1. Your muscle has four jobs
You know the first one. Your muscle moves you. It holds you upright, it breathes, it chews and it swallows [6].
Three further jobs run quietly alongside:
- It takes up sugar. After every meal a large share of the sugar moves from your blood into muscle [7].
- It keeps your protein in store. About three quarters of the protein in your body sits in muscle [6]. During illness your body draws on it.
- It releases messenger substances. A working muscle sets free substances that travel in the blood to other organs [11][12].
Because of these three quiet jobs, the field now counts muscle among the organs that help steer the whole body [4][5].
This article describes what your muscle does. How you train it is covered in our guides Strength training and Building muscle.
2. How much muscle do you carry?
One study measured 468 people aged 18 to 88 in a magnetic resonance scanner [2]. That is the most accurate method available.
- In the men, skeletal muscle made up 38.4 percent of body weight on average, about 33 kilograms.
- In the women it was 30.6 percent on average, about 21 kilograms.
A muscle is about 75 percent water and about 20 percent protein [1]. The remaining 5 percent are salts, minerals, fat and carbohydrate.
In the same study, the share of muscle in body weight fell from the third decade of life onwards [2]. The amount in kilograms dropped noticeably only from the sixth decade, and first in the legs.
3. What a muscle is made of
A muscle consists of bundles of muscle fibres. A single fibre is one cell that contains many nuclei [1]. Each nucleus supplies one section of the fibre with new protein.
Between the fibre and its sheath sit the satellite cells. These are the stem cells of muscle [1][3]. After an injury or an unaccustomed load they divide and help with repair.
3.1 Two kinds of fibre work differently
Your muscles contain a mixture of two fibre types [1][4]:
- Type I fibres contract slowly and tire late. They contain many power plants of the cell (mitochondria) and work with oxygen. They carry you through a long walk.
- Type II fibres contract fast and tire early. They produce the quick force with which you catch a stumble or get up from a low chair.
The mixture differs from muscle to muscle. It also differs from person to person [4].
One point matters for everyday life: with the years, the type II fibres shrink first [1][18]. That is why quick force fades earlier than slow force.
3.2 No muscle moves without a nerve
One nerve cell in the spinal cord supplies a group of muscle fibres. This nerve cell and its fibres together form a motor unit [21].
When you need more force, your nervous system calls up more such units. Your strength therefore depends on two things: the thickness of the muscle and the quality of that call-up.
This explains a familiar observation. In the first weeks of training your strength rises before the muscle grows measurably. What improved is the call-up.
4. Where the sugar goes after a meal
After a meal your blood sugar rises. The body then distributes it quickly. A study using labelled sugar measured where it goes [7]:
- The liver takes 25 to 35 parts out of 100 straight out of the blood and stores them.
- Of the rest, muscle takes up about 40 parts out of 100.
- The brain uses 15 to 20 parts, the kidneys about 10.
Muscle stores the sugar as glycogen. That is the storage form of carbohydrate. This store lies inside the muscle itself and serves as its own fuel [6].
Two routes bring the sugar into the fibre. One runs through the hormone insulin. The second runs through muscle work itself and needs no insulin [4]. That is why blood sugar falls during and after physical work.
4.1 What this means for type 2 diabetes
In type 2 diabetes, muscle responds to insulin more weakly than in healthy people. Specialists regard this point as the earliest and most important step of the condition [8].
Strength training improves blood sugar measurably. A summary of 46 randomised trials with 2,130 participants examined the long-term value HbA1c [28]. This value shows how high blood sugar was on average over the past two to three months.
With strength training, HbA1c was 0.50 percentage points lower on average than in the comparison groups [28]. The range within which the true value lies according to these data runs from 0.34 to 0.67 percentage points. The programmes mostly lasted twelve to sixteen weeks, with two to three sessions a week.
For context: these trials measured the laboratory value. Whether the same participants later went blind less often or developed kidney weakness less often was not examined.
5. Your protein store for days of illness
Your body keeps no protein depot the way it keeps a fat depot. The closest thing to one is your muscle. About 75 parts out of 100 of your body protein sit there [6].
During a severe infection, after an operation or after a burn, your body needs many amino acids at once. Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. It needs them for wound healing, for immune cells and for proteins that the liver makes in larger amounts in this situation [6].
