Who is Bryan Johnson?
Built Braintree from scratch, sold it to PayPal for $800 million in 2013, then asked himself the obvious question: what do you do after making more money than you'll ever spend?
Most tech founders buy sports teams or launch mediocre venture funds. Bryan decided to try reversing human aging instead. Not slowing it down. Reversing it. As in hitting biological age 18 while pushing 50.
By late 2024 he'd spent over $4 million on his Blueprint protocol. That includes a full-time medical team, constant blood work, experimental treatments most people can't pronounce, and yeah, a lot of supplements. Like, a comical amount of pills daily.
The whole thing is public. YouTube videos showing his exact routines. Blog posts breaking down every biomarker. Open-source data so anyone can follow along. Some people think he's a visionary pushing human longevity forward. Others think he's lost the plot completely.
Either way, his tech stack reflects the obsession. Three apps tracking everything his body does, feeding data back into protocols that get adjusted weekly based on what the numbers say.
How Bryan Tracks Recovery
WHOOP stays strapped to Bryan's wrist 24/7. Not just during workouts. All day, all night, tracking heart rate variability, respiratory rate, sleep stages, and strain.
Morning HRV is the number he checks first thing. If it drops below his baseline, something in the protocol isn't working. Maybe he pushed training too hard. Maybe one of the new supplements is causing inflammation. The data tells him what his body won't.
OURA Ring runs simultaneously on his other hand. Yeah, wearing two wearables looks excessive. But cross-referencing devices catches measurement errors. When WHOOP says 95% recovery and OURA says 72%, he knows something's off with the data or his body is sending mixed signals.
OURA's body temperature tracking has become critical. Small deviations from baseline temp flag potential illness days before symptoms show up. Caught a respiratory infection brewing in October 2024 just from a 0.4 degree increase that persisted for two nights.
Both apps feed data into spreadsheets his team analyzes weekly. Looking for patterns normal people would never spot. Correlating supplement changes with HRV shifts. Tracking how altitude affects sleep quality when he travels.
For most people, one wearable is plenty. For someone treating their body like a science experiment with n=1, redundant data collection isn't overkill. It's just good experimental design.
The Don't Die App
Bryan built his own app to document everything. Don't Die is basically his life as a public API. Every biomarker, every protocol update, every meal time logged and viewable.
Over 100 health metrics get tracked monthly. Bloodwork results. Cognitive test scores. VO2 max. Bone density. Stuff most people check once a year if at all, Bryan's monitoring constantly.
The whole Blueprint protocol lives in the app. Exact supplement stack with dosages and timing. Workout routines broken down by exercise and intensity. Sleep schedule down to the minute. Anyone can replicate what he's doing, assuming they've got the budget and commitment.
What makes it different from fitness apps? The transparency is almost uncomfortable. Most health apps let you hide your data. Bryan's broadcasting his to the world, betting that radical openness will push longevity science forward faster than keeping secrets.
Critics say he's turned himself into a walking advertisement for expensive biohacking. Supporters say he's generating invaluable data about what actually works versus what's just expensive placebo. Either way, the app exists and thousands of people are following along.
Frequently Asked Questions About Bryan Johnson's Stack
What apps does Bryan Johnson use to track his health?
WHOOP and OURA Ring both run 24/7, cross-checking each other's data. WHOOP handles HRV and recovery scoring. OURA focuses on sleep staging and body temperature trends. Then his own Don't Die app aggregates everything into one massive dataset covering 100+ biomarkers. Redundant tracking catches measurement errors and gives his medical team more data points to work with.
How much does Bryan Johnson spend on his health protocol?
Over $2 million yearly as of late 2024. That's not just app subscriptions, obviously. Full-time medical staff, constant blood work, experimental treatments, and a supplement stack that costs more monthly than most people's rent. The tech is actually the cheapest part of the whole operation.
What is the Blueprint protocol?
Bryan's systematic approach to reversing aging. Combines strict diet (mostly plant-based, exact calorie targets), intense workout routines, sleep optimization, and aggressive supplementation. Everything gets measured constantly. If biomarkers don't improve, protocols get adjusted. The whole thing is documented in his Don't Die app so anyone can follow along.
Why does Bryan Johnson wear both WHOOP and OURA?
Cross-validation. When you're spending millions on health optimization, relying on a single device's algorithm seems sloppy. WHOOP and OURA measure things slightly differently. Comparing the two catches sensor errors and gives a more complete picture of what's actually happening in his body. Most people? One wearable is plenty. For Bryan's level of obsession, dual tracking makes sense.
Can regular people follow the Blueprint protocol?
Technically yeah, it's all public. Realistically? Most people aren't waking up at 5am to do red light therapy before a precise workout followed by 70 pills and a green shake. The Bryan Johnson tools (WHOOP, OURA, Don't Die app) are accessible. The discipline to actually execute the protocol daily for months on end? That's the hard part, not the tech.
What makes Bryan Johnson's tech stack different?
It's stupidly minimal for someone so obsessive. Just three apps. But the way he uses them is next-level. Most people check their WHOOP score and move on. Bryan's cross-referencing it with OURA, feeding both into spreadsheets, correlating HRV dips with supplement changes from two weeks ago. The tools are simple. The analysis is relentless.