Tune Up That Muscle Machine

Tune Up That Muscle Machine

If your muscles had a motto, it would be “Use it or lose it.” Not original—but true.Unused muscles ultimately atrophy, and even underused muscles quickly lose strength.Muscles that are used are functional, and when they are challenged, they get stronger—quickly. This phenomenon begins in infancy and continues into advanced age. Just think how excited parents are when their baby first lifts his or her head, rolls over, sits up, stands, creeps, crawls, and finally walks. Every one of these small actions demonstrates that the baby’s muscles are getting stronger. He or she explores the increasingly accessible world with unbridled curiosity and enthusiasm. At the other end of the spectrum, elderly people who become sedentary are increasingly confined and fragile, and their world shrinks, too.
Most of us are in the great sea of humanity that floats between infancy and old age. We can make and remake ourselves. When we “let ourselves go,” we are neglecting to build or maintain muscular strength, and we thereby tilt our bodies unnaturally and prematurely toward the older end of the lifespan spectrum—regardless of our biological age. Assuming that you have no health problems, nothing—but nothing—stops and even reverses the body’s clock more than strength training. If you have medical concerns, the shape-up prescription probably will include muscle conditioning,too.