Hey folks, welcome to Stronger Weekly for the week of Monday, September 15th.

This week we'll be covering everything from Australia's social media ban for kids under 16 to a new groundbreaking study showing that high intensity interval training actually can help to fight cancer.

Plus, we'll do a deep dive on the levers that you can pull to improve your health span living longer and stronger.

You don't want to miss it.

Let's get into it.

Well, everybody, welcome to Stronger Weekly.

I'm your host, Jesse Carajet.

Thank you for being here.

It is the week of Monday, September 15th, and we're going to be covering all of the news that we think you need to know from the world of health and fitness over the last week.

And we're also going to be doing a deeper dive.

Health span as opposed to lifespan.

Health span is all the rage these days, as it should be.

Now we're all hearing about and learning about the different levers that we can pull in our lives in the realms of fitness, nutrition, and lifestyle that can help us not just live longer, but live longer, healthier.

And because it's all the rage and because of some of the news in health and fitness in this past week touches on those things, we thought it'd be great to try to condense it for you listening.

You know, not all of us have the time or resources to invest, especially in some of the medicine and supplementation that is necessary to really tap into improving our health span.

But there are things that you can do every single day that stack up over time, hopefully so you do live longer and healthier and stronger and all those things.

So on the back end of this episode, we are going to dive into some of the pillars that we think are practical and simple enough for you to start living and actually living out in that way now.

But first, as always, what we like to do is jump into the health and fitness headlines of the week.

First up, big news out of Australia.

Did you know that countries are starting to ban social media for kids?

That's right.

So Australia back in 2024, November to be specific, passed one of the world's first laws banning social media for kids under 16.

That's right, Hallelujah, let's do it.

The ban takes effect this December 2025, but new reports this past week show that enforcing the law will be far more complicated than passing it.

And that report released this past Sunday concluded that while methods like ID checks, parental approval, facial recognition technology are possible, none of them are actually foolproof.

So facial recognition was 92% accurate for adults.

But the report found a quote, buffer zone around age 16, meaning some kids would slip through while some adults could be wrongfully blocked.

So some technical difficulties in the enforcement of a very well intended social media ban for kids.

So Australia's Communications Minister Anika Wells defended the move, saying, quote, these are some of the world's richest companies.

They are at the forefront of AI.

They use the data that we give them for a bevy of commercial purposes.

I think it is reasonable to ask them being the social media companies to use that same data and tech to keep kids safe online.

So kudos to Australia.

I hope they figure it out and I hope it comes to the US, frankly.

Next up, news out of the Maha movement that's make America healthy again.

So the Maha Commission released their Make our children Healthy again report.

That's right, a childhood health strategy.

It's a long-awaited report that was supposed to come out to help us understand how to make our kids healthier, healthy again.

So the commission's report, published by the White House and HHS, of course, led by RFK Junior, lays out a sweeping plan.

The pillars are nutrition reform, including stricter school meal standards and lower sugar intake.

Let's go physical activity targets of at least 60 minutes of intentional exercise per day, expanded preventative healthcare access, and new family and community programs.

The report warns that today's children face shorter life spans and higher rates of chronic disease than their parents if action is not taken.

So HHS leaders described the plan as the most comprehensive initiative in decades, setting benchmarks such as cutting childhood obesity within 10 years.

What does it mean for us?

Expect more policies and programs available to our children, more guidance from the government, more research to connect the dots with health outcomes, with behaviors, things like social media inactivity, etcetera.

So look at the description of this episode down below.

We'll link to that report.

But good progress in the area of the health of our children in America.

Next up, a groundbreaking and exciting study linking high intensity interval training with cancer cell reduction, which is exciting.

So in August 2025.

Study is getting plenty of coverage in the news this week, with multiple outlets reporting that even a single session of this form of exercise may help to slow the growth of breast cancer cells specifically and also kill those cells.

So researchers out of Edith Cohen University publishing in Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, studied 32 women who had completed treatment for breast cancer.

Participants performed 1 high intensity workout, either weight lifting or interval cycling, and blood samples collected before and after the workout were applied to breast cancer cells in the lab.

So let me explain that these women did a workout again weightlifting or cycling at a high intensity and then blood was drawn from those women and then inserted into these cancer cells.

And the results were that the higher levels of proteins called myokines, especially interleukin 6, suppressed tumor growth and encouraged cancer cell death, lead researcher Dr.

Tina Skinner said.

