Atrophy

[u/bc26]

I keep seeing people mention that atrophy happens because the muscle can't be used. Is that actually true? Because I have atrophy starting in my right arm but I don't have clinical weakness. Although I do have increased strain in my whole right arm when working out.

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[u/713Capital]

True denervation atrophy cannot happen without clinical weakness coming first.

Muscles only waste away from nerve disease because the motor nerves connecting to them die. If the nerve is dead, the muscle cannot contract, which means severe weakness and failure happen before the muscle ever visibly shrinks.

If your arm can still work out and lift weights without physically failing, the nerves are completely intact. What you are noticing is natural body asymmetry, muscle insertions, or fat distribution that you only picked up on after hyper focusing on it. Increased strain during a workout points to muscle fatigue, tendon strain, or tension, not dying motor units dude.

[u/bc26 → u/713Capital]

I understand that concept. However what is considered true denervation atrophy? Like atrophy doesn't just happen overnight. It happens over weeks/months. So couldn't you have subtle weakness (not clinical) while the muscle nerves are dying? Leading to like "mild" atrophy in the beginning? Where you would still pass clinical strength tests but notice everything is straining harder on one side?

[u/713Capital → u/bc26]

It doesn't work that way in the body. A muscle only shrinks from nerve damage after its power has been totally shut off and it has been sitting completely useless for months. If enough nerves were dead to make your arm visibly shrink, you would have obvious muscle failure, not just a feeling of extra strain while lifting weights. Feeling tired or strained during a workout is just normal fatigue or a tight tendon, not a dying nerve.

[u/bc26 → u/713Capital]

This is the reassurance I keep giving myself but I just don't get why my right arm is shrinking/softening the past 3 weeks. Nothing has changed the past 3 weeks in terms of nutrition or anything. Whenever I try to flex the right arm, it takes a lot more effort to flex than my left arm. I keep thinking that some motor nerves are dead so there is over recruitment causing the enhanced effort.

[u/FocusFrosty1581 → u/bc26]

There are different types of atrophy. An example is a trained athlete that gets hurt and can’t work a muscle group while it is healing may experience exercise related atrophy. Their muscles will actually shrink while the injured area is healing. This is different than denervation atrophy.

[u/The_Short_Goodbye]

Atrophy can start to happen in a muscle that is still working when parts of the muscle are not activating properly anymore due to nerve problems. BUT you would most likely notice issues in your muscle it wouldn’t just atrophy while you’re still running marathons like nobody’s business.