Strong As An Ox
76K+ subscribers
Number 1 Ranked Health & Wellness Substack: Newsletter covers fitness, health, and mindset, all grounded in the fundamentals of physiology.
Category
Health & Fitness
Training, biohacking, skincare, cooking and science. 11 publications, newest posts first.
Publications
Lean Nutrition
43K+ subscribers
Proven nutrition & fitness protocols to help you shed body fat & build lean muscle
BowTied Biohacking
17K+ subscribers
Leveraging chemistry for unparalleled self-improvement. All things health, fitness, lifestyle, and performance enhancement.
Skincare Stacy Newsletter
7K+ subscribers
Evidence-based skincare, anti-aging, and beauty advice sent straight to your inbox.
BowTiedPhys
6K+ subscribers
Evidence-based protocols 2x/week for the elite practitioner on metabolic health, fitness, nutrition, & performance.
Science with Shrike
Hundreds of subscribers
Successfully navigating the business of science
BowTiedVeterinarian
Hundreds of subscribers
Handy Advice from a Small Animal Veterinarian (co-starring Bear the Labrador)
BowTiedLoon
Hundreds of subscribers
Health suggestions and lab interpretation (not medical advice) for people who want to be better than "normal"
BowTiedNeuron
Hundreds of subscribers
Teaching you more about neuroscience and human physiology.
Teaching you to eat the best food of your life, by cooking at home.
Mechanisms of recovery, 12-step analysis and philosophy, exercises to help ease the pain of getting clean and/or sober
Latest in Health & Fitness
Fitness Friday
Hello, friends. This past week saw some amazing new companies launching in the biotech space. A bunch of gossipy news about AI and various fitness podcasters admitting that, after all the peptides and all the GLPs, losing body…
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8 Best Retinol Serums for Fine Lines, Dark Spots, and Uneven Skin
If you’ve been thinking about adding retinol to your skincare routine, you’ve probably noticed just how many options there are. Some are made for beginners, others use stronger concentrations, and the ingredient lists can get…
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Why Bay Leaves Matter
Have you ever been cooking your way through a recipe and get to the “add bay leaf” instruction, proceed to root around your spice cabinet only to remember “oh yeah, I forgot I’m out of bay leaves”? I happened to be on X the other…
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Stop Knee Grinding
Knee pain is experienced by around 1 in 4 to 1 in 5 Americans. Its the most common pain people experience as they age, right along low back pain. For some people, your knee pain might be from an actual injury. Ive had right knee…
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5 Bro Science 'Myths' That Actually WORK for Muscle Growth!
I’ve said for years that bro science contains many nuggets of wisdom and is often directionally correct, even if it’s not airtight scientific in its explanations. There are many training practices that have been popularized by…
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Best Candied Walnuts
The following recipes will give 2 expressions of candied walnuts. One will yield a crushable walnut brittle that is highly addictive The second will give you perfectly candied whole walnuts that are not too sweet and make a great…
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13 Best Winter Moisturizers for Face and Body in 2026
It’s only November, but the colder weather is already here in some places, and you might be noticing your skin getting drier than usual. Between the cold air outside and indoor heating, winter can be rough on your skin. And if…
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Time Is a Nutrient
Elite health does not exist without regularity. Live with a consistently timed system and your bodily rhythms stay synced. Live without one and your metabolism starts to fail you. And the metabolic effect isn’t insignificant. An…
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Over 40? Popular Fitness Advice Is Holding You Back
I’ve been a personal trainer for almost 20 years and I’m getting closer to 40. One of the realities I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older both physically and in my professional field is the vast majority of fitness advice is still…
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Keeping Your Tendons Forever Young
For the past decade I have started almost every morning the same way: coffee, a scoop of collagen peptides, a scoop of creatine monohydrate, a splash of cream, and a little honey. It is not a complicated ritual. It takes about…
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Up to 30% Off at Sephora’s Holiday Savings Event 2026
It’s that time of year again! The Sephora Holiday Savings Event is back, and I always look forward to this sale because it’s a good chance to restock some of my favorite beauty products at a discount. With the holidays coming up,…
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How to Improve Textured Skin: A Complete Guide
I know how frustrating it can be when your skin feels rough or bumpy, especially when you’ve tried different products and still aren’t seeing much improvement. And with so many skincare products promising smoother skin, it can be…
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The Nutritional Constitution
The ideal diet for your genetics, environment, lifestyle, & training isn’t the ideal diet for mine (or any one else’s). The best diet 10 yrs ago isn’t even the best one for you today. That’s why I’m answering the requests to…
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The Bro-Split is Genius
If you spend any time in gyms and train seriously, you will eventually learn the term “Bro-Split”. It refers to a training schedule that is muscle group focused, and usually is based on training each muscle once a week. These…
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Do You Really Need Mobility?