Quote, we saw that even one bout of exercise was enough to make the body's internal environment less favorable for cancer.

This highlights the potential for exercise as medicine, not just lifestyle.

So as you're planning and thinking about your own exercise, not only, of course, if you're impacted by cancer, but if you don't want to be and you want to fortify your health, make sure you're including high intensity type training into your regime.

Next up, back to Washington.

President Trump and his administration is targeting the Pharmaceutical industry specifically going after advertising.

So in Washington, President Trump signed a new memorandum this week putting pharmaceutical companies on notice.

Let's go over their advertising practices.

The memorandum directs the FDA and HHS to enforce existing rules requiring a fair balance of risks and benefits in pharmaceutical advertising.

Right now, drug commercials often emphasize or overemphasize the benefits while racing through the fine print of side effects.

We've all seen it, right?

You're watching TV, you see the ad for whatever it is and they just take all their time.

Happy people going through fields, sunshine, all is good.

And at the end it's but a lot of and you don't know what they said and you're probably not going to go back around to it.

So the White House says that all of that is about to change.

Quote, this presidential memorandum is the strongest, boldest action we can take to make sure that patients have adequate safety information on pharmaceutical ad, said one senior official.

The move also follows a push from RFK Junior, who campaigned alongside Trump before the election.

At one rally, Kennedy declared, quote, one of the things I'm going to advise Donald Trump to do in order to correct the chronic disease epidemic is to ban pharmaceutical advertising on TV.

That's a ban, not just, you know, moderating and making sure they're saying the right things, ban it out, right?

And that's RFK Junior.

While this memorandum stops short of a ban, again, it sends a clear signal that pharma companies will face tighter scrutiny and potentially tougher penalties.

All for it.

So backing the administration on this one and last up this week for your health and fitness headlines.

Another really exciting study making waves in the health and fitness world, this time linking exercise, regular exercise to epigenetic age reversal.

So a new study published in the journal Aging tracked middle-aged adults who completed a structured exercise program combining aerobic and resistance training.

So it's well-rounded.

Researchers measured participants epigenetic age, which is essentially A biological class based on DNA methylation markers before and after the exercise program.

The results?

Astounding participants showed a reduction in biological age, excuse me, in some cases by several years, suggesting that consistent training can literally turn back the bodies internal clock on a cellular level.

So lead author Doctor Michael Skinner wrote, quote.

Our findings show that structured physical activity is not only preventative, it may be rejuvenating, impacting the biological processes of aging at the epigenetic level.

Muscle and Fitness, which covered the study, noted that this supports a growing body of research linking exercise to improve longevity, reduced chronic disease risk and better overall health span.

Who doesn't want all of those things?

So exercise again, not just to make you look better and feel better and be stronger, it actually may make you younger, literally make you younger.

Turn back the clock, at least on a biological level.

So just one more reason to stay consistent with your training, whether that's lifting, running, walking, movement in general is one of the most powerful anti aging tools that we have.

So that's your health and fitness headlines of the week.

A quick word from our sponsor.

We'll be back in the other side with everything you need to know to start living and training for longer health span.

Look, one in ten Americans today struggle with alcohol use disorder and I was one of them.

Did you know that there is a safe science backed daily pill that you can take to drink less or even quit alcohol for good?

It's called naltrexone, a doctor prescribed medication that you get online and our sponsor or health is the nation's leading provider of naltrexone to date or health has helped over 35,000 people find freedom from alcohol and I'm proudly one of them.

To get get started, text strength to 710710.

Again, that's strength to 710710 and get started on your journey to finally find freedom from alcohol.

All right, folks, welcome back and let's jump into the deep dive of the week.

Another solo episode here.

And what we're going to talk about is health span.

Again, there's lifespan and health span.

Health span is living longer and healthier Most of my life that wasn't really a term, right?

I'm 40 years old.

I started training after the Marine Corps really intentionally training, I'd say around 20 years old.

And you know that the 1st 15 years or so, I was really just focused on how do I get stronger staying lean and how do I like look good and and feel good.

But as I'm aging, I'm 40 now.

And then also just as the fitness community in science is coming up with these great studies and technologies and medicines to help us live longer.

It's, it's really something that I'm focusing on, but I'm feeling the broader society focus on.

It just so happens that I use AI, use WOOP for like more like an advanced heart rate tracker and health tracker.

And they're introducing some great new technology that has to do with health span.

And what I'm able to see is what is my biological age?

