If you wonder why strength training seemed to burst out of nowhere into our common awareness about 40 years ago, a new book is here to explain how it didn’t.
“Stronger: The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives” presents the history of how humans and society have viewed muscle and strength training – from the ancient Greeks to today’s Hollywood action heroes.
The touchpoints are fascinating, and these are just a few:
- Ancients worried that working out too much would cause your mind to be under-developed
- There was a time when Victorian women were praised for strength
- Soviets developed “periodization,” or increasing intensity of workouts
- Maria Fiatarone Singh’s famous research provide high-intensity strength training was effective and safe even for the elderly.
“Even into oldest age… every person has some power to change how time changes the body,” writes the author, journalist Michael Joseph Gross.
It’s a good read, no doubt.
And as Arnold Schwarzenegger praises it, “Even if you’ve never picked up a weight — ‘Stronger’ is for you. But be careful: Something tells me that by the time you finish, you’ll find plenty of reasons to try out resistance training.”
Author John Irving started lifting as a teen. He’s now 83 and still at it.
“I spend every day on my glutes,” Irving writes. “Do your glutes a favor – read ‘Stronger.’”
Holly Kouvo is a personal trainer, functional aging specialist, senior fitness specialist, brain health trainer, writer, and speaker.