When food does not cover this demand, your body breaks down muscle protein and uses the building blocks elsewhere [5][6]. The store therefore empties exactly when you need it most.
One practical statement follows. Whoever has more muscle before a planned operation goes in with a larger store. What helps during and after a hospital stay is covered in our guide Leaving hospital weaker.
6. How much energy and heat your muscle makes
Here it pays to separate rest from work.
At rest muscle uses little. Per kilogram it is about 13 kilocalories a day [9]. For comparison: one kilogram of liver uses about 200, one kilogram of brain about 240, one kilogram of heart or kidney about 440 kilocalories a day.
Because you have many kilograms of muscle and only a little liver, muscle still contributes a sizeable part of your resting energy use. A single extra kilogram of muscle changes your daily use only slightly.
At work the picture changes completely. Then muscle uses most of the oxygen and most of the fuel in the whole body [1].
Part of that energy becomes movement. The larger part becomes heat. That makes your muscle your most important heating. In the cold it begins to shiver, and shivering muscle is the most important source of heat in adults [10].
7. Your muscle releases messenger substances
For a long time muscle counted as a pure movement organ. That changed around the year 2000. A Copenhagen group then showed that a working muscle releases substances into the blood [14].
These substances are called myokines. The word means «muscle messengers» [11]. They act in three ways: on the muscle itself, on neighbouring tissue and, through the blood, on distant organs.
The current review in Nature Metabolism names more than 600 different signalling molecules that muscle can release [4]. These include messengers, metabolic products, fats and small vesicles carrying fragments of genetic material.
That number impresses. It says little, though, about what actually arrives in humans. The review of 2020 states that so far only a few myokines have been tied to a specific effect in humans [12]. Much of it comes from cell cultures and from experiments in mice.
A measurement problem comes on top. Myokines are present in blood in very small amounts. The tests separate them poorly from similar proteins, and their origin in muscle is hard to prove [4].
7.1 The best studied messenger is called interleukin-6
You may know interleukin-6 as an inflammation messenger. That is exactly what makes its case interesting.
During exercise, interleukin-6 rises steeply in the blood. After a marathon it lies up to a hundred times above the resting value [11]. The Copenhagen measurements showed that this rise comes from the working leg itself [14].
The rise during exercise runs differently from the rise in an inflammation. It is brief, it comes from muscle, and it is accompanied by anti-inflammatory substances [4][11]. A permanently raised amount, as occurs in chronic disease, has other effects.
What muscle-derived interleukin-6 does in the body is partly clarified. It influences sugar release by the liver and fat release from fat tissue [4]. Whether it explains the health effects of exercise is open.
7.2 Why we stay cautious about irisin
One myokine made the newspapers in 2012: irisin. It was said to turn white fat tissue into heat-producing tissue.
A dispute then began that continues today. One group reported in 2015 that the antibodies used at the time had also measured other proteins in the blood [15]. A review of 2021 states that more than 80 papers reported values between 0.01 and more than 2,000 nanograms per millilitre [16].
Differences of that size mean the tests measured different things. With a more precise method, mass spectrometry, irisin could be detected in humans, and it rose after exertion [16].
We mention irisin here for one reason. It shows how long the road is from a headline to a secure effect in humans. If a food supplement promises you «irisin», scepticism is in order.
8. What your muscle reports to other organs
The 2026 review describes the exchange between muscle and eight organ systems [4]. It runs in both directions. Here are the connections that are best studied:
- Brain. Working muscle releases substances that are linked to growth factors in the brain [4][12]. Most of this chain has been studied in animals.
- Bone. Muscle and bone exchange messengers. Bone releases osteocalcin, which supports sugar uptake in muscle [4][17]. On top of that comes the pull of the tendons on bone, which prompts it to build.
- Fat tissue. Muscle messengers act on fat burning. In return, fat tissue releases substances that act on muscle [17].
- Liver. Muscle and liver share the sugar supply. During work the liver releases sugar that the muscle uses [6].
- Immune system. During exercise the balance of immune cells shifts briefly towards damping inflammation [4][12].
- Pancreas, heart and gut. Connections are described here too [4]. In humans these are the least well supported so far.
Let us sum up the state of knowledge honestly. That muscle releases messenger substances is secure. Which single effect in humans comes from which messenger is largely open [4][12].
