Research

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Initial skeletal muscle size (leg fat-free mass or quadriceps cross-sectional area) does not predict the magnitude of muscle atrophy following 14 days of unilateral lower limb immobilization in men.

If you are injured and must immobilize a limb, do not assume that having larger muscles will cause you to lose them faster than a smaller person would. The rate of muscle loss during short-term immobilization (14 days) is not determined by your starting muscle size. Focus on adhering to your rehabilitation protocol and maintaining adequate protein intake.

ModerateRefutesMEDIUM confidence
The pre-immobilization baseline data for whole-body total fat-free mass, intervention/immobilized leg fat-free mass, and quadriceps CSA were not related to the magnitude of skeletal muscle loss in CSA, nor change in leg fat-free mass induced by the 14 days knee brace immobilization period (P = 0.30–0.98; Figs. 1A–1D).
Vernon G. Coffey et al. · Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism · 2023

Why this rating

Retrospective analysis of small sample size (n=21 men), though standardized protocols were used.

Source

Does initial skeletal muscle size or sex affect the magnitude of muscle loss in response to 14 days immobilization?

Vernon G. Coffey et al. · Applied Physiology Nutrition and Metabolism · 2023

DOI 10.1139/apnm-2022-0458

rct · n=30Cited 8×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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