A Physical Education

How I Escaped Diet Culture and Gained the Power of Lifting

De: Casey Johnston

Narrado por: Casey Johnston

From the most visible woman writing about weightlifting today, a "profoundly engrossing" memoir and manifesto about how lifting helped dissolve her allegiance to diet culture; taught her to be at home in her body; and led her to grow every kind of strength (Elizabeth Greenwood).

In A Physical Education, Casey Johnston recounts how she ventured into the brave new world of weightlifting, leaving behind years of restrictive eating and endless cardio. Woven through the trajectory of how she rebuilt her strength and confidence is a staggering exposé of the damaging doctrine spread by diet and fitness culture.

Johnston's story dives deep into her own past relationships with calorie restriction, exercise, and codependency. As she progresses on her weightlifting journey, she begins to eat to fuel her growing strength—and her food cravings vanish. Her physical progress fuels a growing understanding of how mainstream messaging she received about women’s bodies was about preserving the status quo. Previously convinced that physical improvement was a matter of suffering, she now knows it requires self-regard and patience. A little pushing at a time adds up to the reawakening of parts of herself she didn’t even know were there.

A Physical Education asks why so many of us spend our lives trying to get "healthy” by actively making our bodies weaker. Casey Johnston is a voice for those of us who feel underdeveloped and unfulfilled in our bodies and are looking to come home to ourselves.

©2025 Casey Johnston (P)2025 Grand Central Publishing

Reseñas de la Crítica

“This book performs power from the inside out. It reminds us: when we turn away from the cultural messages that we must be young, beautiful, and thin—false fictions that ask us to destroy ourselves—we might learn to turn toward hundreds of other forms of beauty, erotic power, senses of self. Where Casey Johnston takes her body, there is joy, release, revelation.”—Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water and Reading the Waves

“A Physical Education is a profoundly engrossing journey of how one woman stepped into her power, literally and metaphorically. Casey Johnston is our Virgil through the weightroom, seamlessly blending memoir, history, and science. In lucid prose, Johnston shows how strength training is an exit ramp off the hamster wheel of diet culture and antidote to the shame and isolation so many women experience. Full of heart and humor, this book made me want to get stronger.”—Elizabeth Greenwood, author of Playing Dead and Love Lockdown

“A thought-provoking memoir about falling in love with weightlifting—and, perhaps more importantly, learning how to unapologetically take up space in the world.”—Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters

Relatable and refreshing

I thought that overall the book was well done and also well read. While the societal expectations and common myths around fitness (e.g., calories in calories out, or “you’ll get bulky if you lift!”) and how our bodies work were not new to me, it was helpful to have packaged in one neat way. I’m interested in the 5x5 method i’m going to give it a try.

Worth it for the ideas and emotions it instills

This book did what it put out to do in spades. It created a narrative that many women can resonate with and then propelled it forward with education, experience, and a very real journey getting into weightlifting. I'm not concerned with it being perfect, because it is something that will change many women's lives by giving them a map out of the toxic diet culture and onwards towards becoming powerful in their bodies which will translate to so many places in their lives.

Thank you for writing this book!!

Not that good…

This sounded like a young girl that had problems as we all do… I was expecting something like the title but all I got was this one’s person story of the “breakfast club” …save your money and pass on this one.