Tammy Wise learned the relationship between the mind and the body at a young age under very difficult circumstances. “[I was] sexually abused by my father for three years, from 10 to 13,” she says via phone from her home in New York City. “In these moments…I would very often dissociate. I would feel myself stretched between earth and sky in this perfect alignment. It made me feel connected to something bigger [and gave me] a sense of belonging [and] relevance.” Wise found a positive outlet through ballet and tap classes in her New Jersey hometown and joined a touring company of the musical A Chorus Line after graduating high school.

However, a dancer’s career is often short due to its intense physical demands. After years of hoofing it on Broadway and on the road, Wise, who worked as a personal trainer between gigs, found herself drawn to Taoism. “I finally [had] a language that related to what I’d been trying to figure out my whole life,” she says. Wise’s dance and fitness training, combined with her 5-year program to become a Tao minister in 1995, planted the seeds for BodyLogos, her renowned holistic exercise program outlined and illustrated in her 2018 book, The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body, Train the Mind.

Wise’s book, a manual for both physical and spiritual fitness, is intense yet accessible, showing readers how to target various muscle groups and explaining the emotional reasons behind tension in different parts of the body. Through specific exercises and Tao philosophy (though readers do not have to be Taoist to practice the method), Wise encourages physical and mental awareness as well as the practice of meditation: 

Meditative fitness is a quiet, mindful stretch that connects with resistance as if it were a connection with life. As you stretch away from what you know in yourself and toward what is less familiar in the world, you are awakening an innate trust in universal spirit. You are deliberately trusting that this connection will be one of safety, belonging, and awakening. Now your practice can do more than align your human self; it becomes the foundation for being your authentic, integrated, vulnerable, and bright spirit self in the world.

The most important aspect of fitness, Wise says, is engaging in a dialogue with one’s own body. “If you’re just very literal about things, saying, ‘I’m going to go to the gym, and I’m going to do three sets of 15 reps with this much weight,’ it’s all written in stone, and a lot of trainers work this way,” she says. “You’re never asking the body what it wants to do; you’re telling the body what to do. You’re building muscle, but you’re not gaining a relationship with yourself.” 

The Art of Strength aims to deepen the mind-body relationship not only through physical activity and inner dialogue, but also through exploration of tension—where it is located in an individual and, more importantly, why. “Where we carry tension has meaning,” Wise says. “When we have traumas and disappointments and they are unresolved, you carry [them] around with you in your mind and your body.” 

Wise experienced this principle firsthand and details it early in the book as part of the BodyLogos origin story. While going through a divorce, Wise noticed the exercises she was drawn to: “Why at this time of emotional depletion would I be so into doing chin-ups?” she reflects via phone. “And I was into doing triceps, and those muscles push things away. I hated doing biceps, pulling inward!” Wise then realized the significance: Chin-ups develop back muscles, “which are about protection. I was scared and wanted to protect myself,” she says. “Through triceps and biceps, I learned that I needed to stop being a people pleaser, or push my needs away, and figure out, or pull in, what I needed. It was like this epiphany, this blueprint of how our emotions are stored in the body.”

At 444 pages, Wise’s book is detailed, containing photographs by Jeff Sanders and graphics by debut illustrator Teri Elefante as well as a library of animated videos detailing each exercise, for safety and effectiveness. Kirkus Reviews calls The Art of Strength “a captivating, successful, and well-illustrated guide to strengthening the mind and body.” BodyLogos has earned praise from New York Magazine as well as Shape and Dance Spirit magazines, and Wise was voted the Best of Fitness by Time Out New York and has appeared in Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine as well as other publications.

Wise originally conceived The Art of Strength for baby boomers entering new phases of life—either retirement or the challenge of keeping up with younger, stronger co-workers—and wanting their fitness routines to carry “more meaning.” However, Wise’s editor, a millennial woman who has endured her own personal trauma, also found the book effective, as she learned the methods while working on it. “She said, ‘I would have loved to have learned this when I was a teenager,’ ” Wise reports. Now, Wise considers her book beneficial to those enduring any life transition, from empty-nest syndrome to new parenthood to the first year of college. “[BodyLogos] is a type of therapy where your body becomes your therapist,” she says.

With the help of two trained teachers, Wise runs a private BodyLogos practice in New York. But she hopes to reach a wider audience through The Art of Strength and provide a more personalized alternative to the traditional gym scene. “Too often, fitness methods are so aggressive that [they] throw the body out of alignment with gravity,” Wise says. “My definition of strength is the ability to create a desired change without compromising yourself.”

Lauren Emily Whalen lives in Chicago and is the author of two young adult novels.