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Are Muscles
Becoming Obsolete?
Are muscles becoming obso lete? Are we heading for an era of ‘instant* people — dehydrated, flash-frozen, and ultimately synthetic? Slowly and unyieldingly a myriad of mechanical contrivances has taken over func tion after function once in the province of man’s muscles. We don’t even get up to switch channels on the TV set any more: a remote control button does it. We have electric knives, electric boothbrushes 2ven electric powder puffs. And now even cowboys don’t bust broncos any . more: they tranquillize them. This spreading atrophy is really more serious than it sounds, Virginia Heart Association warns, because we have one key muscle that still has to do all its own work: the heart muscle. And so inter-dependent are the various systems of the human organism that the degeneration of one can vitally affect all the rest. Conversely, the body benefits in many ways from regular physical activity, Virginia Heart Association points out: * The efficiency of the heart’s action is greatly enhanced by a regime of regular exercise, scientists have found. The athlete’s heart pumps more blood with fewer but stronger, strokes per minute than the loafer’s heart -- saving quite a bit of wear and tear over the long haul.
* The circulatory system responds to active muscles’need for_ more oxygen by developing additional pipelines (collateral ~ circulation). These can stand the heart muscle in good stead in the event of a heart attack -- when adequate collateral circulation, by enabling unaffected areas of heart muscle tissue to continue working, can make the difference between life anc death.
* A number of studies suggest that regular physical activity plays a ro e in keeping down blood levels of choles
85.9%