What if I told you there is something you possess right now that is worth all the money in the world? Now, what if I told you that “something” was actually in your body?

This mystery item supports your body day in and day out, can help to improve your mobility and can even protect you from injury. It can promote health and longevity as you age, impact your blood sugar stability and energy levels and even reduce your risk for some debilitating health conditions.

Through its incredible contractile properties, it enables you to breathe by allowing your chest to expand, supports your internal organs and their position within your body and even helps your body generate heat to prevent hypothermia.

Any guesses as to what this miraculous thing is?

If you guessed muscle tissue … you are absolutely right.

There are more than 600 muscles in your body controlling every move you make. Your muscles work together with your nervous system and skeletal system to allow you to move and function as you go through your days — as you eat, breathe, sneeze, laugh and everything in between.

When we think about the basics of muscle tissue, it seems pretty straightforward and not very “magical.” But when we go a little deeper into it, we can start to understand why muscle tissue is so valuable.

Muscle tissue has been appropriately deemed the “predictor of longevity,” especially when we look at older adults. Studies show that having more muscle mass on your body can lower your overall risk of death (from all causes) by helping to prevent chronic diseases, maintain your functional independence as you age and promote the health and strength of your bones.

Muscles are not just good for keeping your body strong and resilient; they also help you to maintain a healthy metabolic rate because muscle tissue is metabolically active. In other words, when you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories at rest since muscle mass takes more calories to maintain than adipose (fat) tissue does.

Most of us have heard the phrase “muscle weighs more than fat.” That phrase can be a bit confusing or misleading because a pound of fat and a pound of muscle both weigh the same. However, a pound of muscle tissue is indeed much smaller than a pound of fat.

This is the reason that you may see little to no change in the scale when you start lifting weights, but your clothes start fitting better. This can also be known as “body recomposition”: the process of building muscle and losing fat. Exercise is necessary for this process, as is time and consistency, because building muscle takes a lot of time and effort.

Furthermore, when you use your muscles for exercise or other physical activity, “happy hormones” are released into your bloodstream. These feel-good hormones, called endorphins, are released during exercise or other pleasurable activities. Endorphins can improve your mood, reduce stress and anxiety, boost your self-confidence and even act as a pain reliever.

That’s not all, though. Science has also found that chemicals called myokines are released into your bloodstream when you contract your muscles. Myokines, sometimes referred to as “hope molecules,” have many functions within your body that are similar to endorphins. Myokines can also help to improve cognitive function, reduce inflammation, regulate blood sugar and give you an overall sense of optimism and improved well-being. Some studies have even referred to myokines as “a natural antidepressant.”

During my time in the training field, I have heard many women say they fear lifting weights because they don’t want to get “bulky” or “look like a man.” If you’ve had this same worry, allow me to put your mind at ease: It takes a lot of work (mostly diet related) for women to grow that much muscle. The vast majority of women could not achieve the physique of a man because women don’t have the same hormonal makeup as men do (such as testosterone levels).

For a woman to gain the large amount of muscle mass in order to look “bulky,” she would have to significantly change her diet and lift heavy weights consistently, usually over the course of years. So, women should not shy away from weightlifting for fear of getting bulky. You can rest assured that any woman who looks that way has likely spent years of calculated and intentional effort to get to that point, and it cannot just happen by accident.

Finally, we cannot talk about the importance of muscle tissue without talking about bones. Building your muscles through activities like weight training is one of the best things you can do to protect your bones as you age, especially for women.

When we lift weights, it makes our bones stronger, more resilient to the effects of aging and less susceptible to age-related bone changes, such as osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is not just a concern for women, though; approximately 2 million men in the United States also are affected by this condition. However, engaging in weight-bearing activities puts pressure on your bones, which stimulates the production of bone-building cells called osteoblasts.

Additionally, added muscle mass helps to protect your bones from injury if you were to fall, and strengthening your muscles improves your overall balance to prevent falls in the first place.

Unfortunately, the phrase “if you don’t use it, you lose it” applies to muscle mass as well. As we age, our muscles naturally go through a process called sarcopenia, or age-related muscle loss.

While this is considered a natural part of aging, lack of regular exercise can exacerbate this process. If we don’t exercise on a regular basis (ideally including strength training), our muscles will start to reduce in size, we will feel weaker and we will be more susceptible to injury and illness.

The good news: You can change that whenever you want. Any increase in the amount of exercise you do will have positive impacts on your mental and physical health, and your muscle mass will reap the benefits as well.

At the end of the day, exercise proves to have yet another amazing benefit: It helps to build the most valuable thing you own.