In aiming for a vision of fitness that avoids overemphasis on masculinity, I gravitated away from influencers and biohackers toward strong artists who had prioritized physical strength in their daily routines. I wanted to talk to people who were capable of harnessing human creative potential to the utmost, but who also kept their bodies in fighting shape in order to fuel such creativity. And I found them.

There is the cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who in her book “The Secret to Superhuman Strength” could not talk about fitness without also talking about her private history of romantic relationships and the role exercise played in managing stress and quashing depression. … At the core was a vulnerability otherwise entirely missing from mainstream fitness media.

Read on at the New York Times