Skip the Hacks. Do the Work.

The longevity industry is having a moment.

Peptides, cold plunges, red light therapy, continuous glucose monitors, full-body MRI scans, supplement stacks that cost more than a car payment. Social media is flooded with biohackers promising that the right combination of technologies and interventions can meaningfully extend human lifespan.

By 2030, $8 trillion might be spent annually on longevity-related products. That's trillion with a T.

The Atlantic just called it what it is: mostly a scam.

As someone who's spent 20+ years in the fitness industry watching every trend come and go, I mostly agree. But I want to add some nuance — because not all hacks are created equal.

The Modern Snake Oil Rush

Don't get me wrong — I appreciate what the early longevity pioneers did. For decades, Western medicine focused on treating disease rather than preventing it. The shift toward lifestyle-first prevention was overdue and valuable.

But somewhere along the way, prevention became profit. Simple became complicated. Evidence-based became marketing-based.

Now we have health influencers with more confidence than evidence selling unvalidated treatments to people desperate for a shortcut to longer life. Rapamycin for anti-aging. "Wolverine" peptides for tissue repair. Full-body MRI scans to "detect disease early."

Most of it is either useless or potentially harmful.

The Problems with Biohacking Culture

Take peptides, for example. When prescribed by physicians, FDA-approved peptides like insulin and GLP-1s can be remarkably effective. But the unregulated peptides you can order online? There's no placebo-controlled human data supporting most of their claimed benefits.

BPC-157 ("Wolverine") is supposed to ramp up collagen production and aid tendon healing. Sounds great. Show me the studies. Show me the long-term safety data. You can't, because they don't exist.

Or consider full-body MRI scans, marketed as tools to "detect disease early" and thereby extend life. The reality? These scans routinely reveal normal aging changes that get labeled as problems requiring intervention.

The Atlantic describes a 48-year-old man whose longevity MRI found a small prostate lesion. His PSA was normal. The validated screening test said he was fine. But because the lesion showed up on the scan, he was sent for a biopsy. The procedure was benign but left him unable to sit comfortably for weeks.

His reaction: "I wish I'd never done the MRI."

Lazy Hacks vs. Earned Hacks

Here's where I break with the "all hacks are dumb" crowd. Because technically? Everything I believe in is a hack.

Loading your skeleton with 3-12 times your bodyweight on an OsteoStrong machine? That's a hack — you're deliberately triggering an adaptation that wouldn't happen in daily life. Lifting heavy weights to force your muscles to grow stronger? Hack. Training your balance on a vibration plate? Hack.

By definition, any time you intentionally create a stimulus to force your body to adapt, you're hacking your biology. That's literally what exercise IS.

The difference is simple: lazy hacks try to skip the work. Earned hacks ARE the work.

• ❌ Lazy hack: Take this pill to build muscle without lifting.
• ✅ Earned hack: Lift something heavy enough to force adaptation.

• ❌ Lazy hack: Wear this device and your bones will get stronger.
• ✅ Earned hack: Generate forces multiple times your bodyweight through osteogenic loading.

• ❌ Lazy hack: This supplement stack will slow aging.
• ✅ Earned hack: Show up three times a week and progressively overload your muscles for the rest of your life.

The best hacks aren't shortcuts — they're smarter paths that still require effort. They demand something from you. And that's exactly why they work.

The Fundamentals Still Win (They're Just Not Sexy)

Here's the inconvenient truth: modern medicine has already succeeded at extending human life. Over the past 150 years, life expectancy has more than doubled worldwide.

Clean water, sanitation, antibiotics, vaccines — these did more to extend human lifespan than any supplement stack ever could.

And the tools for extending healthy longevity? We already know what they are. They're just not sexy enough for Instagram.

Daily exercise and maintaining skeletal muscle volume as you age are among the most potent forms of preventive health care.

