Is it possible to have muscle repair just to help strengthen muscles, even if no repair is required?

Thanks for your
inquiry.  The muscle repair won’t
necessarily make the muscle stronger, it may help with the core strength
somewhat, but it won’t effect the strength of the muscle itself.  I will say that most often than not the
muscle is repaired during a tummy tuck surgery. 
I would recommend discussing it further with your surgeon.  Best of luck. 

Simply tightening the stomach muscles will not increase their strength. It does flatten the stomach. In a few cases if there has been a significant stretch of the linea alba (the strip of tissue down the middle of the stomach wall between the two rectus abdominus muscles), tightening of the linea alba can re-orient the pull of these muscles back to their original and proper direction and improve their efficiency.

Muscle tightening only improves appearance of stomach. It does not impact muscle strength or muscle function

A muscle plication is usually a good thing to do at the time of an abdominoplasty in a patient who has had pregnancies (you did not say if you did).  Pregnancy stretches the muscles and it is rare to have them come back to the mid-line as they were before the pregnancy.  It is true that the muscle repair will relax some over the next year, but at least the surgeon and the patient know that they did everything they could to make the patient's abdomen as flat as possible.I would never recommend a muscle plication to try to "strengthen" the muscles.  It will not result in more strength, if anything the rectus muscle plication weakens the muscle by putting the big stitches in them and creating more scar.  It is not the same as having good core strength.The relationship between muscle plication and helping with back pain is too hard to sort out.  Back pain has so many factors.  I never tell my patients that muscle plication will be good for back pain, I tell them it may help, but I never promote that as a reason to do the muscle.Thanks,Gordon Telepun, MDDecatur, Alabama

Suturing of the rectus muscle should only be done if there is laxity or separation of these muscles after weight gain/loss or childbirth. There is no evidence that this maneuver helps back pain and there is good data to suggest over tightening can lead to more serious complications, like blood clots in the legs, as an example. Talk to your surgeon about your concerns. Good luck with your TT!