When most people hear the word muscle, they think of gyms, protein shakes and people flexing in mirrors. But muscle has a far bigger job than making you look strong. It's involved in the way your body handles glucose, how well you move, your balance, your bones, your metabolism and how physically capable you remain throughout your life. Your muscles are working for your health every single day, whether you ever set foot inside a gym or not.
We spend an enormous amount of time worrying about the number on the scales and nowhere near enough time thinking about how much muscle we're carrying. You can lose weight and become metabolically less healthy, you can stay roughly the same weight while quietly losing muscle, and you can look slim while having very little muscle mass underneath.
So perhaps, rather than focusing so much on how much you weigh, it's time to start thinking about whether you're doing enough to protect the muscle you already have.
We tend to think of our heart, liver, kidneys and brain when we talk about organs and health, but skeletal muscle is increasingly recognised as much more than the tissue that moves your arms and legs. In fact, researchers now describe skeletal muscle as an endocrine organ because of the way it communicates with other parts of the body.
Muscle is metabolically active tissue. It stores glycogen, takes up and uses glucose and, when your muscles contract, they release signalling molecules known as myokines. These molecules can travel through the bloodstream and communicate with other tissues and organs, influencing processes involved in metabolism, inflammation and the way the body responds to exercise.
So every time you walk, climb stairs, lift something heavy or do resistance training, your muscles aren't simply producing movement. They're sending signals throughout your body. This is one of the reasons our understanding of muscle has changed so much. We now know that maintaining muscle isn't just about being stronger or looking more toned; you're maintaining metabolically active tissue that plays a much wider role in your health. And once you understand that, muscle starts to look far less like something reserved for people who go to the gym and far more like something all of us should be protecting.
One of the most important jobs muscle performs happens every time you eat. After carbohydrates are broken down into glucose and enter your bloodstream, insulin helps move that glucose into cells where it can be used or stored. Skeletal muscle is one of the body's major sites for insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. When you move your muscles, they also increase their uptake of glucose, which is one of the reasons regular physical activity and maintaining adequate muscle mass are so closely connected with metabolic health. This becomes particularly relevant when we look at insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
Building and using muscle doesn't give somebody immunity from metabolic disease, of course, but maintaining healthy skeletal muscle and staying physically active are important parts of supporting insulin sensitivity and glucose regulation. And this is why muscle shouldn't only interest people who want bigger arms or a firmer bottom, it's metabolically useful tissue.
Muscle isn't something we build in our twenties and automatically keep forever. If you don't regularly give your muscles a reason to remain strong, they adapt to the demands you place upon them, or the lack of them.
Periods of inactivity, illness, injury, inadequate protein and energy intake, hormonal changes and simply becoming less physically active can all contribute to losing muscle. Age-related loss of muscle mass and function is often discussed under the term sarcopenia, particularly when that loss becomes clinically significant.
But I don't think the useful message is that you reach a certain birthday and your muscles suddenly disappear. The more useful message is that muscle responds to what you do with it. If you spend years sitting for most of the day and never challenge your muscles, your body has very little reason to maintain tissue it isn't being asked to use. That means protecting muscle shouldn't begin when somebody is already frail, it should be something we think about long before then.
Women have another reason to pay attention to muscle. Changes around perimenopause and menopause can affect body composition, and ageing is also associated with changes in both muscle and bone.
For decades, women were encouraged to make themselves smaller. Eat less, weigh less, avoid heavy weights because you'll become “bulky” and do endless cardio if you want to stay slim. Thankfully, that message is changing. Being lighter isn't necessarily the same thing as being healthier, and strength is something worth protecting. Having strong legs helps you get up from the floor, strong glutes and hips help support movement and stability, and a strong upper body allows you to lift, carry and remain physically capable.
This isn't about turning every woman into a weightlifter, it's about not spending half your life trying to make your body smaller at the expense of the tissue that helps keep you strong.
Muscle and bone aren't separate structures simply sitting next to one another, they're constantly interacting. When muscles contract and pull against bone, and when the skeleton experiences appropriate loading through resistance and weight-bearing activity, those mechanical signals help stimulate adaptation.
That's one reason resistance training isn't only about muscle, it's also relevant to bone strength, balance and physical function. This becomes increasingly important as we move through life because losing strength can start a vicious cycle. You feel weaker, so you move less, and because you move less, the muscles receive less stimulus. Balance and confidence can decline, activity drops further and everyday tasks gradually become more difficult. This is why maintaining strength helps interrupt that cycle.
You cannot build and maintain muscle without giving your body the raw materials it needs, and protein is central to that. Protein provides amino acids used throughout the body, including for the continual breakdown, repair and rebuilding of muscle proteins. Yet people can become so focused on avoiding calories or keeping meals “light” that they simply aren't eating enough quality protein.
