Health, for many high-achieving women, often becomes an afterthought. Leadership roles, professional ambitions, family responsibilities, and societal expectations converge to create a life of constant output. In that process, physical wellbeing is frequently sacrificed, not intentionally, but gradually, and often without awareness until the consequences begin to surface. Dr. Akanni Salako has built his life’s work around changing that pattern.
As a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the Founder of The Wellness Lab, Dr. Akanni Salako is leading a movement focused on restoring strength, metabolic health, and confidence in women who have spent decades prioritizing everything except themselves. His approach goes beyond traditional fitness coaching. It integrates clinical science, hormonal health, nutrition strategy, and behavioral systems designed specifically for high-performing women in their 40s and beyond.
Through The Wellness Lab, he has helped more than 100,000 women transform not only their physical health, but their relationship with their bodies, their identity, and their long-term wellbeing. His mission is rooted in both professional expertise and deeply personal experience, shaped by the women who raised him and the realities he witnessed growing up.
In a conversation with Exeleon Magazine, Dr. Salako reflects on the origins of his mission, the gaps in traditional wellness models, and his vision for reshaping how women approach health, strength, and leadership.
A Personal Mission Rooted in Family and Observation
Dr. Akanni Salako’s commitment to women’s health began long before his professional training. It started at home, where he witnessed firsthand the silent sacrifices made by the women around him.
“I grew up as the only male in my immediate family, raised by strong, driven women,” he explains. “I watched them pour into everyone else while quietly neglecting themselves. They built careers, carried families, pushed through stress, and normalized exhaustion.”
Over time, he saw the consequences of that pattern unfold. “High blood pressure. Weight gain. Chronic pain. Medications stacking up. Confidence shrinking,” he recalls. “What impacted me most wasn’t just the physical decline, it was how normalized it became. As if sacrificing your health was simply the cost of ambition.”
That realization stayed with him. While physical therapy provided the clinical knowledge to understand the body, his mission took shape through observation and empathy.
“Physical therapy gave me the clinical foundation to understand the body,” he says. “But my mission was born from watching powerful women slowly lose themselves because no one gave them a strategy that honored both their ambition and their biology.”
Today, his work is driven by a singular purpose. “My work is about restoring strength, physically and psychologically, to women who were taught to prioritize everything except their own health.”
Building The Wellness Lab: From Coaching to Movement
The creation of The Wellness Lab was not driven by opportunity alone. It was driven by frustration with systems that were failing the very women they claimed to serve.
“The Wellness Lab was built because I was tired of watching high-achieving women fail on programs that were never designed for them,” he explains.
Traditional fitness programs often assume ideal conditions that do not reflect real life. “Most fitness advice is built around 25-year-old metabolisms, low stress lifestyles, or extreme dieting tactics that collapse under real-world pressure,” he says.
But the women he works with live different realities. “The women I coach are nurses, executives, entrepreneurs, physicians, attorneys. They manage teams. They manage households. They manage millions in revenue. But they’ve never been given a structured, sustainable system for managing their own health.”
What began as coaching has evolved into something far larger. “The Wellness Lab started as coaching. It has evolved into a movement,” he says. “We now serve women across the country with structured nutrition systems, strength programming, gut-health protocols, accountability frameworks, and leadership-level support.”
The scale of impact is already significant. “We’ve scaled to help over 100,000 women while maintaining personalization,” he notes.
But the true vision goes beyond weight loss. “The vision has shifted from helping women lose weight to something bigger. Redefining what powerful, high-performing, healthy women look like in their 40s and 50s.”
Addressing the Gaps Traditional Wellness Ignored
Dr. Salako identified critical flaws in conventional fitness models that often leave women feeling frustrated, exhausted, and defeated.
“Three major gaps,” he explains. “Hormones were ignored. Stress was underestimated. Sustainability was an afterthought.”
The simplistic advice to “eat less and move more” often fails women experiencing hormonal changes, chronic stress, and metabolic shifts.
“Crash dieting increases stress. Excess cardio increases inflammation. Restriction leads to rebound,” he explains.
