Stronger

The Untold Story of Muscle in Our Lives

De: Michael Joseph Gross

Narrado por: Dan Woren

A groundbreaking, richly informative exploration of the central role of muscle in human life and health, Stronger sounds an urgent call for each of us to recognize muscle as “the vital, inextricable and effective partner of the soul.”

“Even if you’ve never picked up a weight—Stronger is for you.”—Arnold Schwarzenegger

Stronger 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.

These surprising tales play out against a background of clashing worldviews, an age-old competition between athletic trainers and medical doctors to define our understanding and experience of muscle. In this conflict, muscle got typecast: Simplistic binaries of brain versus brawn created a persistent prejudice against muscle, and against weight training, the type of exercise that best builds muscular strength and power.

Stronger shows muscle and weight training in a whole new light. With warmth and humor, 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.

*This audiobook edition includes a downloadable PDF of source notes from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 Michael Joseph Gross (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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! It tells the inspiring stories of athletes and scholars such as my friend Jan Todd, the pioneer of women’s powerlifting, and it shows the powerful research that proves that building strength and muscle could be a type of medicine for all kinds of people. 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.”—Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Governor of California, seven-time Mr. Olympia, and bestselling author of The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding and Be Useful

“A vigorous examination of the history and science of strength training… this delivers.”—Publishers Weekly

“An engagingly learned look at the human body.”—Kirkus, Most Anticipated Nonfiction of Spring 2025

Terrific, Important Book

What some of us sensed intuitively about the value and importance of strength training is documented here with references to groundbreaking research.

Very motivating!

This book was so good and interesting, not only did it give the history of strength training and the subsequent years in history of people trying to demonize it, it gave evidence as to why our muscle is as important as the brain to our life and longevity. These are the years that we can change our end of life quality and it’s never ever too late to start as proven by the many 60-90 year olds this book highlights! Definitely a good read or listen!

An ode to muscle and strength - told with depth, affection, and scientific rigor

Let me start by stating two crucial points: 1) I’m a scientist and have worked with and around many of scientists quoted in the book - so I’m biased; 2) I’m a lifelong female athlete - so I am doubly biased. But, given both of these facts I can say with some meager authority this book is exceptional. The depth, the story telling, the science. I fell absolutely in love with the story of muscle - and high intensity resistance exercise from antiquity to modern medicine.
I particularly loved the focus on non-standard perspectives. We have all heard body builders and male fitness gurus extol the importance of exercise. But Michael Joseph Gross was thoughtful in his choices:
-a powerlifting professor of humanities to speak not about reps and sets but about classics and antiquity? Totally new.
-Powerlifting told through the first female lifter Jan Todd - then following her not just to records, but to service and eventually recovery from what could have been a life-ending accident - profound.
-the importance of maintaining muscle power and function through the eyes of an Australian geriatrician and her rag-tag group of nonagenarian pirates - or rather research participants and resistance training devotees - poignant perspectives and real life experiences that uncoil the hard science.

The science is excellent - and accurate. But the storytelling? Superb. This is one of the best books I have read and listened to in a long time. My teenage son had already picked up the physical copy of my book and squirreled it away in his room to read at night. Everyone in my family will get copy - and a gym membership - for the holidays this year.

Do yourself a favor - listen to this book now!

Compelling well researched, lots of information for lovers of science kinesiology, and the history of muscle

Narration is excellent, research is ambitious and plenty people. Lots of noted studies and overall just a very interesting listen for anyone who truly loves fitness and the science of muscle.