Muscle Workouts Stimulate Nerve Growth, Mice Study Finds

Exercise stimulates nerve growth and repair through both chemical signals and physical forces generated by muscle contractions.

MIT scientists find that motor neuron growth increased significantly over 5 days in response to biochemical (Left) and mechanical (Right) signals related to exercise. The green ball represents cluster of neurons that grow outward in long tails, or axons. Angel Bu

Contracting and exercising muscles may help nerves recover and grow after nerve damage, a new animal study has found.

During workouts, muscles release chemicals called myokines. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) found that motor neurons exposed to myokines grew four times more than those not exposed. Stretching the nerves to mimic the physical force of muscle contraction led to comparable growth results.