The research I've covered this week makes this crystal clear:

• Muscle strength is a bigger predictor of longevity than cardio fitness
• Heavy resistance training creates lasting adaptations that light activity can't match
• Starting strength training later still provides 5-10% improvements in physical capacity
• The window for intervention is closing, but it's not closed

None of this requires peptides, cold plunges, or $10,000 worth of lab tests. It requires showing up consistently and doing work that feels challenging.

Why We Love Lazy Hacks (And Why They Fail)

I get the appeal. It feels like you're in control. It gives you something to optimize, track, and tinker with. There's always a new protocol to try, a new supplement to add, a new metric to monitor.

It's also psychologically easier than admitting that longevity comes down to fundamentals done consistently over decades.

Nobody wants to hear "lift heavy weights 2-3 times per week for the rest of your life." That's not hackable. You can't optimize your way around it or find a shortcut. You just have to do it.

But that's exactly why it works. Muscle doesn't care about your biometric data or your supplement stack. It responds to progressive overload applied consistently over time. Bones don't care about your cold plunge routine. They respond to high-magnitude loading that signals them to get stronger.

The Things That Actually Matter

After decades in the fitness industry, here's what I tell people:

Move your body every day. Walk, bike, swim, dance — doesn't matter. Just move.

Build muscle with real resistance, regularly. Focus on compound movements that work multiple muscle groups. Progress gradually. Make it challenging enough that your body has no choice but to adapt.

Eat foods you can recognize in nature. Skip the processed stuff most of the time. Get adequate protein.

Prioritize sleep. Seven to nine hours, consistently. This is the most underrated hack of all — and it's free.

Stay socially connected. Community activities, friendships, family time.

This isn't glamorous. You can't Instagram-optimize it. But it's free, it's evidence-backed, and it will help you live well right now.

Smart Tools vs. Shiny Objects

I'm not anti-technology. Heart rate monitors can provide useful feedback. DEXA and Echolight REMS scans give objective bone density data. Blood panels can catch real problems early. These are tools that support the fundamentals — they help you do the work smarter.

The issue is when the tools become the point instead of the means to an end. When you're spending more time optimizing your tracking devices than actually exercising. When you're investing thousands in unproven interventions while skipping the proven ones because they're "too basic."

I've seen people take 15 different supplements while walking only 2,000 steps per day because they're "too busy" for exercise. I've seen people obsess over biometric data while refusing to do strength training because it's "too hard."

That's not lazy biohacking. That's avoidance with a premium price tag.

Where OsteoStrong Fits

This is why I'm passionate about what we do at OsteoStrong. It's an earned hack — one that demands your effort and rewards it with real, measurable adaptation.

We've taken one of the most important interventions for longevity — high-intensity resistance loading — and made it as efficient and accessible as possible. No complicated protocols. No monthly supplement subscriptions. No constant optimization tweaking. Just the fundamental stimulus your bones and muscles need to stay strong as you age, delivered in 10 minutes once per week.

But here's what I always tell our members: OsteoStrong is the best answer for building bone. It's also important to add heavy resistance exercise for muscle. Put the two together and you have the ultimate recipe for overall wellness and longevity.

That combination isn't sexy. It's not hackable. It's just effective.

When members see their DEXA scans improve after a year of consistent sessions, they're not measuring some biomarker of questionable relevance. They're measuring the actual structural changes that determine whether they'll stay independent or end up needing help.

That's not lazy biohacking. That's biology working the way it's supposed to — because you showed up and did the work.

The Bottom Line

The longevity industry wants to sell you complexity because complexity is profitable. Simple solutions can't be patented, optimized, or sold as monthly subscriptions.

But the research keeps pointing back to the fundamentals: exercise daily, build strength consistently, eat real food, sleep well, stay connected to people you care about.

The real hacks — the ones worth your time and money — aren't shortcuts. They're smarter, more efficient paths that still demand your effort. OsteoStrong is one. A barbell is another. A good night's sleep is another.

The question isn't whether you can find a shortcut to longevity. It's whether you'll invest in the hacks that actually earn their name — the ones that require you to show up, do the work, and trust the process.

Skip the lazy hacks. Do the real work. Your future self will thank you.