This summer I’ll step onstage to compete as a professional athlete for the first time—at 50. I’ll wear a fuchsia bikini small enough to fit in a Ziplock bag, pose and flex in clear heels, and strike a smile while my muscles glisten under layers of spray tan.

I’m a bodybuilder. This is my third season competing, but my first as a pro.

I came to the sport six years ago, after a string of losses—the death of my father, the end of my marriage, and a spiral into depression and alcohol. A spontaneous conversation with a woman in a hotel gym set me on a different path. Soon, I found a coach—a retired bodybuilder in Bowie, Md., named Tina Peratino—who flipped everything I thought I knew about fitness, food, and the female ideal: First, women should eat more (and better) food. Second, carbs won't make you fat. And above all, lifting heavy won't make you bulky—it will make you powerful.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Read More: Why Weight Training Is Ridiculously Good For You

I had spent decades chasing thinness—eating less, running more, and trying to shrink. But in my new orbit of athletes, powerlifters, and bodybuilders who embraced the “moreness” of muscle, I began to want something different.

Lifting heavy and eating more—not less—reshaped not just my body but my mind. I stopped craving alcohol. I spoke up more at work. I stood taller. I even made a dating profile—and met my partner.

The shift— better food, heavy weights, little to no cardio—was so transformative, both physically and mentally, that the journalist in me had to dig deeper. I spent four years researching the science and history of women’s bodies, the overlooked power of muscle, and why the real answer to better health, longevity, and quality of life lies in building—not shrinking—ourselves. What I found revealed that muscular strength is a vital, long-overlooked key to women’s health and longevity. We’ve been taught to disappear, but our true power lies in taking up space.

Advertisement

When anthropology professor Alison Murray was studying prehistoric human remains at the University of Cambridge, she made a startling........

© Time