"There's an illusion that you need a lot of upper body strength but it requires overall top-to-body muscular strength, " he says.

WSJ: The Push for Weekend 'Epics' on the Mountain

This should include vigorous (jogging) and moderate aerobic exercise (a brisk walk), as well as twice-weekly activities, such as weight training, which maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance.

BBC: NEWS | Health | Exercise 'must be tough to work'

The era was indeed marked by an unbuttoning of Victorian sexual mores, by the activities of some brave if marginal feminists (such as the British campaigners for women's suffrage), by increasing female employment and by a decline in the importance of male muscular strength.

ECONOMIST: Europe 1900-14

Current muscular-dystrophy treatment includes steroids, which can help maintain muscle strength somewhat longer, but often include side effects such as weight gain.

WSJ: New Muscular Dystrophy Drugs Offer Hope

Ms. von Rydingsvard's work, he said, has a strength and heroicism that should complement the Barclays Center's muscular architecture, and beckon people emerging from the subway at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.

WSJ: 'Humanity' in Barclays Center's New Sculpture