Muscles are found throughout our body attached to our bones. As the muscles contract, they work to either stabilize or move our body. Most of us take movement for grated and expect our muscles to just  keep on working.

For muscles to gain strength and in the over 35 year old population to maintain strength, the muscles  need to be stressed and worked so that they are stimulated to grow. We see this with our athletes who spend a lot of time in the gym and end up with large, bulky muscles. Conversely, lack of stimulation and exercise leads to muscle wasting and weakness therefore reduced support for our joints, increased likelihood of falling and increased incidence of pain. Insidious muscle wasting starts from aged 35 years. Muscle wasting is called sarcopenia and when muscles are replaced by fat it is called sarcobesity.

The good news is that by loading the muscles, especially with resistance, and when we feed our muscles with protein through  goos dietary habits, we can increase our muscle mass and increase our functional abilities ans reduce load on our joints.

Physiotherapists understand muscles and can keep you moving freely.

Published in “The Village Observer”, June, 2014, written by Burns Bay Physiotherapy.