And I turned 41 in this coming November, But what is my, they call it WOOP age, but it's kind of more of like what is my actual age?

And I'm, I feel good about it.

3032.4, so almost an 8 year kind of, you know, difference there between what whoops as I am and what I actually AM.

And that feels great.

Now, you know, caveat here is whoop, I'm not submitting my, my blood.

They're, they're not doing like an actual, you know, taking my blood, looking at like biomarkers and things.

So they, they don't really know.

But what it is taking under consideration is what it does track, which is my sleep, and it tracks my training.

So it automatically detects when I'm doing cardiovascular training or strength training, things like that.

But also I program in their behaviors that I want to focus on.

So things like sleep, cold plunges, social media use, stress levels, which is more, you know, anecdotal reporting that I do.

And it takes all that in consideration and it really tracks week over week.

Is my health span increasing or decreasing?

Which is really great.

Now I am going to be submitting, you know, a full comprehensive blood panel and kind of picking up the hood, if you will, to look at that.

But the point is I'm starting to focus on both the behaviors and my training and my nutrition so that I'm not just stronger, but I'm living longer stronger.

And I would highly encourage anybody to do that.

So what I wanted to do this week without taking too much of your time, after doing a lot of research on it and a lot of my own kind of anecdotal experience, is just talk about 5 pillars that I believe all of us can do and should do if you want to live longer and healthier, meaning that there's not a lot of barriers to entry here for you to start doing these things.

I'm not going to recommend big investments, time investments, but they're more simple things that you can do, hopefully layering over what is an intentional fitness and nutritional lifestyle.

So let's dive into those pillars.

And no surprise here, the first one is strengths training.

So you heard the headlines from this week, there were two in there.

One of them linked high intensity interval training to fighting cancer.

And the other one just linked strength training and cardio in general to reducing your cellular age, right?

So that's absolutely a pillar.

If you're not strength training and you can, meaning you don't have injuries limiting your ability to do so, that is the number one lever.

So if you're not resistance training, absolutely you should lean into it.

It preserves lean muscle, which declines with age, and it improves insulin sensitivity, bone density and metabolic rate.

And most importantly, it keeps you capable, right?

I think that the common phrase is, I want to be able to play with my grandkids on the floor one day.

Valid.

But how about just take care of yourself, Climb up and down stairs, carry groceries, do like the things that you would need to do as you age and become a senior citizen.

So those things are all important.

And there's just so many studies linking strength training these days to longer health span than just simply cardio alone, right?

So it's a resistance training.

So what can you do?

What should you do?

My recommendation, if you can train with resistance.

Now, that could be body weight and gravity or actual weights of some kind, but do it three to four times per week with intention if possible.

If you do it three times a week, you could do a full body lifting routine.

If you get up to four or five, you're going to want to do more of a split where you're alternating different body types.

Focus on compound lifts if possible.

So these are movements that require multiple muscle groups and joints and systems.

So think things like squats, deadlifts, bench presses, pull ups or pull downs.

Things like that.

I would recommend aiming for like 8 to 12 repetitions per set.

If you want more of a deep dive on how to structure strength training week over week, month over month, go back to last week's episode where I actually gave an extensive overview of my exact training program as well as justification and reasoning as to why focus on progressing over time.

Meaning as you get stronger, always focus on what industry insiders or people like me call progressive overload, progressively overloading your body with more difficulty and resistance.

And then optional if you are up to it, you can always finish one of those 3 to 4 workouts per week with what I'll call a finisher or explosiveness.

So something where you get your heart rate up, things like farmers, carries, box jumps or jumps of any kind if you can, something more kind of explosive.

But in general and in summary, don't overlook the benefits of strength training for longevity and health span, not just for muscle building and looking good and looking lean and strong.

So that's strength training.

I'll call it pillar number one.

Pillar #2 zone 2 cardio, intentional steady state, longer duration cardiovascular exercise.

First things that might come to mind, a jog.

We're a cycling session, we're rowing or swimming.

Some movement that gets your heart rate into that zone 2 area in terms of beats per minute and stay there for a duration of times called steady state cardio.

I've heard it called low intensity steady state, moderate intensity steady state and why is this important even though it's sometimes it could be boring and it takes a while.

First, it improves your mitochondrial function, which is the energy factories of your cells.

It of course boosts fat metabolism, expands or improves your aerobic base and your VO2 Max, which is one of the strongest indicators of longevity or predictor of longevity.

And and most people don't realize this, they might intuit it.

