Muscle is an organ, not a decoration

We talk about muscle as an aesthetic attribute. Physiology describes it otherwise: it is the body’s largest glucose reservoir, an endocrine organ that secretes chemical messengers, and the main determinant of independence in old age. Losing it is not a problem of appearance. It is a health problem.

Three functions nobody mentions

A metabolic reserve

Skeletal muscle is the main site of glucose uptake after a meal. The greater the muscle mass and the more it is used, the more “storage space” the body has for carbohydrate. Conversely, a low and inactive muscle mass reduces that storage capacity: it is one of the mechanisms linking inactivity and insulin resistance.

An endocrine organ

Muscle contraction releases signalling molecules called myokines, which act at a distance on the liver, fat tissue, bone and brain. It is one of the leads explaining why exercise produces effects far beyond the muscle itself. The field is still young, but it overturns the image of muscle as a simple engine.

Insurance against fracture

After seventy, a hip fracture is an event that durably changes a health trajectory. It almost always results from the meeting of a fall and a fragile bone. Muscle mass and strength act on both terms: they reduce the risk of falling (balance, the power to catch yourself) and stimulate bone density through mechanical loading.

Sarcopenia starts before the grey hair

The age-related loss of muscle mass and strength — sarcopenia — starts around thirty and accelerates after sixty. A crucial point: strength and especially power decline faster than mass. You lose the ability to produce force quickly before you lose volume. And it is power that lets you catch yourself when you stumble.

Three accelerators: inactivity, insufficient protein intake, and periods of immobilisation. A few days of bed rest is enough to cause a measurable loss, and getting back to where you were takes far longer than the loss. In an older person, a ten-day hospital stay can be enough to tip independence — and that is precisely where the reserve built up beforehand counts.

Protein: the figure to remember

European reference intakes, around 0.83 g/kg/day, aim to avoid deficiency. They say nothing about optimising muscle mass in someone who trains. Work on resistance training, particularly from Stuart Phillips’ team, puts the useful zone around 1.6 g/kg/day, with limited additional benefit beyond.

Two useful clarifications:

• Distribution matters, moderately. Three to four servings of 25 to 40 g stimulate protein synthesis better than one massive serving. But the daily total remains the dominant factor.
• Plant sources need a little more volume. Slightly lower digestibility and a different amino acid profile: the pea + rice combination covers what either one alone misses, and you aim for 30 to 40 g per serving.

Powder has nothing magical about it: it is simply the cheapest and most convenient way of hitting the target when meals are not enough. Always compare the price per kilo of protein, not per kilo of powder.

Training: three variables, not thirty

1. Getting close to failure

The main determinant of hypertrophy is the number of sets taken close to failure — roughly zero to three reps in reserve. A set stopped comfortably halfway barely counts. It is the most widespread mistake in the gym: lots of sets, little real intensity.

2. Volume, around 10 to 20 sets per muscle group per week

The relationship between weekly volume and hypertrophy follows a rising then plateauing curve. For a beginner, ten weekly sets per muscle group already produce most of the gains; beyond twenty, returns fall markedly and the recovery cost rises.

3. Progressive overload

Muscle adapts to an increasing demand. If the load, the number of reps or the quality of execution does not progress over several weeks, the signal switches off. Write down your sessions: it is the most effective and cheapest tool on this whole page.

Good news for training at home: the rep range matters little. Hypertrophy gains are comparable between 6 and 30 reps as long as the set is taken close to failure. Resistance bands, modest dumbbells or body weight therefore allow real progress for months — heavy loading regains the advantage for pure maximal strength.

Creatine: the best documented supplement — and what it does not do

Hundreds of trials, decades of follow-up, a reproducible effect on strength and lean mass. Protocol: 3 to 5 g of monohydrate a day, every day, training or not. No loading phase needed; no demonstrated value in the “advanced” forms sold at a premium.

Three clarifications:

• The initial weight gain of one to two kilos is intramuscular water.
• In healthy subjects, the data shows no kidney damage at usual doses; with pre-existing kidney disease, medical advice is required.
• Vegetarians, whose muscle creatine stores are lower, often respond more.

The cognitive data — working memory, performance under sleep deprivation — is more recent and more heterogeneous: interesting, not yet solid. We do not sell creatine as a nootropic.

The minimal programme that works

1. Two sessions a week, forty minutes. That is the threshold where almost all the benefit appears for a sedentary person.
2. Six basic movements: a horizontal push, a vertical push, a horizontal pull, a vertical pull, a knee flexion, a hip hinge.
3. Two to three sets per movement, taken close to failure.
4. Write everything down: load, reps, how it felt. Progress by one rep or one step of resistance each week.
5. 1.6 g/kg of protein a day, spread over three or four servings.
6. 5 g of creatine a day, with no end date.
7. Seven to nine hours of sleep: adaptation happens there, not in the gym.

The logical companion to this piece: zone 2 and VO2max, the other half of the longevity insurance. The two are independent: being strong does not make you fit, and the reverse is just as true.