Lift your arm out to your side. Now, bend your elbow and squeeze your bicep as hard as you can. Do you feel or see something, or is your upper arm pretty squishy?



Try another one. Stand up and squeeze your butt cheeks as though you're trying to keep from breaking wind (hold in a fart). Is there anything back there, or has your butt become as flat as an IHOP pancake?



While everyone is worried about which diet is best...Paleo, Keto, low-carb, low-fat (yes, some people still buy into low-fat diets)...I'm over here shaking my head, knowing people are missing a big part of the health and fitness puzzle.



Nutrition alone is not the answer to reclaiming your health, getting rid of excess body fat, and feeling your best. Nutrition provides the building blocks for your body, but you need strength training to tell your body what to do with that nutrition.



The average person starts losing muscle as early as age 25! More and more millennials haven't even left home by age 25. From 40 to 70 years old, muscle loss averages 8% per decade and then accelerates to 15% after age 70.



Your muscle tissue is a significant factor in the function of your metabolism. Muscle loss causes physical and cognitive decline.



Of course, much of this muscle loss, especially in younger and middle-aged adults, can be slowed, prevented, and even reversed. Unfortunately, the average lifestyle today, along with people’s low testosterone and low growth hormone, high levels of stress, and prevalence of type II diabetes, only accelerates muscle loss.



At some point, the rate you lose muscle exceeds the rate you can gain it, even in someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You cannot escape the effects of aging, but you can delay them.



Besides aging, injuries, cancer and other diseases, and chronic stress also cause muscle loss. Our eventual physical decline is inevitable. But the more muscle we have when our bodies start rapidly breaking down, the longer we last with our physical function.



Muscle looks good, but its value goes well beyond how it looks. My hope is, by the end of this article, you’ll drop whatever excuse you have in your head for not strength training and eating enough protein, and make them both nonnegotiables.



Here are seven ways muscle supports your body and mind.



1. Muscle Helps Manage Blood Sugar



High-carb diets combined with sedentary lifestyles created an epidemic of diabesity (obesity and diabetes). About two-thirds of the population is overweight or obese, and pre-diabetic or diabetic.



If you look down at your stomach and you don’t see a bulging belly, don’t assume you’re in the clear. About 20% of those with diabetes or pre-diabetes are at a healthy weight.



To fix the blood sugar problem, you could eliminate carbs entirely by following a ketogenic diet. Or, you could eat a more moderate amount of carbs and create space to store them by building muscle.



In my opinion, your mental and physical health will be better off with some carbs in your diet.



Your liver and skeletal muscle store glucose as glycogen. However, if you don’t exercise regularly, and more specifically, train with weights, you lose your ability to store carbs.