The Maintenance List is back, bringing you the real routines of the coolest women we know. And this edition is full of instant add-to-cart discoveries and *Googles how to book immediately* moments, courtesy of Rachel Hirsch, founder and managing partner of Wellness Growth Ventures, a seed-stage venture capital fund investing in the future of health and wellness. Rachel is also the voice behind The Wellness Investor, her Substack and podcast where she breaks down what's happening in the wellness industry through an investor's lens.
Before this, Rachel worked on Wall Street at UBS and Tiger Global, spent time at Xponential Fitness before its IPO, and built her own yoga studios in Los Angeles. Based in LA, her life is a mix of investing, writing, creating content, hosting wellness retreats, and, as she puts it, “spending a frankly unreasonable amount of time thinking about where this industry is headed.”
Her approach to health and wellness combines evidence-based interventions, movement she actually enjoys, and making room for the things that make being alive really fun. She’s also a big believer in making time for yourself and considers community and belonging two of the most underrated parts of wellness.
Here’s her rundown for maintenance:
Daily:
Yoga is my first love. I built yoga studios, so it’s been part of my life for years, but I also LOVE tennis. Give me a racket, some sunshine, and a few hours outside, and I’m a very happy girl. (Don’t worry, lots of sunscreen.)
I’m also incorporating more strength training because, let’s be honest, I don’t want to be a frail old woman. The more I learn about muscle health, longevity, and what happens to our bodies as we age, the more convinced I am that building strength is one of the most important investments we can make in ourselves.
But I also want to enjoy moving my body. Not every workout needs to be optimized, tracked, or turned into a performance metric. Sometimes I just want to play tennis in the sunshine.
Quarterly:
My aesthetician Courtney at PERK Plastic Surgery in Beverly Hills is an absolute hero. She makes me do maintenance lasers a few times a year, and I trust her 100%. I spend so much time researching wellness treatments and technologies for work that you’d think I’d have a very elaborate opinion on everything I should be doing to my face. But when it comes to my skin, I’ve largely outsourced that decision-making to Courtney. She knows my skin, she knows what works for me, and I let her do her thing. Sometimes the best wellness investment is finding someone who really knows what they’re doing and letting them take the wheel.
My Go-To Meals
Sushi. Always sushi. I would genuinely eat sushi three times a day if it weren’t so cost-prohibitive. I’m lucky to live in LA, where there’s no shortage of incredible sushi, and it’s the one meal I pretty much never get tired of. You can find me at Brother's Sushi.
I spend a lot of time thinking about nutrition, protein, and the future of food, but sometimes the answer to what I want to eat is really, really simple. It’s sushi. It’s always been sushi.
Speaking of the future of food, I really love the brand Fishwife, it is seriously our favorite.
Yoga has been part of my life for years, and it’s still one of the ways I come back to myself. But increasingly, I think the most effective stress relief for me is getting out of my own head. I love Empowered Yoga, although I am biased, I started the Empowered brand!
Spending time with friends, traveling, being somewhere beautiful, having a really good conversation, doing something that has absolutely nothing to do with work, investing, or being productive!
I recently went back to summer camp, actual summer camp, and was reminded how good it feels to get bored, play, and stop monitoring yourself for a few days. I went to Chippewa Ranch Camp in Wisconsin, a camp my sister now runs! For someone whose entire career revolves around wellness, that’s been a surprisingly important lesson.
I have a favorite Thai massage spot in Santa Monica that I love!
The Self-Care Habit I Won’t Give Up
Making time for joy. I know that’s not a serum or a supplement, but hear me out. I’ve spent years studying the wellness industry. I’ve invested in incredible companies, built studios, and tried more products and treatments than I can count, and increasingly, I think some of the most important things we can do for ourselves are the things that don’t look like wellness at all.
Having dinner with people you love. Going somewhere new. Laughing until your stomach hurts. Giving yourself permission to have fun without needing to earn it first.
I’m still going to use the products, get the treatments, and geek out over the science. But I’m not willing to sacrifice the actual living part of life in pursuit of a perfectly optimized one.
