On Muscle Quotes

“The Stanford University health psychologist Kelly McGonigal has evocatively described the antidepressant molecules released by exercise as “a pharmacy in your muscles.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“(On average, women have a larger percentage of slow-twitch fibers, which is one reason that women are more fatigue-resistant than men after ultra-endurance activity.)”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“During the writing of this book, I’ve been doing a lot of push-ups, and thinking about what it means to do them. Lately, I’ve come to understand that what I learned from my father was not just to lift heavy things, but to lift myself.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“Brains are important only in that they allow us to move, interact, and exert our influence on the world, Wolpert explains to me. And muscles make that happen.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“We move our bodies through the world, and our minds follow. The artist Paul Klee described visual art as a record of movement, from beginning to end—a drawing of a dancer, say, is made by a roving hand, which pins down the movement of said dancer, and the finished work is then appreciated by an audience’s ever-tracking eye.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“To Zouhair Belkoura, for dawn patrols and digressions. To Jessica Bath, for holding my hand with kindness and dressing me properly for the anatomy lab.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“ask him: “What does yoga feel like when you’re doing it right?” “It’s like the difference between a good hug and a bad hug,” he says with a laugh. “We all know when it’s a bad hug—when someone isn’t connected with you. And you know when a hug is good. It’s profound. It feels complete. It’s integrative—you know where your body begins and ends.” He pauses, thinking. “A good hug won’t cure cancer,” he says at last. “But it will make the experience of living with cancer more bearable.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

“Later, Jan tells me that the Mountain has Terry’s motto tattooed on his twenty-three-inch calf: DON’T WEAKEN. The full expression being It’s a good life if you don’t weaken. It was something his grandmother used to say.”
― Bonnie Tsui, On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters