On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters -- Bonnie Tsui

<b>From the bestselling author of </b><i><b>Why We Swim</b></i><b> comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle--from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue--that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.</b> <p/> "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." <br> --Ed Yong, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of<i> An Immense World</i> and<i> I Contain Multitudes</i> <p/> In <i>On Muscle</i>, Bonnie Tsui brings her signature blend of science, culture, immersive reporting, and personal narrative to examine not just what muscles are but what they mean to us. 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, babies out the uterus; attach to our bones and allow for motion. Tsui also traces how muscles have defined beauty--and how they have distorted it--through the ages, and how they play an essential role in our physical and mental health. <p/> 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--and gives the concept of endurance new meaning. She travels to Oslo, where cutting-edge research reveals how musc