Bonnie Tsui

3 weeks ago | yogajournal.com | Bonnie Tsui

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app. Not far into her latest work exploring the vast and intricate role of muscles, writer Bonnie Tsui includes the passage, “As a kid, I learned to do handstands from my dad; as an adult, I began doing headstands as a regular practice in yoga.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Bonnie Tsui

What does it mean when we call a woman “too muscular”? A muscular woman has historically been a difficult woman. The way we perceive beauty in the muscular form is influenced by many factors, not least of which is gender, and it goes far beyond aesthetics. “Too muscular” can call into question one’s identity as a woman: are you a real woman if your muscles are bigger than the societal norm?

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Bonnie Tsui

My earliest memories of childhood involve hugging my dad, and also punching him. Let me explain. My father, who moved from Hong Kong to New York in the late 1960s, was a professional artist and a black belt in karate. When my brother and I were kids, he trained us up in his studio, to draw and paint and punch and kick like him. “I wanted to make you into little ninjas,” he told me a few months ago, with his big laugh, as we worked out with the heavy bag at his home in China, where he lives today.

4 weeks ago | elle.com | Bonnie Tsui

Several months ago, after internet trolls dragged the actress Sydney Sweeney and her bulked-up new physique for the upcoming biopic of legendary boxer Christy Martin—bemoaning that they found her “chunky” and less attractive—Sweeney clapped back with a video compilation of the insults (and their authors) and a training montage of herself rolling truck tires, weight lifting, and sparring in the ring. No caption—she let her biceps do the talking.

Nov 1, 2024 | afar.com | Bonnie Tsui

Twenty summers ago, my husband, Matt, and I swam down the Aare River in Switzerland with a dog named Arcas. I don’t love dogs, which has always felt like a moral failing. But Arcas was special. He belonged to one of our closest friends, August, who is Swiss German and was spending the year in Bern. Arcas was a puppy then, a rust-red farm dog with one ear up and one ear down who was a little afraid of the water. Fed by the Bernese Alps, the Aare is known for being cold, fast, and milky blue.