"We have focused really hard on strength this winter and I have pictures of her with 300 kilos on her back, half squats.
By watching Jackie Robinson and the players who followed him, we learned when we were very young and in a way deeply meaningful to us, that skin color had nothing to do with talent, ability, hard work, strength of character, or any other trait that mattered.
But it would be hard-won strength.
Estrogen, the researchers concluded, had maintained the women's hard-won strength and fitness gains better than men's bodies had held on to theirs, for a simple evolutionary reason.
While Mr. Ilg was nothing like my image of the classic coach (a little Knute Rockne, a little John Wooden), the way he integrated the martial and yogic arts with hard-core strength and cardiovascular routines felt right for me.
"We are doing a much better job at imaging the injuries, and we are also seeing athletes with bigger bodies that are working harder on strength and conditioning, and the bigger, stronger muscles are allowing athletes to torque faster and more pressure is being put on the hip," said Dr. Jordan Metzl, a sports medicine specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
The story of 19-year-old Suahmirs Rivera is one of extended powerlessness turned diamond-hard inner strength.
Stephen has hard-science strengths that I don't, so I asked him to collaborate on turning this material into a book.
