Muscle

For people such as the elderly, injured or physically challenged, getting enough exercise can be difficult. Help may be on its way, however, as new research indicates that an existing protein provides some of the key benefits of exercise.

The ability of Grizzly bears to hibernate for up to four months without ill effects may be the key to helping prevent astronauts and medical patients from suffering debilitating muscle atrophy through the development of genetically-derived therapies.

A new imaging study has discovered that lizard-like muscles temporarily develop in embryos across the early weeks of gestation before disappearing.

​Tennis elbow, carpal tunnel syndrome, and "mouse arm" all have two things in common: they're the result of muscle strain, and they're the subject of a new wearable. Known as MLI Elbow, the Danish device is aimed at alerting users to actions that could cause such injuries.

Red wine may have health benefits against cancer, obesity, aging, and even cavities. Now, a new study may add muscle loss to the list. In tests on rats, a Harvard team found that a red wine compound called resveratrol could help keep astronauts toned during trips in space or life on Mars.

In research on mice, a team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have found that the injection of a type of cells known to promote blood vessel growth helps accelerate to restoration of muscle mass lost due to inactivity.

​It's a sad fact that past the age of about 35, we begin to lose muscle mass. This can be somewhat offset through exercise, although most people still generally tend to get weaker as they get older. A new drug could help, as it's been shown to increase muscle size and strength in elderly mice.

One of the most frustrating things about exercise is how easily progress can be undone, but maybe not all is lost after all. Researchers have now found that muscles keep their nuclei from past growth, which makes it easier to rebuild later after a period of inactivity.

​Although exercise is the best way of building muscle, there are cases where people need some help – such people can include those who are frail, or are laid up by injuries. That's where a new prototype device comes in, that uses magnetic fields to "fool" muscles into thinking they're being used.

​Bodybuilding, as its name pretty much implies, is all about gettin' big muscles. And while a tape measure can be used to measure the growth of those muscles every now and then, XLFLEX is designed to motivate users by providing them with ongoing real-time measurements AS they're working out.

Georgia Tech researchers have developed a hydrogel that holds muscle stem cells, and by injecting this near the site of a muscle injury they can get to work repairing it. The team says the technique could be effective at treating injuries in the elderly and people with muscular dystrophy.

Why start from scratch when nature has already designed better robot materials and parts than ours? Japanese researchers have now developed a new way to integrate living muscle tissue onto a robotic skeleton, and make it move in a realistic way that takes some of the strain off.