Biohackers employ various diets, supplements and sleeping patterns in order to optimize their energy levels and cognitive performance. Incorporating stress-relief technologies and techniques is also part of their daily lives.
Hacking metaphor encapsulates an ethos of entrepreneurial self-experimentation which aligns with neoliberal values such as autonomy and individualism. Hackers also draw inspiration from nature to renaturalise technologies for rationalising forms of self-use (cf Hester 2020).
Exercise
Exercise as a biohacking medium can optimize our bodies for better health and performance. With techniques like high-intensity interval training, cold showers, and cryotherapy you can reduce muscle soreness and speed recovery time; use nutrition and supplements to optimize workouts and help avoid injuries; use cognitive enhancers or brain training exercises to boost mental focus or performance.
With sports and biohacking combined, playing fields become more than mere battlefields for competition; instead they serve as canvases where athletes sculpt their bodies into lasting vitality and strength. Through sport’s transformative power, athletes sculpt not just physical strength but emotional resilience too – creating long term cardiovascular health, weight management, emotional resilience cognitive fortitude communal bonds all through exercise alone! Exercising alongside biohacking shows us that sports provide holistic elixir that benefits body as well as mind in helping us live longer stronger lives longer!
Biohacking has gained great traction among influential online influencers, representing an emerging DIY movement to enhance wellness. Ranging from ice baths and zone training to fasting and nootropics – there is no end of hacks available that may improve wellness; it is however important to keep in mind that no single technique will work for everyone.
Biohacking involves comparing your mental and physical functions not against an age-based “average”, but against peak human performance. It considers all the factors affecting health and well-being – diet, fitness training, sleep habits and genetic mutations – and then devises a plan to transform the body into an age-defying peak performance machine.
Biohackers rely on various tools and methods to optimize their health and maximize longevity, such as genetic testing, nutritional tracking apps, dietary supplements, lifestyle modifications (from intermittent fasting to limiting screen time before bed) as well as lifestyle alterations (from intermittent fasting to restricting screen time before bed). They take an incremental approach rather than adopting all-or-nothing approaches; the key is taking time to experiment until finding what combination of biohacks best meet their individual needs.
Nutrition
Biohackers take an independent approach to health by optimizing their bodies with food alone. They consume nutrient-dense foods, avoid GMOs and processed sugar, drink bone broth with enzyme injections for better wellbeing, exercise regularly, sleep well and practice mindfulness; additionally they may take nootropic supplements that boost cognitive ability and mental performance as a form of anti-ageing measure – all to maximize body energy, rewire brain cells and counter biological aging.
Techno-asceticism is an emerging form of techno-asceticism that draws upon DIY culture to appeal to self-sufficiency and the desire for an aesthetically gratifying body. It often coincides with several cultural forces including consumerism, individualism, neoliberalism and orientalism; additionally it’s informed by biomimicry practices which use nature as inspiration for human optimisation.
Biohackers find the hacking metaphor useful as a means of reflecting a greater awareness of how complex our bodies can be, which are constantly subject to socioeconomic and political constraints. Furthermore, this model encourages self-tinkering that offers seemingly straightforward fixes for complex conditions like chronic fatigue and metabolic syndrome – such as taking L-theanine along with their daily cup of coffee in order to reduce jitters associated with caffeine intake.
Biohacking has quickly become popular among celebrities and tech entrepreneurs who use it to maintain or enhance their physical or cognitive performance. Tom Brady follows an extensive fitness and diet regime that involves no gluten or dairy, eight hours of sleep per night and no caffeine or alcohol consumption. Additionally, he takes ice baths, practices transcendental meditation and utilizes a barrel sauna in order to optimize his wellbeing. Biohackers often experiment with treatments like red light therapy, cryotherapy and cold plunging to fight ageing while supporting their immunity and performance; such supplements include melatonin, omega-3s, creatine L-carnitine coenzyme Q10 probiotics.
Sleep
Chima wears an Oura ring on his left index finger in his attempt to become a “biohacker”, providing biometric data such as heart rate variability, oxygen and stress levels, sleep quality metrics and more. He claims this allows him to optimise his sleep quality and consequently enhance his health.
Techno-naturalist imaginarys create hierarchies between human and technological sense-making, while also advocating re-naturalisation strategies designed to legitimize or inspire enhancements (Lupton 2016). Biohacking may appear like an anti-technology movement; however it is more beneficial to analyse biohacking technologies themselves as tools of self-enhancement.
This is especially the case for technologies claiming to provide access to interhemispheric coherence and other brain states associated with improved cognitive performance, like binaural beats or neurofeedback technologies that use reverse engineering methods to induce physiological state changes through reverse engineering techniques such as binaural beats or heart rate variability monitoring of stress levels. This approach has its parallels in other biohacking situations like hormesis or the use of heart rate variability monitoring of stress levels.
Technology
Biohacking involves using technology to monitor and optimize fitness and health, typically via wearables and apps. The aim is to improve strength, endurance, cognitive function and decrease inflammation, aging and chronic diseases while attenuating inflammation, aging and chronic diseases. Other techniques like nootropics, supplements and gene editing may be used to augment or enhance the human body; this practice is known as human augmentation or enhancement.
Tech culture provides inspiration and motivation for this movement of tech enthusiasts. Followers look for shortcuts to good health while enjoying problem-solving. Furthermore, they seek to democratise information by sharing experiences and advice online – something social media makes easier due to its wide audience reach. Unfortunately, however, many videos posted to these platforms contain misleading or outright false claims such as those that claim meditation will cure cancer or extreme body modification can provide short cuts for good health.
Nootropics supplements have become an industry in their own right, promising everything from enhanced memory retention to greater creativity. Available as powders, pills and drinks; many derived from plants while some may even be synthesized in laboratories; this subset of biohacking also utilizes devices such as transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation (tDCS and TMS), which target specific regions of the brain.
Gene editing is another field of interest among biohackers, offering the potential to correct genetic disorders and create organisms with desirable traits. CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing technology already allows scientists to manipulate plant and animal genomes with great precision; however, its ethics remain under discussion.
Biohacking poses fundamental questions about our relationship to ourselves, the environment and to each other. It challenges the traditional representational method of understanding science where nature is seen either as true or false and science as a set of assertions that can either be supported or disproven. At its heart, this movement reflects an increasing scientific orientation of alternative medicine and naturalisation of technoscience for self-tracking and enhancement (Hepp, 2020). Additionally, this trend can be seen as part of an increasing trend toward techno-ascetic communities which promote an approach of “better than well” humanity while offering freedom to alter our physical bodies and improve them with physical enhancement techniques (Hepp 2020).