Stronger
The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives
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Stronger
Narrated by:
Dan Woren
Buy Now for $26.99
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Narrated by:
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Dan Woren
About this listen
No matter how you think of yourself - strong or weak, large or small - you are substantially made of muscle. To the last day of your life, your ability to stand and go where you want to go, your agency and effectiveness in the world, will depend on it. But what is muscle?
From the battlefields of Homer's Iliad where muscles first enter world literature, to the Victorian-era gymnasiums where women build strength and muscle by lifting heavy weights, to the retirement home in Boston where a young doctor discovers that training at high intensity can produce the same relative gains for frail ninety-year-olds as for thirty-year-olds, Stronger places the science and significance of our muscles in an astonishing new light.
Ancient binaries of brain versus brawn created an enduring prejudice against muscle and against the type of exercise that best builds strength. Yet the research proves that weight training can help prevent or treat many chronic diseases and disabilities throughout life, including depression, cancer, and diabetes. 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 in the world.©2025 Michael Joseph Gross
Critic 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)
If history, anthropology, and lifting are down your alley, you will enjoy Stronger. Find out how our ancestors have shaped our views on muscle and strength in unexpected ways (Pavel Tsatsouline, founder and CEO of StrongFirst.com and author of Kettlebell Simple & Sinister)
The very definition of cutting-edge . . . Stronger is an elegant, sophisticated, and substantial piece of work . . . It's absolutely enthralling, written with a masterly zip and zing - an eye for the arresting visual detail and an ear for the striking quotation
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, award-winning 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)
At the intersection of the biomedical and social sciences... colorfully traces a historical tug-of-war between athletic trainers and bodybuilders, on the one end, and medical doctors, on the other
[E]ngaging ... draws on the expertise of physicians, historians, athletes and others to emphasize the complexity of muscles
Through meticulous research and first-rate storytelling, Stronger will reshape how you think about health, longevity, and what matters as we age. Cardio, core, yoga exercises-sure they're good for you. But this book shows how developing and maintaining muscle might just be the most important thing a person can do to preserve and protect their health (Guy Raz, creator and host of the podcasts How I Built This and Wow in the World, and author of the New York Times bestselling books inspired by both podcasts)
Scholarly - fascinating and entertaining... People who have never lifted will be encouraged to try it. And people who already train, as they read, will have moments of great resonance with the material (Clarence Bass, longtime Muscle & Fitness columnist and author of Ripped: The Sensible Way to Achieve Ultimate Muscularity)
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