It helps you recover faster between hard efforts and lift.

So there's actually carry over benefits to the strength training, which we've already talked about.

If you want proof or justification, Google Zone 2 Cardio and find some of the research and thinkers and influencers that are all for it.

Some people that come to mind, you have Doctor Andy Galpa, Dr.

Peter Attia, Doctor Andrew Huberman.

I mean you don't have to take my word for it, but it is known as the number one health span intervention for your heart.

Most recommendations that I've seen is to try to land around 90 minutes of this intentional exercise per week.

Don't overlook that the fact that you may be picking up Zone 2 cardio activity just in your daily functions and even in your strength training, but a lot of experts recommend intentionally scheduling these sessions.

Things you can do.

I, I mean, I spread mine out three times a week.

So I'll look for 30 to 35 minutes per session.

Sometimes I will do it after a strength training.

Exercise.

Sometimes I just kind of isolate it on my own rest day, which for me is Wednesdays.

Ways that you can reach that.

You could do an incline walk on a treadmill, which I love.

Multitasking is not always great, but sometimes I'll do emails and work on my phone as I'm on a treadmill.

Love that if I'm jogging or running I might listen to an online course or maybe a podcast.

You can always try stronger weekly during your run.

I won't push back on that now, but whatever you like to do, just choose something that you enjoy or at least enjoy most times.

Wear a heart rate tracker or monitor.

Most people, I don't say most people, some people wear these, you know, Apple Watches, which have that built in.

And one way, if you don't want to wear a tracker like that, is there something called a talk test?

As soon as you get to a point during your cardio session where you have to take breaths in between your words, that is an indicator that you've just moved into that zone 2 cardio realm and try to stay there.

So that's around 60 to 70% of your Max heart rate if you know it, which is enough to sweat but still talk.

So Zone 2 cardio is the number two pillar or lever that you have to be investing in if you're really focused on improving your health span.

Look, life can be hard and stressful sometimes.

We all know that.

But when it comes to supplements, why is it that nobody talks about stress and resilience?

For me, I take the Adaptogen stack from Momentous Supplements.

It's a daily blend of ashwagandha, rhodiola, and L theanine, all clinically backed to help you stay calm, focused, and resilient.

I'm proudly partnered with Momentous Supplements because they are the industry's best.

They don't cut corners.

Everything's third party, tested, used by pro athletes, and high quality.

Head to livemomentous.com and use code strength for 35% off your first order.

Again, that's live momentous.com code word strength for 35% off your first order and get started today.

So the next pillar, and I perhaps I should have led with this one, but #3 has to do with nutrition.

How can you eat to live healthier, longer lives?

And I'll start with this.

If you overcomplicate nutrition, you will burn out from it and you won't stick to it.

So if it requires a calculator and counting calories and barcodes every single meal and an app and prepping your meals and spending hours and Tupperware and all that stuff, you're not going to be able to stick with it.

So I would recommend first and foremost a nutritional lifestyle that is convenient and simple for you.

But why does nutrition matter?

If if you focus all your energy on exercise and training, but then you eat bad foods and then you eat chunk and put chunk in your body, it's going to completely just sabotage all of the gains both aesthetically and internally.

So I mean, you can reduce chronic disease through your nutrition, you can reduce inflammation.

And because again, we're talking about health span, first would focus on high quality proteins, high fiber.

You want to avoid ultra processed foods, which are literally linked to every modern disease.

So just try to avoid anything that has more than one ingredient if you can.

But you want to base your meals and you're eating around protein, carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

You want to eat a lot of produce, specifically vegetables that are green, dark green.

So think things like spinach and kale on the carbohydrate side of things.

You don't want them to be processed.

You don't think things like beans, oats, rice, quinoa.

You want to stay away if you can, from just modern wheat, like wheat bread and things like that.

Prioritize hydration.

Again, go back to last week's episode where I really did a deeper dive on nutrition.

But if you're looking for one such kind of template on the way to eat, I recommend the Mediterranean lifestyle.

Again, that's healthy fats, carbohydrates and proteins.

Fish are great.

You may look at, you know, adding chicken and poultry and eggs if you like that, into the Mediterranean.

But again, Whole Foods is the take away.

Watch your calories and your consumption.

You don't want to over consume.

Look into time restricted eating, which is great for inflammation, but it's also a great way to just monitor how much you're eating if you put guardrails.

And then carbohydrate timing is something to think about too, which simply means timing your carbohydrates around your activity levels for the day.

