Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives

(Paperback)

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Description

'Even if you've never picked up a weight, Stronger is for you' - Arnold Schwarzenegger

Stronger sounds an urgent call for each of us to recognise muscle as 'the vital, inextricable and effective partner of the soul'.

It tells a story of breathtaking scope, from the battlefields of the Trojan War in Homer's Iliad, where muscles enter the scene of world literature; to the all-but-forgotten Victorian-era gyms on both sides of the Atlantic, where women build strength and muscle by lifting heavy weights; to a retirement home in Boston, where a young doctor makes the astonishing discovery that frail ninety-year-olds can experience the same relative gains of strength and muscle as thirty-year-olds if they lift weights.

Stronger shows muscle and weight training in a whole new light. With warmth and humour, Michael Joseph Gross blends history and firsthand reporting in an inspiring narrative packed with practical information based on rigorous scientific studies from around the world. The research proves that weight training can help prevent or treat many chronic diseases and disabilities throughout the lifespan, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and depression. Stronger reveals how all of us, from elite powerlifters to people who have never played sports at all, can learn to lift weights in ways that yield life's ultimate prize: the ability to act upon the world in the ways that we wish.

Reviews

When I heard about Stronger, I was in heaven. The history, science, and practice of lifting weights, all in one place That's my kind of book . . . Even if you've never picked up a weight - Stronger is for you -- Arnold Schwarzenegger
At once a meditation on the relationship between soul and body and a practical guide to growing old. It is thoughtful, richly reported and totally compelling. The first thing I did after finishing it was buy a set of weights -- Elizabeth Kolbert * author of The Sixth Extinction *
I started lifting weights in 1956, when I was fourteen. When Stronger is in readers' hands, I'll be eighty-three - I'll still be lifting. From the Histories by Herodotus to Pumping Iron - from Ancient Greece to Arnold Schwarzenegger - this is the enlightening history of weight training. I'm a full-time writer. I spend every day sitting on my glutes. Do your glutes a favour - read Stronger -- John Irving * awardwinning author of The World According to Garp *
A pioneering narrative - a fascinating exploration, years in the making, of a hugely important part of human life and culture. It raises the question that great books do: Why has this not been written before -- William Langewiesche

Author Bio

A longtime Vanity Fair contributing editor, Michael Joseph Gross has published investigative reporting, essays, and books about culture, technology, politics, religion and business. He was raised in rural Illinois and lives in New York City.