It’s quite a popular phrase – “Use it or lose it!”
– that not even think about it without any effect on you. Now, Capitol Spine & Rehabilitation wants to put a hold on the phrase in your mind long enough to show just how much you might lose if you don’t use your muscles regularly. (Adding time for a few sessions of chiropractic spinal manipulation
may benefit you as well!) Capitol Spine & Rehabilitation knows its Baton Rouge chiropractic patients and other folks likewise are busy and realizes that just a little time each day for exercise
will do so much!
Chiropractic is all about motion. So let’s just contemplate some facts about motion and muscle – strength, mass, and loss:
- In older and young men, just 2 weeks of immobilization significantly reduces leg muscle strength, aerobic capacity, and leg lean mass (especially in young men). Peculiarly, 6 weeks of retraining was able to increase but not 100% rehabilitate the strength. Researchers point out that young men who couldn’t use their legs for 2 weeks lost a third of their leg strength. That puts them on par with a 40-50 year old man in terms of strength! (1) What would a Baton Rouge young man think of that? What would Baton Rouge older men think of that?
- Listen up, young Baton Rouge folks. Young people lose more muscle mass. More physically fit folks lose more muscle mass. Older folks lose half the amount of muscle mass, but they start out with less, too. Further, it takes three times the amount of time of inactivity to regain the lost muscle mass. (2)
- Sadly, with age comes a decline in total muscle mass. Now, young men have about two pounds more muscle mass in each leg than older men do. And after two weeks of immobility, the young men involved in the study lost 17 ounces of muscle, on average. (3) Baton Rouge young and older men alike are sensitive to muscle mass loss.
Muscle mass and strength is so easy to lose yet so hard to get back! Baton Rouge men and women can relate to that! In this study, cycling was the rehabilitation method. It wasn’t enough though to regain all the original muscular strength. It was good enough to help regain lost muscle mass and get back to a former fitness level. But weight training is key to get muscle strength back.
BONUS Baton Rouge CHIROPRACTIC CARE TIP: Spinal manipulation is recently shown to improve multifidus muscle thickness after just 3 sessions of spinal manipulation over a 7 day period. (4) So don’t avoid your Baton Rouge chiropractic visits! The spinal manipulation using Cox Technic protocols is gentle, relaxing and effective!
So use it or lose it. Baton Rouge chiropractic care is meant to keep you active. Inactivity isn’t your friend. If it comes from an injury, you just have to deal with it for a time. Be ready once you’re better - or get back from that really lazy vacation away from Baton Rouge! - to exercise. Contact Capitol Spine & Rehabilitation for some appropriate exercise moves if you’re just starting to exercise or ready to rehabilitate or if you’re dealing with back pain or neck pain. As your Baton Rouge chiropractic center, Capitol Spine & Rehabilitation is here to remind you to “use it or lose it!”