For your everyday decisions that changes little. The effect of exercise on blood sugar, strength, walking and mood has been measured in studies in humans. It stands regardless of whether the explanation for it holds.
9. What changes over the years
Three changes are well supported.
First: strength falls faster than mass. One study followed 1,880 people aged 70 to 79 over three years [20]. Muscle mass fell slowly. Strength fell distinctly faster. Those who even gained mass over these three years still lost strength.
Second: nerve cells are lost. By about the age of 71, healthy people have around 40 percent fewer motor units than younger people [21]. The remaining nerve cells take over some of the orphaned fibres and become about 50 percent larger in the process.
Third: repair becomes slower. The number and the performance of the satellite cells decline, especially in the type II fibres [1][18].
When muscle strength and muscle mass fall far enough for everyday life to suffer, specialists speak of sarcopenia [22]. The European expert group puts strength first, ahead of mass. More on this is in our guide Muscle weakness in older age.
These changes do not run in one direction on their own. In older people, training measurably alters the mitochondria, insulin sensitivity and muscle mass [19].
10. What lying still costs within a few days
Muscle follows what you ask of it. It also breaks down when you ask little. That happens faster than most people expect.
- Five days with one leg immobilised. In 24 healthy young men the thigh muscle was 3.5 percent thinner after five days and strength was 9.0 percent lower [24]. After fourteen days it was 8.4 percent less thickness and 22.9 percent less strength.
- Ten days of bed rest in older age. Twelve healthy people with a mean age of 67 lost about 0.95 kilograms of fat-free mass in the legs alone [23].
- Fourteen days with fewer steps. Ten healthy people with a mean age of 72 walked about 1,400 instead of about 6,000 steps a day [25]. After two weeks the fat-free mass in the legs was 3.9 percent smaller. Insulin sensitivity after meals fell by 43 percent.
The third study is the closest to everyday life. These people lay in no bed. They simply walked less, the way many people do in rainy weather, after a move or after a sprained ankle.
What the way back costs and how long it takes is covered in our guide Building muscle.
11. What demonstrably helps your muscle
Three things have been studied in humans.
Strength training. A Cochrane review summarises 121 randomised trials with about 6,700 older participants [26]. Those who trained became stronger. They stood up from a chair faster, walked faster and climbed stairs faster. No serious adverse events from the training were reported in these trials.
The dose. A summary of 67 studies with 2,058 participants examined volume and frequency [27]. More sets per week brought more muscle growth, with a shrinking extra benefit. In the range of five to ten sets per week per muscle group, the gain per additional set was largest. The participants were 25 years old on average and 79 percent male, which makes transfer to older women uncertain.
Protein. Two European expert groups recommend at least 1.0 to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight a day for people over 65 [33][34]. During illness or injury they name 1.2 to 1.5 grams. With a kidney condition this holds only after medical advice.
Detailed instructions are in our guides Strength training and Building muscle.
12. What your strength says about your health
The strength of your hand can be measured in a minute. It is linked to much of what happens afterwards.
A summary of 38 observational studies with 1,907,580 people and 63,087 deaths found that people with higher handgrip strength died less often during the observation years [30].
This work reports relative figures only. It states that mortality in the group with higher strength was about 31 percent lower. How many deaths per 100 people a year that means is not stated there. So the size of the difference in everyday terms remains unclear.
A second limitation matters more. In observational studies people are measured and then followed. Those with little strength often have further conditions. Such studies therefore show an association, not a cause [30].
The same holds for observations on strength exercise. A summary of 16 studies found fewer deaths, less cardiovascular disease and less diabetes among people who did strength exercise [29]. The difference was largest at about 30 to 60 minutes of strength exercise a week and became smaller again with more time. This work also reports relative figures only.
What you can take from this: your handgrip strength is a usable pointer to your state of health. Training it up does not demonstrably lengthen your life according to these data. What training does demonstrably change is in section 11.
13. Muscle, mood and thinking
Here randomised trials are available, in which participants were allocated by chance to training or to a comparison group. Such trials say more about causes than observations do.
Mood. A summary of 33 randomised trials with 1,877 participants examined strength training and depressive symptoms [31]. The training groups reported fewer symptoms than the comparison groups. The difference amounted to about two thirds of the spread of the measured values.