Instead, his system focuses on structure and science.
“No one was teaching women how to eat enough protein to protect lean muscle, strength train strategically, support gut health and inflammation, manage blood sugar, and build systems around consistency,” he says. “So I built a system that merges clinical science with real life.”
His philosophy is clear. “We don’t do extremes. We do structure. That’s the difference.”
The Power of Consistency Over Perfection
One of the most transformative concepts Dr. Salako teaches is the shift away from perfectionism.
“Perfection burns out powerful women. Consistency builds them,” he says.
High performers often fall into cycles of extremes. “High achievers tend to go all in or all out. They either follow a plan perfectly or abandon it completely the moment life gets chaotic.”
He replaces that mindset with a sustainable framework.
“I teach them something different. Win the week. Control the controllables. Stack small disciplined actions.”
The psychological shift is profound. “They stop emotionally spiraling after one off-plan meal. They stop quitting after one missed workout. They stop defining themselves by a number on a scale.”
Instead, they begin to see themselves differently. “They focus on identity. I am a woman who trains. I am a woman who prioritizes protein. I am a woman who honors her body. That shift changes everything.”
Transformations That Go Beyond Weight Loss
While physical transformations are visible, the deeper changes often occur internally.
Dr. Salako recalls one client whose journey represents the broader impact of his work.
“Anique, a corporate professional with PCOS, came to us insulin resistant and pre-diabetic,” he says. “She was doing strict keto, afraid of carbs, cycling through multiple medications, and taking five different supplements just to manage her symptoms.”
Instead of further restriction, his approach focused on rebuilding her metabolic foundation.
“We implemented a well-balanced nutrition strategy. We reintroduced carbs strategically. We increased her protein. We supported blood sugar stability. We focused on strength training and consistency.”
The results were measurable and meaningful. “In just three months, she was 15 pounds down, two dress sizes smaller, no longer pre-diabetic, and reduced from multiple medications and supplements.”
But the true transformation went deeper.
“She was stronger. Clear-headed. Confident. In control of her body again,” he says. “The weight loss was powerful. But reclaiming her health, her clarity, and her confidence, that was the real transformation.”
Redefining Representation and Cultural Context in Wellness
As an Influential Black Leader in the wellness space, Dr. Salako recognizes the broader implications of his work.
“Representation matters, especially in wellness,” he says.
He points out how many traditional metrics and systems fail to account for diverse populations.
“Take the BMI scale. It was developed in the 1800s using European male data, not Black women, not women with higher muscle mass, different bone density patterns, or culturally different body compositions,” he explains.
He also challenges cultural biases in nutrition.
“Traditional wellness spaces often demonize culturally familiar foods while glorifying rebranded alternatives,” he says. “Health should not require cultural erasure.”
His mission includes making wellness culturally relevant and accessible.
“When women understand that they don’t have to abandon their culture, their preferences, or their identity to become healthy, the mental overwhelm decreases immediately,” he explains.
That clarity creates empowerment. “They stop thinking maybe my body is broken. And start realizing maybe the system I was following wasn’t built for me.”
Building a Legacy That Changes Generations
Looking ahead, Dr. Salako’s vision extends far beyond individual transformations.
“I don’t want to just build a successful coaching company. I want to build a standard,” he says.
That standard includes changing how society views women’s health and aging.
“A standard where women over 40 are not written off. Hormone weight gain isn’t dismissed. Medication isn’t the first solution. Strength is normalized. Health is seen as leadership.”
His definition of legacy is rooted in long-term impact.
“If 20 years from now, women in boardrooms are stronger, more metabolically healthy, and more confident because of systems we created, that’s legacy,” he says.
And perhaps most importantly, his work aims to influence future generations.
“If my work helps a generation of daughters watch their mothers prioritize themselves instead of self-sacrifice, that’s impact.”
Ultimately, his mission is about raising expectations.
“At the end of the day, I want to be remembered as someone who raised the standard of what health looks like for high-performing women and built something that outlives me.”
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