What is the cost of muscle flexibility?

[Darkmisc]

TL;DR

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

 

[jim mcnamara]

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
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/