One founder trained at the highest athletic level in the world. Another learned how to scale systems inside Google. Both reached the same conclusion: Gym culture argues more than it measures. I grew up around that debate too. Lift heavier. Move faster. Do both. Pick a side. Everyone had an opinion. Almost no one had evidence. What always frustrated me is that the discussion stopped at muscles or gains, weight loss - what about how it affects behaviour and mental health? Some phases of my life I felt sharp and resilient. Other phases I felt slow and foggy. Same discipline. Same time invested. Different outcomes. That gap between effort and outcome made me pay attention to neuroscience @Holi_Labs is one of the first projects I have seen that takes this debate out of belief and into measurement. They’re running a 12 week randomized clinical study with over 90 participants comparing velocity based training with traditional strength training. The goal is simple but ambitious. Measure how different training stimuli affect serum BDNF, the molecule most strongly linked to neuroplasticity, learning, mood, and stress resilience. All of this happens inside the AI enabled Holi GymLab in Berlin (not far from @Molecule_sci @BioProtocol desci church) Biomarkers are collected in house. Cognition is tested. VO₂max and body composition are measured. Every rep is tracked with high resolution velocity sensors. These are controlled, reproducible conditions you usually only see in research hospitals. But they don’t just stop at BDNF. It also tracks cognition, mood, sleep quality, and stress resilience to understand how training shapes the brain and behavior over time. The result is a reproducible protocol for boosting BDNF in real world training environments, packaged as Holi’s first IPT. I often think about how better infrastructure leads to better science. Holi feels like that philosophy applied to the body. Less guessing. More knowing. What gave me additional confidence was the team behind it. One of the founders, @Holi_Robert, is an Olympic gold medalist who has lived elite training at the highest level and shares that journey with a large audience on Instagram. Another comes from a deep tech background, having built and scaled products inside Google and leading data collection one of the best performing large scale VC firms @join_ef If you train and you care about long term performance, mental clarity, and resilience data matters PS @Holi_Labs Genesis is live right now on @BioProtocol - I’ll be personally participating, hope to see you in the gym 🏋️‍♂️