On Muscle

By: Bonnie Tsui

'Remarkable . . . A singular book about the true meanings of strength and flexibility, about our ability to define who we are and who we might be' Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of An Immense World and I Contain Multitudes

From the bestselling author of Why We Swim is a mind-expanding exploration of muscle that will change the way you think about how we move and why it matters.

Cardiac, smooth, skeletal-these three different types of muscle in our bodies make our hearts beat; push food through our intestines, blood through our vessels, attach to our bones and help usmove. Individually, they do different things. Collectively, they drive us through our days .

Join athlete and writer Bonnie Tsui as she jumps headfirst into the intriguing world of muscle from the five angles of strength, form, action, flexibility and endurance. Tsui introduces us to the first female weightlifter to pick up the famed Scottish Dinnie Stones, then takes us on a 50-mile run through the Nevada desert that follows the path of escape from a Native boarding school, giving the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how muscles help us bounce back after injury and illness, an important aspect of longevity. She jumps into the action with a historic Double Dutch club in Washington, D.C., to explain anew what Charles Darwin meant by the brain-body connection.

On Muscle is a powerful reminder that using our muscles promote longevity, joy, and, most important, the feeling that we can do anything.

©2025 Bonnie Tsui (P)2025 Headline Publishing Group Limited

Critic reviews

'Bonnie Tsui has done something remarkable. Fusing science writing, memoir, and essay, she has written a singular book about the true meanings of strength and flexibility, about our ability to define who we are and who we might be, and about what muscle means to the kind of people who rarely feature in stereotypical stories of strength and fitness. On Muscle is a truly moving ode to the tissues that move us' (Ed Yong, New York Times bestselling author of I Contain Multitudes and An Immense World)

'Bonnie Tsui writes with uncommon elegance and warmth-about muscle, yes, but more than that, about movement and joy and the gorgeous, often surprising ways they entwine. On Muscle is literary and deeply personal, but also rigorously researched and powerfully inspiring. It made me want to run, jump, grab my bike, any one of which I would have done had I not at the same time been unable to stop reading' (Mary Roach, New York Times bestselling author of Stiff, Gulp, and Fuzz)

'Only a seriously skilled storyweaver like Bonnie Tsui can combine science, sociology, and personal experience into a joyfully careening tale about something we all take for granted but none of us really understands. The genius of On Muscle is showing not only how physical strength animates our bodies, but every other aspect of life as well. You're about to learn more about yourself and your world than you could ever imagine' (Christopher McDougall, New York Times bestselling author of Born to Run)

'Bonnie Tsui is a poet of physicality, and this book is an ode-one that explores our literal and metaphoric hearts. It is muscle as memory, muscle as meaning, muscle as magic. I am, in all ways, stronger for reading it' (Peggy Orenstein, New York Times bestselling author of Girls & Sex and Boys & Sex)

'Beautifully written and so very smartly conceived, On Muscle takes you places that you expect it to and places that you don't. It's like Bonnie Tsui's splendid Why We Swim that way. Yes, there are bodybuilders and barbells in these pages, but Tsui is more concerned with the meaning of strength, the interplay of brain and brawn, and the importance and glory of motion in life. Her book is about being alive' (Frank Bruni, New York Times bestselling author of The Beauty of Dusk and The Age of Grievance)