Periodic Muscular Growth in Humans?

Question

If a healthy human is at a certain muscle state and then experiences muscular atrophy solely due to disuse/lack of exercise, is it easier to gain that muscle back than if the human had never reached that certain muscle state. If so, is there a name for this effect. The reason I'm wondering is because it seems like muscle mass was definitely periodic in ancient times when food would become scarce during the winter, and that an increased ability to put back on muscle might have developed evolutionary-wise. I thought that this would fit best in biology, let me know if this isn't the case.

Answer 1

The answer to these questions will come from multiple disciplines in science. You asked will muscle development return to previous levels after a time of atrophy. Depending on what caused the atrophy in the first place, lack of use, lack of food, the answer depends on how well the individual returns to the previous state and if any damage was suffered to the muscle and nerves in the mean time. If there is permanent damage, the muscles can return to a stronger state with good nutrition, and physical activity. Will the muscle fully recover? No. New muscle can't regrow, but the individual can regain nearly normal strength and movement. It won't be completely normal. If the nerves are damaged they can regain some normal function depending on how much damage occurred. These are on a case by case situation. It is impossible to state generally how well an individual responded. In historical times often these individuals died. There are several technical terms for this condition, "Muscular atrophy due to: lack of innervation (nerve damage), immobilization, malnutrition. Then severity of muscle atrophy depended on the individual situation and if the situation was short term ( a broken bone immobilized in a cast) short term lack of food or poor food,or was this long term with significant damage? Sometimes this did happen depending on the geographical location of the individual and the response the individual was able to make. Is this a bear that was able to store enough fat to survive winter hibernation or a species that migrated to more suitable locations? Was it a human that had the ability to store food or was able to migrate? The circumstances dictate how the individual responded. Answers to your question come from Biology,Physiology and Physical Anthropology. And as often happens, one question leads to more than one answer and to more questions. Never stop asking such wonderful questions!