The musculature is the largest organ in the body, and the sensorimotor system (nervous system - muscles) determines the development, maintenance, and slowing of aging processes throughout ontogenesis. From both a preventive and therapeutic perspective, the musculature is largely neglected. Evidence is the prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases, which in 2024 exceeded 50% in Germany among those over 18 years of age. The 18-to-29-year-old age group is already affected at a rate of 34% (RKI 20258859). When sufficiently frequent activated by the brain, the muscles are not only the "engine" of postures and all movements, but also become the center of highly health-relevant and interacting functions. Active musculature generates the afferent pattern, and cerebral processing ensures homeostasis and structures the brain. Muscles produce signaling molecules and hormones (myokines) for adaptations within the tissue itself and for adaptive coordination with other organs and tissues (bone, fat, immune system, pancreas, etc.). Myokines have a generalized anti-inflammatory effect and also counteract neuroinflammation and inflamaging. Muscle tissue determines the function of the logistics system, culminating in energy metabolism (aerobic capacity), and is responsible for performance as well as anti-diabetic, anti-nociceptive, and anti-degenerative tissue status. The structure and function of fixed connective tissue are trained. The cycles of contraction (ischemia) and relaxation (reperfusion) protect organs and tissues via the mechanism of remote ischemic preconditioning. Muscles interact with the gut for mutual benefit (muscle-gut axis). Systematic muscle activity shifts the neurovegetative balance towards the parasympathetic nervous system and reduces the activity of the HPA axis. Together with the cerebral signaling molecule BDNF, the muscles support neurogenesis and neuroprotection (muscle-brain axis). The cognitive-emotional stress axis is dampened and pain inhibition is trained.

Wolfgang Laube is a specialist in sports medicine, physiology, and rehabilitation medicine. He completed his PhD in 1990 on the topic of neurovegetative regulation and muscle fatigue at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is intensively involved with the topics of the sensorimotor system, the resilience of the musculoskeletal system, the effects of training, the integration of sensorimotor function and pain, and lack of exercise as a cause of chronic degenerative diseases, with the primary goal of active prevention and treatment. Several textbooks on these topics he has been published by Thieme and Springer. He is a lecturer at the University of Krems and a visiting scholar at the Martin Luther University of Halle/S.