Mobility is essential for living PAIN FREE It is not just glorified stretching. Stretching is part of it, but the outcomes we actually want are more specific. Mobility is the philosophy of retaining full capacity of all of our…
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Hyaluronic Acid Before or After Retinol? A Complete Guide
If you’ve been using retinol for a while, you know that dryness can be one of the most frustrating parts of having it in your skincare routine. Hyaluronic acid can help with that, and you might already have a serum at home. But…
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Whats the Deal with LDL, Volume Vs Intensity, Peptides,
Whats the Deal with LDL? Over the course of my life Ive seen conversation around cholesterol swing back and forth. In the 1980s and 1990s, low fat was the craze and cholesterol was the enemy. Then in the 2000s, paleo became…
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It Was Never Just the Calories
We’ve always known there was something more going on. For years we explained ultraprocessed food’s neurohormonal chokehold on us with reductionism. It tastes better. We eat it faster. It doesn’t satiate us. Last week, a Virginia…
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How to Care for Sensitive Skin During the Colder Months
Sensitive skin can make finding the right skincare products frustrating. Something that works great for someone else might leave your skin feeling tight, itchy, or irritated, even when the product claims to be gentle. And now…
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39 Proven Methods to Lower Your Blood Pressure
It’s insane the number of people walking around who look perfectly healthy with excessively high blood pressure. Lean. Train 4–5x/week. Eat well. Sleep well. Then show up to a PCP for the first time in a few years…145/110. I’ve…
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Refeeds: The Practical Tool That Keeps Fat Loss Sustainable
In the past decade, Ive had over 5000 people use my Accelerated Fat Loss Program (and this was before GLPs became mainstream). One of the primary strategies that makes that program successful for people is Refeeds. Most people…
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Lean Fitness Friday-October 9th
We are in the final quarter of 2026. How did this year go for you? What were your health wins? Let me know in the comments 1. Stop using “tool-shaped” performance hacks A tool exists to solve a problem clearly. Not to create new…
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The recovery trap for men over 45
You could work 60 hours a week, train hard in the gym, eat whatever was around, sleep five hours, and bounce back by Thursday. Your nervous system could handle the load because your recovery engine was running on full volume.…
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Mobility doesn't take 45 minutes
They think it takes too much time… They see influencers online spending 45 minutes on elaborate warm-up protocols—rolling around on foam rollers, tying bands to rigs, and running through twenty different drills. Their immediate…
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Do You Really Need an Eye Cream? A Complete Guide
If you’ve spent any time looking into eye creams, you’ve probably heard two very different opinions: everyone needs one, or they’re just overpriced moisturizers in smaller jars. The truth is somewhere in the middle. The skin…
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Health Brands That Sold Out
Once you see the enshittification cycle, you can’t unsee it. We covered the process and how you can avoid playing the game , but the time has come for us to conduct a deeper investigation on who’s actually been selling out. The…
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How Antioxidants Work in Skincare: A Complete Guide
Antioxidants are one of those skincare ingredients you’ve probably heard you should be using, but what they actually do for your skin can get a little lost in the marketing. Their main job is to help protect your skin from…
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How Long Does Vitamin C Serum Last? A Complete Guide
Vitamin C is one of those skincare ingredients that can be a little tricky to keep around. Depending on the formula and how you store it, your serum can start to degrade over time. And because there isn’t one expiration timeline…
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Hard Time Chillin’ Floor Blues
Usually when i write articles I’ll outline em and then the outline will sit forever in a folder until I have nothing else to do and then i’ll write. This one’s more like a yapper video. I have an idea, but it’s not organized, and…
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What A Cracker Looks Like Without The Bullsh*t
One of the cool features of writing here is the opportunity to work with so many brands. But the reality is, I only end up partnering with a handful of the ones that reach out. For two reasons: I refuse to work with brands caving…
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4% vs. 10% Benzoyl Peroxide: A Complete Guide
If you’re dealing with acne, there’s a good chance you’ve come across PanOxyl. The brand has two popular benzoyl peroxide cleansers, one with 4% and another with 10%, and choosing between them isn’t always as straightforward as…