My preference will always be to start with real food. Organic grass-fed meat, eggs, wild caught fish and seafood are excellent sources of complete protein and provide other nutrients alongside it. Raw, organic dairy can also contribute useful protein for people who tolerate it well.
That doesn't mean everybody needs to eat enormous steaks at every meal, nor does it mean plant foods can't contribute protein. But if maintaining muscle is a priority, protein shouldn't be an afterthought, and you certainly don't have to live on heavily marketed protein bars with ingredient lists longer than this article.
If you're struggling to get enough protein from your meals, a protein powder can be a useful addition, but as always, I would look at what's actually in the packet rather than simply buying something because the front says “high protein.” Hemp protein powder is made from hemp seeds that have been pressed to remove much of their oil and then milled into a protein-rich powder. Despite coming from the hemp plant, it isn't CBD and it doesn't have the same purpose as CBD oil. It's simply a plant-based food source of protein.
Hemp naturally provides all nine essential amino acids, although it's not as concentrated in protein or some essential amino acids as certain animal proteins or highly refined protein powders. What I like about hemp protein is that you're getting more than an isolated protein source. Depending on how it's processed, it can also provide fibre, magnesium, iron and naturally occurring healthy fats, which makes it an interesting whole-food addition to the diet.
It's particularly useful blended into smoothies, yoghurt or other foods when you want to increase your overall protein intake without reaching for highly processed protein products filled with artificial sweeteners, flavourings and unnecessary additives. That said, I wouldn't use hemp protein powder as a replacement for good-quality protein-rich meals. Organic grass-fed meat, eggs, fish and other nutrient-dense whole foods should still form the foundation where they suit your diet. Think of hemp protein as another useful tool for helping you meet your protein needs, particularly on busy days or around training, rather than something you need to build your entire diet around.
Protein gets most of the attention when we talk about building and maintaining muscle, but your body doesn't function on protein alone. Quality natural fats have an important place in a nutrient-dense diet too, including real butter, ghee, grass-fed tallow, coconut oil and extra-virgin olive oil, alongside the fats naturally present in eggs, meat, oily fish, avocado, nuts and seeds.
Carbohydrates also have a role, particularly if you're active or training regularly. Your muscles store carbohydrate as glycogen, which provides an important source of fuel during exercise, and those stores need replenishing after they've been used. How much carbohydrate you need will depend on how active you are, the type and intensity of exercise you're doing and your individual metabolic health, so there's no reason everybody needs to eat exactly the same way.
Then there are the micronutrients that quietly support everything happening behind the scenes. Magnesium contributes to normal muscle function and energy production, vitamin D supports normal muscle function as well as healthy bones, iron is needed to make haemoglobin, which carries oxygen around the body, and the B vitamins are involved in numerous processes that help your body release and use energy from food.
This is why I don't like reducing muscle health to simply “eat more protein.” Protein is incredibly important, but your muscles are still part of a whole body that needs to be properly nourished. You can't expect your body to build, repair and maintain strong muscle if you're continually depriving it of the nutrients and energy it needs to do the job.
Eating protein while barely moving isn't the answer, muscle needs resistance. That resistance might come from dumbbells, barbells and gym machines, but it doesn't have to. Bodyweight exercises, resistance bands, carrying shopping, climbing stairs, hiking uphill and physically demanding everyday activities can all challenge muscles to varying degrees.
The principle is simple: your muscles need to encounter enough resistance that they're required to adapt. For somebody who's currently inactive, that might begin with getting out of a chair repeatedly without using their hands. For somebody already training, it may mean progressively increasing weights or resistance over time.
Your starting point is your starting point, the goal isn't to destroy yourself in a gym. It's to keep giving your body a reason to remain strong.
I think this deserves saying separately because the fear of becoming “too muscular” still stops some women from resistance training. Lifting weights does not suddenly turn a woman into a bodybuilder. Building substantial amounts of muscle takes considerable training, nutrition, time and usually very deliberate effort.
Resistance training can instead help women maintain and build strength, support bone health and improve physical function, and you don't have to lift enormous weights either. The resistance simply needs to be challenging enough for your current ability and progressively adjusted as you become stronger.
Cardio has plenty of benefits, but walking or running alone doesn't provide exactly the same stimulus as resistance training, therefore, we need both movement and strength.
Creatine used to be something most people associated with male bodybuilders and tubs of sports powder, but that's changing rapidly. Creatine is one of the most extensively researched sports supplements, and interest has expanded beyond athletic performance into areas including healthy ageing, muscle preservation and cognition.
Your body naturally produces creatine, and you also obtain some through foods such as meat and fish. Most of the body's creatine is stored in skeletal muscle, where it contributes to the rapid regeneration of ATP — the energy currency cells use during short bursts of high-intensity activity. Supplementing with creatine can increase muscle creatine stores and, when combined with resistance training, has strong evidence for improving strength and supporting gains in lean mass.