OK, so we talked about strength training, cardio and nutrition, but how about sleep and recovery?

Again, tons of research just linking quality, consistent sleep to longevity.

I mentioned WHOOP earlier on.

I've noticed that the two levers that move my WHOOP age the most are how much sleep I'm getting and how consistently.

And then also VO2 maps, which I alluded to earlier.

But around sleep and recovery, you can do everything right?

And if you sleep like trash, your health will be trash.

I mean, those are facts these days.

There's a study that I read recently that found just one week of consecutive 5 hour nights of total sleep wrecks and wreaks havoc on your body, including insulin sensitivity.

It diminishes your VO2 Max, which again is a major marker for longevity.

And chronic poor sleep increases risk of get this stroke, obesity, anxiety, depression and so many other things that just kill you fast, right?

So sleep, sleep, sleep.

Focus on it.

Track it.

If you have a tracker, try to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep.

7 on the low side, 9 on the high 9 I I just can't do life on 9 hours of sleep.

That's a long time.

And some people can but try to get at least 7 hours of sleep, if not on the higher maybe 8.

Call it if you're a a busy person and try to have the environment be supportive of your sleep.

So what do I mean by that?

Dark, a lot of times cooler right?

So I like to sleep in 67°.

My wife doesn't like that.

But dark cool environments do tend to help with sleep efficiency.

Meaning like when you're asleep, how much of it is actually quality sleep?

And of course a quiet room.

Try to cut out screen time and food, especially alcohol.

I hope that's a food.

But try aim for like 2 hours before you fall asleep.

Have a good routine, they call it sleep hygiene where you kind of do the same things leading up to that sleep.

So you might have like a night time routine that signals to your body that it is time to slip into rest.

And if you can and you're up into it, track your sleep because you know, objectively seeing like, oh, I thought I slept more yesterday, but according to this, I didn't can just give you that extra motivation.

It's kind of leaned into it and be intentional about your sleep.

And of course, there's other things that you could add if you're interested.

So things like cold plunging, stretching, mobility, walking after meals and before dinner, they're all little things that you can do to improve your recovery.

And then a big one, we've talked about it quite a bit on my show and it falls into lifestyle as man, if you're a drinker, be honest with yourself, look at it and just ask yourself, can I should I drink less?

Because alcohol, believe it or not, the more and more studies come out, are being linked to things like cardiovascular disease and even cancer.

And since we're talking so much about heart health and inflammation, alcohol consumption, even 2 drinks, which used to be the dietary guidelines from our government, no longer.

But even 2 drinks a day just can be trashing your body and your sleep.

And then you stack those days into weeks, they turn into decades, and you are literally scientifically decreasing your lifespan because of what seems to be a benign habit that helps you enjoy yourself.

So take a look at your alcohol consumption.

That's just my little $0.02 there around lifestyle and then this last piece, the fifth pillar and this really leans into these emerging trends in fitness, which I don't think are going to be fast.

They're going to be here to stay.

Get your blood work done, folks.

There's some amazing organizations out there that make it simple and easy where you can go online.

You can, you know, schedule a time to get your blood drawn.

They'll actually send people to your house, they'll take it.

They'll schedule a follow up with you with a functional medicine doctor, Review your actual blood work and just try to look for anything that could be off and which could be an indicator of some issues that you could run into down the road, which you can get ahead of now.

But you know, the data that you can get from a comprehensive blood panel can and should change and modify your personal nutrition and training and recovery plan.

But you can't know unless you again, pop open the hood and kind of inspect the engine, if you will.

So, So what you should do, I think at a minimum, get labs drawn annually and then make sure that you're partnering with a physician who's really interpreting it for you and feels like part of your team and giving you personalized guidance, right?

So you can look into something like an integrative medicine or functional Dr.

And again, there's some some great like concierge types options online.

I won't name any of them 'cause I don't have any, you know, connection to any of those.

But again, you can look great and have no idea that you're really not healthy where it matters most.

So I think the 5th and final lever, if you're willing and able, is to consider getting a comprehensive blood panel done so you can really go deep on your health.

That's it for the show this week, folks.

Hope you enjoyed and learned from the health and fitness headlines.

Looking forward into fall 2025, we got some exciting guests join in the show, just some subject matter experts and thinkers and thought leaders in certain areas that we think are going to help you in your pursuit to grow stronger every single week.

So thanks for joining us, wishing you a good week.

Be healthy, be strong, and we will see you next time.