diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 0c966a26a20..0f7555d9f9a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -139,6 +139,7 @@ jobs:
       TARGET: ${{ matrix.target }}
       TARGET_FLAGS: --target=${{ matrix.target }}
       TARGET_DIR: target/${{ matrix.target }}
+      PROFILE: release-github
 
     steps:
       - name: Checkout repository
@@ -171,23 +172,9 @@ jobs:
           echo "target flag is: $TARGET_FLAGS"
           echo "target dir is: $TARGET_DIR"
 
-      - name: Build release binary
+      - name: Build release binary (with extra optimizations)
         run: |
-          "$CARGO" build --verbose --release "$TARGET_FLAGS" --no-default-features --features "$FEATURE"
-
-      - name: Strip release binary (x86-64 Linux, and all macOS)
-        if: matrix.target == 'x86_64-unknown-linux-musl' || matrix.os == 'macos-latest'
-        run: strip "$TARGET_DIR"/release/{ein,gix}
-
-      - name: Strip release binary (ARM Linux)
-        if: matrix.target == 'arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf'
-        run: |
-          docker run --rm -v \
-            "$PWD/target:/target:Z" \
-            rustembedded/cross:arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf \
-            arm-linux-gnueabihf-strip \
-            /target/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/ein \
-            /target/arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/gix
+          "$CARGO" build --verbose --profile="$PROFILE" "$TARGET_FLAGS" --no-default-features --features="$FEATURE"
 
       - name: Determine archive basename
         run: echo "ARCHIVE=gitoxide-$FEATURE-$VERSION-$TARGET" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
@@ -200,8 +187,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build archive (Windows)
         if: matrix.os == 'windows-latest'
         run: |
-          file -- "$TARGET_DIR"/release/{ein,gix}.exe
-          cp -- "$TARGET_DIR"/release/{ein,gix}.exe "$ARCHIVE/"
+          file -- "$TARGET_DIR/$PROFILE"/{ein,gix}.exe
+          cp -- "$TARGET_DIR/$PROFILE"/{ein,gix}.exe "$ARCHIVE/"
           7z a "$ARCHIVE.zip" "$ARCHIVE"
           /usr/bin/core_perl/shasum --algorithm=256 --binary "$ARCHIVE.zip" > "$ARCHIVE.zip.sha256"
           echo "ASSET=$ARCHIVE.zip" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
@@ -210,8 +197,8 @@ jobs:
       - name: Build archive (Unix)
         if: matrix.os != 'windows-latest'
         run: |
-          file -- "$TARGET_DIR"/release/{ein,gix}
-          cp -- "$TARGET_DIR"/release/{ein,gix} "$ARCHIVE/"
+          file -- "$TARGET_DIR/$PROFILE"/{ein,gix}
+          cp -- "$TARGET_DIR/$PROFILE"/{ein,gix} "$ARCHIVE/"
           tar czf "$ARCHIVE.tar.gz" "$ARCHIVE"
           shasum --algorithm=256 --binary "$ARCHIVE.tar.gz" > "$ARCHIVE.tar.gz.sha256"
           echo "ASSET=$ARCHIVE.tar.gz" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 6564976c9e6..f2367338c7e 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -206,17 +206,22 @@ sha1_smol = { opt-level = 3 }
 
 [profile.release]
 overflow-checks = false
-#lto = "fat"
-# this bloats files but assures destructors are called, important for tempfiles. One day I hope we
+lto = "thin"
+# This bloats files but assures destructors are called, important for tempfiles. One day I hope we
 # can wire up the 'abrt' signal handler so tempfiles will be removed in case of panics.
-panic = 'unwind'
-#codegen-units = 1
+panic = "unwind"
 incremental = false
-build-override = { opt-level = 0 }
 
-# It's not quite worth building dependencies with more optimizations yet. Let's keep it here for later.
-#[profile.dev.package."*"]
-#opt-level = 2
+# This profile is currently used in building releases for GitHub.
+# It may be removed at any time and should not otherwise be relied on.
+[profile.release-github]
+inherits = "release"
+overflow-checks = false
+panic = "unwind"
+lto = "fat"
+codegen-units = 1
+strip = "symbols"
+build-override = { opt-level = 3 }
 
 [workspace]
 members = [