Drosophila has been notoriously instrumental in the uncovering of genetic mechanisms of muscle development, however it is generally considered less attractive for studying post-developmental plasticity of muscles. This is because the most studied muscles, flight and jump muscles, remain unchanged in size and morphology throughout the life of adult flies. We recently found that Lateral Abdominal Muscles (LAMs), small muscles underlying the abdominal wall, can undergo atrophic changes in response to starvation, aging, and experimentally-induced cancer cachexia. The relative ease of abdominal preparations, as well as the multitude of LAMs per fly, makes this model suitable for quantitative analysis. Using genetic approach, we demonstrate that experimental up-regulation of muscle structural gene expression can ameliorate LAM atrophy in aging flies. Our study indicates that LAMs can be a useful model for studying genetic components of muscle atrophy.