On Muscle and Mind: How Strength Training Changes Your Brain, Improves Your Mental Health, and Lengthens Your Life | Bonnie Tsui

10% Happier with Dan Harris

10% Media, LLC

Dan Harris, Health & Fitness, Mindfulness, Dharma, Mental Health, Meditation

4.6 • 12.2K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What muscles are for, how to get them, and why it’s never too late to start building them.

Bonnie Tsui is a longtime contributor to The New York Times and the bestselling author of Why We Swim, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Time magazine and NPR Best Book of the Year. Her work has been recognized and supported by Harvard University, the National Press Foundation, the Mesa Refuge, and the Best American Essays series. Her newest book is called On Muscle.

This episode is part of our ongoing Get Fit Sanely series.

In this episode we talk about:

The connection between our muscles and mental health
The many benefits of strength training
How society, culture, and history have shaped the way we think about beauty standards and strength
Misconceptions about the six-pack
Running as a tool for healing
The psychological impact of realizing your own physical potential
The symbolism and science of the push-up
The connection between our muscles and our longevity
Practical advice for beginning strength training
And food habits that supports muscle growth

Paid subscribers of DanHarris.com will have exclusive access to a set of all-new guided meditations, led by friend of the show Cara Lai, customized to accompany each episode of the Get Fit Sanely series. We're super excited to offer a way to help you put the ideas from the episodes into practice. Learn all about it here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the 10% Happier Podcast. I'm Dan Harris.
0:18.5	Hello, everybody. How we doing today?
0:41.3	Normally, I spend a lot of time laboring over a clever framing to these episodes. But my guest today says it way better than I ever could. So I'm just going to kick off this episode by reading a few key lines from said guests' new book. Here they are. Muscles deserve more consideration than we give them. We often think about muscle as existing separately from intellect and maybe even oppositional
0:46.4	to it, one taking resources from the other. The truth is that our brain and muscles are in
0:52.2	constant conversation with each other, sending electrochemical signals back and forth.
0:56.8	Our long-term brain health depends on muscles and moving them, especially when it comes to aging bodies.
1:03.8	I'll just note that everybody's body is aging.
1:06.3	So this is true for everybody, this connection between mind and muscle.
1:09.4	My guest today, whose lines I just
1:11.0	read, her name is Bonnie Tsoy. She's a former competitive swimmer, a current journalist, and award-winning
1:17.3	author. Her new book is called On Muscle, The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matter. In this conversation,
1:23.1	we talk about what muscles are for, what they do, why they matter, the connection between our
1:27.0	muscles and our mental health, the many benefits of strength training, how society and culture and history
1:32.6	have shaped the way we think about beauty standards and strength, misconceptions about the six-pack,
1:37.8	which I found reassuring, running as a tool for healing, the psychological impact of realizing
1:43.4	your own physical potential, the symbolism
1:45.8	and science of the push-up, the connection between our muscles and our longevity, practical
1:50.8	advice for beginning strength training, which is tough for many folks, and food habits that support
1:56.9	muscle growth.
1:58.2	We're now in week three of our month-long series, which we're calling Get Fit Sainly, where we talk about how to take care of your body without losing your mind.
2:05.0	Every episode this month comes with a bespoke guided meditation only for paying subscribers over on
2:10.5	Dan Harris.com. Today's meditation is called Find Your Swole. Darmat teacher Karalai helps you tune
	...

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