27 or later. Available on devices with Android OS 10 (Q OS) or later. AGEs is supported in Samsung Galaxy Watch7 and later released Samsung Galaxy Watch models only. Not intended for use in detection, diagnosis, treatment of any medical condition. Anti-oxidant monitoring is for your personal reference only. Please consult a medical professional for advice.