New Release

By Casey Johnston

On Sale: May 6, 2025
Page Count: 272 pages
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN-13: 9781538773253

$30.00

$40.00 CAD

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Written by the creator of the She’s A Beast newsletter, this mash-up of memoir and science writing is the rare story of a woman finding joy in a body that, for so long, she considered her enemy.

A Physical Education traces Casey Johnston’s journey from calorie restriction and obsessive cardio—making herself small in almost every way—to the (unexpected) healing she found through the practice of liftin weights. As she progresses with weight training, she finds simple things like carrying groceries and closing heavy doors become easier. But the changes aren’t just physical. She begins to question how she has treated her body, and what it means about how she sees herself.

Combining wit, rage, and a reporter’s eye for detail Johnston embarks on a mission to figure out why so many of us spend our lives trying to “get healthy” in ways that actively make our bodies weaker. On her way, she offers up a scathing take-down of diet culture, dives deep into the science of building muscle, and describes how she learned the process of rupture, rest, and repair— not just within her cells and muscles, but also within her spirit. A love letter to female strength, this is a book for anyone who’s ever longed to return home to their own body.

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“This book performs power from the inside out. It reminds us: when we turn away from the cultural messages that we must be young, beautiful, and thin—false fictions that ask us to destroy ourselves—we might learn to turn toward hundreds of other forms of beauty, erotic power, senses of self. Where Casey Johnston takes her body, there is joy, release, revelation.”
Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water and Reading the Waves
“A Physical Education is a profoundly engrossing journey of how one woman stepped into her power, literally and metaphorically. Casey Johnston is our Virgil through the weightroom, seamlessly blending memoir, history, and science. In lucid prose, Johnston shows how strength training is an exit ramp off the hamster wheel of diet culture and antidote to the shame and isolation so many women experience. Full of heart and humor, this book made me want to get stronger.”

Elizabeth Greenwood, author of Playing Dead and Love Lockdown
“A thought-provoking memoir about falling in love with weightlifting—and, perhaps more importantly, learning how to unapologetically take up space in the world.”
Bonnie Tsui, author of Why We Swim and On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters
“I can't stop talking about this book. A Physical Education is for every woman who ever dieted, looked at herself in the mirror and hated her stomach, or cried when she stepped on the scale, which is to say: every woman. This book is both a rallying cry and a testament to what happens when a woman finds her strength. Read this book and get free.”

Lyz Lenz, author of New York Times bestseller This American Ex-Wife
“[An] openhearted blend of memoir and science writing… [and] an empowering resource.”
Publishers Weekly
“Make no mistake: A Physical Education is no lifting manifesto. It’s about powerlifting in the same way that Friday Night Lights is about football—it’s there, all over the place, but you don’t have to participate in it or love it to understand it as a metaphor for life, man.”
Vanity Fair

February 6 2025