What is the Musclespan Movement?
Maria Arellano Simpson has been on and off restrictive diets since she was 9 years old. “As a young adult growing up in the 2000s, cardio was the focus, and I spent hours doing it to try and get smaller,” says Arellano Simpson, now 44. She logged hours on the stair-stepper and miles on the pavement. It worked, to some degree, providing her a small calorie deficit but no additional muscle or strength. Then, when she had her daughter 12 years ago, she quickly put on 100 pounds, was diagnosed as prediabetic, developed a fatty liver, and registered a body fat percentage in the 50s.
Fast-forward to last year and her wake-up call, which came in the form of two sick relatives. “I felt like I owed it to my kids to have the best possible health, and I didn’t want them to have to take care of me when I get older,” she says. She began her quest to preserve both her wellness and lifespan. And that, in turn, led her straight to the concept of musclespan—though she didn’t realize it.
Excerpted from Women’s Health