The authors convert this as follows: of 4 people who train, 1 person's mood improves in addition [31]. The other 3 would have got equally far without training.
The difference also appeared in people whose strength barely improved. In the trials with concealed allocation and blinded assessment it turned out smaller [31]. That suggests part of the effect comes from expectation.
Thinking. A summary of 35 randomised trials with 5,734 participants examined strength and endurance training together [32]. Test scores for mental performance were higher in the training groups. The difference amounted to about one third of the spread. In people aged 65 and over it was the same size.
Two limitations belong with this. What was measured were questionnaire and test scores. Whether participants coped better in everyday life is not answered by that. And in training trials participants know which group they are in, which can influence questionnaire scores.
14. Women and men differ
The differences touch almost every part of this article [4][18].
- Women have a higher share of type I fibres on average [4]. They tire later at the same relative load.
- Muscle in women uses fat as fuel more readily, muscle in men uses sugar more readily [4].
- Men lose more muscle mass and strength in absolute terms with age. In women the loss speeds up around the menopause [4][18].
- Women live longer on average and spend more years with sarcopenia and frailty [4].
A note of caution about all the numbers in this article: a large part of muscle research was carried out in young men [4][18]. In the summary on training dose, 79 percent of participants were male [27]. For older women the evidence is thinner.
15. Six misunderstandings
- «Muscles burn a lot of energy even while I sit.» At rest one kilogram of muscle uses about 13 kilocalories a day [9]. An extra kilogram therefore changes your daily use by a small number. At work the same muscle uses many times more.
- «Muscles matter for athletes.» Muscle takes up a large share of the sugar after every meal [7] and holds three quarters of your body protein ready [6]. These jobs run in every person.
- «If I have muscle mass, I have strength.» In the study of 1,880 older people, even those whose muscle mass increased lost strength [20]. That is why specialists measure strength [22].
- «A few days of taking it easy do no harm.» Five days with one leg immobilised cost young men 9.0 percent of their strength [24]. Two weeks at about 1,400 steps a day cost older people 3.9 percent of their leg mass [25].
- «In older age strength training is no longer worth it.» The Cochrane review with 121 trials and about 6,700 older participants shows gains in strength and in everyday performance [26].
- «Myokines explain why exercise is healthy.» So far only a few myokines have been tied to a specific effect in humans [12]. The effects of training have been measured independently of that.
16. What you should know about your muscle
- Your muscle is your largest organ. In men it makes up 38.4 percent of body weight on average, in women 30.6 percent [2].
- It takes up a large share of the sugar after a meal. Of the sugar the liver does not store straight away, about 40 parts out of 100 go into muscle [7].
- Strength training lowers the long-term blood sugar value. In 46 trials with 2,130 participants, HbA1c was 0.50 percentage points lower than in the comparison groups [28].
- It is your protein store for days of illness. About 75 parts out of 100 of your body protein sit in muscle [6].
- It releases messenger substances. More than 600 signalling molecules have been described [4]. In humans only a few have a proven specific effect so far [12].
- Strength falls faster than mass over the years. That was shown by following 1,880 people over three years [20].
- A few days of taking it easy cost measurably. Five days with one leg immobilised cost 9.0 percent of strength [24], two weeks with fewer steps 3.9 percent of leg mass [25].
- Strength training works into old age. 121 trials with about 6,700 older participants show more strength and faster standing up, walking and stair climbing [26].
If you take one thing away: your muscle works for you even when you are not moving. It keeps these jobs only for as long as you use it.
What a programme looks like is in our guide Strength training. How fast muscle grows and disappears again is in Building muscle. What comes on top in older age is in Muscle weakness in older age.
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Transparency
- Authorship: Roger Hilfiker
- AI support: the literature search and the text draft were produced with Claude (Anthropic). Roger Hilfiker checked all statements, figures and sources and revised the text.
- Created: 22 August 2026
- Last updated: 22 August 2026
- Sources: the 34 works in the reference list. All DOIs were checked against the Crossref register.
- Conflict of interest: the practice offers strength training and exercise therapy as a service. This article recommends exercise. We disclose this so that you can take it into account while reading.
- Funding: Physiotherapie Tschopp & Hilfiker, 3902 Glis. The article was produced from the practice's own resources.
- Next review: planned for August 2028