There's also growing interest in creatine for women, particularly around different stages of life, although some of the more dramatic claims circulating online are running ahead of the evidence. That doesn't make creatine another wellness fad, it simply means it's worth understanding properly rather than assuming it's only for bodybuilders.
Another natural substance that's become increasingly popular in the fitness and longevity world is Shilajit. Shilajit is a mineral-rich resinous substance traditionally sourced from mountainous regions including the Himalayas. It contains fulvic substances alongside naturally occurring minerals and other organic compounds and has a long history of use within Ayurvedic traditions.
It's traditionally associated with vitality, stamina and general wellbeing, which is why it has naturally found its way into modern conversations around energy and physical performance. At My Way CBD, we offer Pure Himalayan Shilajit Resin, and I see it as something that can sit alongside the foundations rather than replace them. Because no supplement can compensate for consistently under-eating, sleeping badly and never using your muscles. Rememeber to give your body the foundations first, then use additional nutritional and plant support intelligently.
Our Pure Himalayan Shilajit Resin is sourced from the Himalayan mountains and minimally processed to preserve its natural fulvic acid, trace minerals and over 85 naturally occurring minerals.
With a recommended serving of around 500mg per day, a 100g jar can last up to 5 months, making it one of the most economical additions to a daily wellbeing routine.
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There's another side to building muscle that doesn't get quite as much attention on social media, and thats recovery. Training provides the stimulus, but your body then needs sufficient nutrition and recovery to adapt to that stimulus.
Hammering the same muscles relentlessly without giving them adequate opportunity to recover isn't necessarily going to produce better results. Neither is training hard while chronically under-eating and sleep is hugely important too. You don't need to obsess over achieving a magical number of hours every night. What you do need is sufficient, restorative sleep that allows your body to carry out the recovery processes it relies upon.
If you're waking naturally feeling refreshed, have good energy throughout the day and aren't constantly relying on stimulants to function, that's a good indication that your body is getting useful rest. Training and recovery aren't opposites, they're two halves of the same process.
I think we need to stop looking at muscle as something that belongs to fitness influencers, you don't have to want a six-pack, you don't have to photograph yourself in a gym mirror. And you certainly don't have to become obsessed with weighing your food or tracking every gram you eat. But you do need your muscles.
You need them to stand, walk, lift, carry, climb stairs, maintain balance and remain physically independent. They contribute to metabolic health, interact with your bones and respond remarkably well when you actually give them something to do.
So rather than spending your whole life asking how you can weigh less, perhaps start asking a different question. How strong do I want my body to be ten, twenty or thirty years from now?
Because maintaining muscle isn't really about how you look in the mirror, it's about what you want your body to still be capable of doing.
Written by Dee Mani
A: Muscle does far more than give your body strength and movement. Skeletal muscle is metabolically active tissue that helps store and use glucose, supports physical function and communicates with other parts of the body through signalling molecules known as myokines. Maintaining muscle is therefore important for metabolic health, mobility, bone health, balance and remaining physically capable throughout life.
A: Yes. The number on the scales doesn't tell you how much of your body is muscle or fat. You can remain roughly the same weight while gradually losing muscle and gaining body fat, which is why body composition and strength can tell us far more than weight alone.
A: Your muscles need a reason to stay strong, so regular resistance training combined with sufficient protein and overall good nutrition is one of the most effective ways to maintain them. You don't necessarily need a gym either; weights, resistance bands, bodyweight exercises, carrying, climbing and other activities that challenge your muscles can all contribute.
A: There isn't one amount that's right for everybody. Protein requirements vary according to body size, activity level, age, overall diet and whether you're trying to maintain or build muscle. Rather than becoming obsessed with numbers, make sure quality protein is a meaningful part of your meals throughout the day, using foods such as organic grass-fed meat, eggs, fish and other protein sources that suit your diet.
A: Hemp protein can be a useful way of increasing your overall protein intake, particularly if you want a plant-based option. It provides all nine essential amino acids as well as nutrients such as fibre and minerals, although its amino-acid profile and protein concentration differ from some animal proteins and other protein powders. I see it as something to add to a well-nourished diet rather than use as a replacement for proper meals.
A: No. Although creatine became famous through bodybuilding and sports, it's one of the most extensively researched sports supplements and is now attracting much wider interest for strength, muscle, physical performance, healthy ageing and potentially aspects of cognitive health. You don't need to be a bodybuilder to benefit from understanding what creatine does.
A: Absolutely. Resistance training can help women build and maintain muscle, support bone health, improve strength and preserve physical function. And the idea that picking up weights will automatically make a woman excessively muscular simply isn't realistic. Building substantial muscle takes considerable time, training and nutrition.
A: No. Our ability to respond to resistance exercise doesn't simply disappear because we've reached a particular age. Your starting point may change, and exercise should always be appropriate for your current strength, mobility and health, but muscle remains remarkably responsive when it's given the right stimulus, nutrition and recovery.
Dislclaimer: The information in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended to replace individual medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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