“Musclespan” is a term coined by physician Gabrielle Lyon, DO, to describe how long you live with strong, functional skeletal muscle—and it is emerging as a key predictor of healthy aging, especially for women. Unlike lifespan (years lived) or even healthspan (years lived in good health), musclespan focuses specifically on the duration your muscles stay powerful enough to support movement, metabolism, and resilience against disease and injury.
What musclespan actually measures
- Musclespan is essentially the “length of time your skeletal muscles remain strong, functional, and metabolically healthy.”
- Research links higher muscle mass and strength—often assessed by grip strength or strength training habits—to lower all‑cause mortality and reduced risk of heart disease, cancer, and disability.
Why it matters more for women
- Women typically start adulthood with less muscle than men and then face a “double hit”: age‑related muscle loss beginning around 40 plus menopause‑related declines amplified by hormones, poor sleep, and joint pain.
- Crossing a low‑muscle threshold increases fall risk, injury severity, frailty, and difficulty with basic tasks like climbing stairs or rising from a chair—problems strongly tied to shortened independent years.
How women can track musclespan
- Practical checks include: how easy it feels to get off the floor, carry groceries, climb several flights of stairs, or perform sit‑to‑stands from a low chair.
- For more objective data, clinicians sometimes use grip‑strength tests with a dynamometer, where declining scores across decades signal shrinking muscle capacity.
Extending your musclespan
- Strength training at least two days per week, prioritizing compound moves (squats, hinges, pushes, pulls) and progressive overload, is the main lever to lengthen musclespan at any age.
- Adequate protein intake, regular daily movement, and avoiding long sedentary stretches further protect muscle as a true “organ of longevity,” particularly through perimenopause and beyond.