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22 Japanese Principles to Improve Your Life
Japanese culture has always fascinated me. Their overall health . Their low crime rates . Their high intelligence. Their cleanliness . Their ability to defeat the tragedy of the commons . ( Even when it’s off their own shores .)…
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The Best Skincare Routine for Combination Skin: AM + PM Guide
If you have combination skin, putting together a routine can be a little tricky. A product might feel great on one part of your face and wrong somewhere else. That doesn’t mean you need a complicated routine or a separate product…
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Hot Fudge Sauce
If you’re like me, and nostaligic… Hershey’s chocolate syrup was on hand as a kid. You pop up the cap and out flows a a liquid cascade that would put Wonka’s chocolate waterfall to shame. But that was always the problem If you’re…
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25–30% Off Your Skincare Favorites: The Best Labor Day Beauty Sales of 2026
Quick update on the Labor Day beauty sales I shared with you already. A few more deals have gone live since then, and some of the ones I mentioned before are wrapping up soon, so I wanted to get you an updated list before the…
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Is it time to cut your xylitol intake?
The European Society of Cardiology announced last week that xylitol might not be as safe as we once assumed. Across 17,710 people, those with the highest blood xylitol levels had a 57% HIGHER rate of heart attack, stroke, or…
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Summer Sundae
In most respects I’m a purists on desserts. Ice cream is the ultimate frontier of taste, texture and temperature. Especially in high heat which is where my life is now 9 months out of the year. For this release I wanted to share…
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11 Longevity Psyops I’m Not Falling For
Longevity has evolved into the buzzword of the health space. It’s also imprecise to the point of meaningless. The traditional David Sinclair-sponsored camp now runs on the premise aging is a disease that is both treatable and…
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The Enshittification of Your Supplements
Consumer products giant Proctor & Gamble acquired Thorne for near asking price of $3.8B earlier this month. Outrage about the move naturally hit the digital health space. But many missed that the enshittification of a once S-tier…
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Nighttime Cravings Aren't a Food Problem
The reason why you’re hungry each night is the same reason you’re not waking up refreshed without an alarm each morning. Light is the zeitgeber that sets the central brain clock. Food, social interaction, stress, & other factors…
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The Ultimate Tβ4 & TB-500 Guide
The content of this guide is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before using any compound discussed here. We do not condone…
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Vilon: Olympic PED or Underrated Anti Aging Peptide?
Disclaimer: This article is intended for educational and research purposes only. It is NOT medical advice. Do not attempt anything you read without medical supervision. If you wanted everyone tired, inflamed, and begging for a…
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Q&A #58
Welcome back to another Q&A. For the next 48 hours, drop your questions in the comments and we’ll answer them. Apologies for lagging behind, guys. Will do one of these weekly for a while to make up for it. Appreciate your…
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Weird Health Hacks That Actually Work
Mornings Wake up with glutamine, creatine, electrolytes & extra magnesium Before you take down the AM coffee. Glutamine for the gut barrier. Creatine for cell energy metabolism. Electrolytes for mineral balance. Magnesium…
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How to SHRED Fat in Target Spots & Eliminate Stubborn Fat
This ones for everyone that can’t get rid of that lower belly fat no matter how hard they diet and how much weight they lose. I feel your pain. There’s that one spot that, no matter how much you seem to suffer, it won’t budge.…
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How to Get a Six Pack by End of Summer
There are 68 days left in summer. That is about 10 weeks . If your midsection still looks soft when the season ends, it won’t be because of your genetics. It will be because you didn’t pay attention to the secrets we’re about to…
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Changes to Federal Funding II
Welcome to Science with Shrike! Today we will discuss the bad parts of the OMB Proposed Rule changes. The full links are available in the previous post. As Shrike alluded to in the last post, there may be some serious problems…
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Changes to Federal Funding I
Welcome to Science with Shrike! Today we will discuss potentially sweeping changes to government contracts in general and NIH funding in particular. While these changes may not last more than a few years, they aim to reshape how…
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