21/02/2026
When I was a school (oh so many years ago now...) and reluctantly learning about biology (I found chemistry and physics so much more interesting in those days) I remember being taught about the organs of the human body. The surprise revelation was that skin was an organ! But nobody mentioned muscle or bone in that context. An organ is a part of the body that has a bio-chemical effect on other systems within the body and back then it seemed that the chemical contribution of muscle and bone was considered relatively inconsequential. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Unless you are very overweight, your muscles are the largest organ of your body.
In terms of immediate and short-term survival, we absolutely need our brain, heart, lungs and other internal organs to be functioning right now. But for long-term health, scientists are becoming increasingly aware of the impact the muscle and bone have one preserving and enhancing the function of other organs, not least, the brain.
For most of my life, the focus has been on cardiovascular exercise to try and increase cardiovascular health because heart disease still is the number one cause of death (though it only accounts for a little over 1/4 of all deaths). Strength training and muscle building barely got a mention. But science moves on and recent studies are showing that building muscle and using muscle (i.e. contracting that muscle hard by pushing and pulling against heavy resistance) has profound effects on all systems within the human body, the cardiovascular system included.
I am very happy with the name of my project, but there are times I think I should have called it 'Muscle for Health' instead. Nobody needs to be built like a bodybuilder to improve their health but we all need to understand that muscle is far more important to our health and well-being than being able to move our bodies around.
