What is the cost of muscle flexibility?

AI Thread Summary
Muscle flexibility can decrease when certain movements are not practiced, which may be seen as an adaptation to energy efficiency. The body may benefit from losing flexibility by requiring fewer calories to maintain muscle mass, particularly after ceasing weight training. This phenomenon relates to phenotypic plasticity, where genetic adaptations occur in response to environmental changes. Additionally, discussions reference the evolutionary context of human physiology, noting that the human genome has not significantly changed in response to modern lifestyles, and that early humans had larger brain volumes compared to contemporary averages. This highlights the contrast between past and present human fitness levels and adaptations.
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How is it advantageous for muscles to lose flexibility from disuse?
Hi everyone

How is it advantageous for muscles to lose flexibility when certain movements are not practised?

For example, if you lose muscle mass after stopping weight training, you will need less calories to feed the remaining muscle. What benefit (if any) does the body get from losing flexibility?Thanks
 
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A good start is to look up "phenotypic plasticity" - genetic mediated adaptations to environmental changes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenotypic_plasticity
Bear in mind that almost all of the human genome evolved long ago :smile:
So, human energy budgets were important when the average genus Homo members were likely far more fit than a large percentage of modern Homo members.

FWIW ~40kya humans also had brain volumes larger thean us moderns. Males 17% greater, females 15% greater. Our current brain volumes are the lowest average of our species since 100000ya.

https://australian.museum/learn/sci...-we-changed-since-our-species-first-appeared/
 
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