The human body has around six hundred muscles made up of thousands of dense, elastic fibres which provide a range of vital functions from pumping the blood, creating movement, and setting and maintain positions through contracting and relaxing.
Muscle mass is the largest component of lean body mass, which is the whole body, less the fat. Typically, muscles make up between 50 to 60% of a healthy body weight.
The three types of muscle are skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle.
Skeletal muscle is attached to bones to form the musculoskeletal system. Skeletal muscles are referred to as voluntary muscles as they can be controlled.
Cardiac muscle is only located in the heart where its contractions help the heart pump blood through the circulatory system. As this is automatic, it is involuntary muscle.
Smooth muscle is found in structures such as the arteries, digestive tract, and uterus. These muscles automatically contract to manage organ function, so it is also involuntary muscle.
Muscle mass plays a crucial role when it comes to wellness and fitness. Having a healthy amount of muscle mass is important, in terms of efficiency, muscles work like engines and consume energy, so when we increase our muscle, we increase our energy-burning capacity. This leads to our body becoming a more efficient calorie-burning ‘motor’ and will be reflected in an increase to your Basal Metabolic Rate (See BMR).
A healthy amount of muscle mass is also linked with a higher quality of life and a decreased risk of falling or sustaining an injury in later life. As the body ages muscle mass gradually degrades with a loss of muscle mass and function. This is referred to as sarcopenia and can accelerate with age and impact strength and mobility.
Focus should be placed on this as we get older which will also help protect against the development of osteoporosis (a condition that weakens bones, making them fragile and more likely to break).
It is important to set goals and track changes in our muscle mass to guard against these decreases. By creating an environment where our muscles are under stress through resistance training, we can increase the amount of force the muscle can generate. In addition to consistently consuming sufficient protein and overall calories, this will aid in maintaining healthy amounts of muscle mass and repairing of muscle after resistance training.
If you have any questions, please seek advice from a medical or fitness professional where you use boditrax, or get in touch with boditrax anytime via support@boditrax.com
Li, R., Xia, J., Zhang, X. I., Gathirua-Mwangi, W. G., Guo, J., Li, Y., ... & Song, Y. (2018). Associations of muscle mass and strength with all-cause mortality among US older adults. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 50(3), 458.
Hirschfeld, H. P., Kinsella, R., & Duque, G. J. O. I. (2017). Osteosarcopenia: where bone, muscle, and fat collide. Osteoporosis international, 28(10), 2781-2790.
