It’s that time of year again: Fridges are stocked with fruits and veggies, gyms are full, and millions of people are determined to make this the year they lose weight and build muscle.
Getting in shape tops the list of 2026 resolutions, with nearly half of Americans vowing to exercise more next year. But the harsh reality is that only 9% will manage to stay the course for a full 12 months.
Ask biohackers and they’ll tell you exactly why those fitness resolutions crumble — and how to finally make them stick.
“[People] give up on their fitness goals because they don’t see the results. And when they don’t see the results, they feel like it’s not working,” Griff Long, a veteran pro athlete and longtime leader in the fitness industry, told The Post.
“What we have to do is give them the tools to measure their progress,” he continued.
That’s exactly what Long and his team are doing at Upgrade Labs, an AI-powered longevity center where biohackers use cutting-edge tech to customize their workouts, recovery sessions and daily habits — then track their results in real time.
“There are no mirrors in the facility. The mirror is your data,” Dave Asprey, founder of Upgrade Labs and the man widely credited with launching the biohacking movement, said in an interview.
“We’re going to tell you what works and we’re going to show you that it’s working, so there’s never any guessing.”
His wellness empire, which has eight locations across the US and Canada and memberships starting at $189 per month, begins every guest’s experience with a Cell Health Analysis.
The noninvasive scan captures a snapshot of the body at the cellular level, measuring more than 4,000 biomarkers, from body fat percentage to muscle mass to water balance, in just two minutes.
Next up: a mobility assessment with the AI Movement Trainer. Cameras record a 360-degree view as members move, and an algorithm analyzes every motion, flagging imbalances and limitations.
“If you’re substantially overweight and you’re relying on willpower and effort to lose the weight, the odds are very high that you’ll fail.”
Dave Asprey
“We’re going to measure all of that on you and give you a report on where your body is holding weaknesses that you don’t even know about so we can fix it,” said Long, the brand president of Upgrade Labs.
After all, he added, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.”
Technicians feed the data into an AI-powered program that creates a personalized plan using Upgrade Labs’ workout and recovery tools. Members are encouraged to repeat the tests at each visit to track progress they might never notice otherwise.
“We had someone who used our tech, and in six weeks, she lost six pounds of fat, gained six pounds of muscle,” Asprey said. “You would never notice that if you looked at the scale.”
By giving members a closer look at what’s happening inside their bodies, Long and Asprey say people are far more likely to stick to their goals — and see real results.
“If you’re substantially overweight and you’re relying on willpower and effort to lose the weight, the odds are very high that you’ll fail,” Asprey said.
He would know. Weighing 300 pounds in his mid-20s, the “Danger Coffee” creator hit the gym 90 minutes a day, six days a week, for 18 months — and didn’t lose a single inch off his 46-inch waist.
“I was pushing so hard and not getting results because I was overtraining, and I didn’t know how to eat and I didn’t know how to sleep,” Asprey said. “Those are really important variables.”
On the road to fitness, he explained, proper recovery is just as important as breaking a sweat.
“The biggest secret in biohacking is how quickly you recover after a workout drives whether your body will adapt or just get stressed,” Asprey said. “When people overtrain or under sleep, the negative consequences are called inflammaging.”
This chronic, low-grade inflammation can cause problems such as fatigue, brain fog, joint stiffness, digestive issues and weight gain. It’s also linked to age-related conditions like heart disease, diabetes and dementia.
“If you come to Upgrade Labs, we use our tech to turn off that inflammation and tell the body it’s safe to put on muscle or start burning fat,” Asprey said. “What happens is you feel better, and then you have more energy.”
That extra boost might be exactly what you need to turn a once-doomed New Year’s resolution into a lasting reality.
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