Training FAQ #8: What is "muscle memory"?

[Animal Rep]

"Muscle memory" refers to the idea that the body has the ability to "remember" a prior state and return to it. In other words, if you've lifted for a while but take some time off, when you get back to the weights, it'll be easier for you to return to your original size and strength.

[jonnydunz]

So true Rep as I am experiencing this right now. Matter of fact it is quite unique how this work. I wish I had the scientifical explaintion to this phenomenom. I am lifting pretty good and my body is taking on some good shape after less than a week in the gym. Excited to see what I will be able to accomplish in the coming weeks.

[mombasa3]

I have been going the a divorce. I am 48 and have been lifting for many years. Do not minimize the mental side of lifting, its by far the most important part of it. My mind was not into it, I quit working out and I quit eating. I dropped 55 pounds in couple of months. I've been off for close to 8 months and started lifting about 4 weeks and its coming back. Thank God for muscle memory.

[monster99]

Thank God there is such a thing...

[Hybrid]

I hope this doesn't start an argument, but...there's no such thing.
It's not 'muscle memory', it's just 'memory' memory. Your muscles don't remember anything. Your brain remembers, after a return from a lay-off, that your body was once capable of lifting 'X' amount of weight, so you return to that standard faster than other ppl just starting out.
Your brain remembers, not your muscle. So, the phenomenon exists, but it's misleading to call it 'Muscle memory'.

Bless

[RhinoJoe]

I thought "muscle memory" was the name for the function when the body creates neural pathways from the brain to the muscle so that it "remembers" what the brain is asking it to do. In other words, the first time ever in your life that you performed a bicep curl, you were creating neural pathways that allowed the brain to signal the muscle fibers to contract and perform the movement. Once this was accomplished, it was not "forgotten," and you could do it over and over again without teaching yourself how to do it again, hence the name "muscle memory." It's the same reasoning behind the phrase, "It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

Please, correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will).

[GJN5002]

I thought "muscle memory" was the name for the function when the body creates neural pathways from the brain to the muscle so that it "remembers" what the brain is asking it to do. In other words, the first time ever in your life that you performed a bicep curl, you were creating neural pathways that allowed the brain to signal the muscle fibers to contract and perform the movement. Once this was accomplished, it was not "forgotten," and you could do it over and over again without teaching yourself how to do it again, hence the name "muscle memory." It's the same reasoning behind the phrase, "It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

Please, correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will).

are you maybe refering to the mind-muscle connection. Many people have a hard time with the mind-muscle connection when training back, biceps for example are much eaiser to have this connection with.

[ministrssm]

so come on, have at it, which is which and what does what. whats the final answer lads. id really like to know

[LVs]

so come on, have at it, which is which and what does what. whats the final answer lads. id really like to know

There is a modern point of view, accepted as an official by some BB "scientists", as we may call them.
Due to that, you have a constant number of muscle tissue cells - "miofibrills" during all your life period. This kind of cell is multinuclear and looks like long rope that consists of many nucleuses.
The weight training may increase the number of nucleuses inside the cell, not the number of cells. Because of that your muscles are growing. This process is long. But the main component of quick muscle size increase is not that.
Due to high intensity training and glycogen spending as the result, muscles start to spare more glycogen for the next workouts as the result of adaptation. Plus 1 gram of glycogen retains 4 grams of water, because water is needed for the future transformation of glycogen to the main fuel - glucose.
Also muscles start to spare more creatine for a heavy lift (when you do up to 5 reps). Creatine also retains water a lot which becomes very visible when you start taking it in as a supplement.
Finally, muscles become pumped up by creatine, glycogen and water and is increased in size a lot.

When an individual makes a brake in the training, body, again as the result of adaptation, starts to understand, that the workload doesn't keep coming and that there is no need to spare fuel for that and drops out the excess of creatine, glycogen and water with it.
But not your hard earned nucleuses - you keep to carry it with pride.

When you start lifting again, body starts to accumulate creatine, glycogen and water and muscle size and strength increase goes pretty fast. Also the createed before mind-muscle tissue and visualisation skill help in that process a lot.

At this level theory looks just fine, but if to go deeper into practice, there are some facts to think about. For sure, the role of training is important, but there are also other parameters in the game like hormones and so on.

In fact, as one professor of medicine told me, they have made a postmorten of an old women, which died because of dystrophy (immobility and caloric deficit) at bodyweight 60 lbs. Under the skin, they have discovered just the connective tissue and bones - no muscles at all. So this professor can not fully agree with theory of constant number of muscle cells during life period.

If to summarize, lift hard, eat twice as big and keep rocking the f...ing house!!!

[mcarlson]

Thank God there is such a thing...

haha i know man. i lost it all summer and ill never do that again. so happy i was able to get it all back since then. i was such a little girl compared to now. but never satisfied. still got a long way to go

[DA GOVNA]

I thought "muscle memory" was the name for the function when the body creates neural pathways from the brain to the muscle so that it "remembers" what the brain is asking it to do. In other words, the first time ever in your life that you performed a bicep curl, you were creating neural pathways that allowed the brain to signal the muscle fibers to contract and perform the movement. Once this was accomplished, it was not "forgotten," and you could do it over and over again without teaching yourself how to do it again, hence the name "muscle memory." It's the same reasoning behind the phrase, "It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

Please, correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will).

You are correct, combine your answer with LVs' answer and you have the complete process for "muscle memory" Instead of YOU never forgetting, is your CELLs that never forget.

-DA GOV

[Machine]

This is my kind of thread. I love the medical science side of our sport. Thanks fellas.

MACHINE

[billi_g]

"Muscle memory" refers to the idea that the body has the ability to "remember" a prior state and return to it. In other words, if you've lifted for a while but take some time off, when you get back to the weights, it'll be easier for you to return to your original size and strength.

It shows
... How the human body is completely

[smith009]

I like your post about muscle memory. All of you have such a great knowledge about it, thanks for sharing such kind of information, it is very helpful and interesting for every one who want to know about this. According to me i think that Muscle memory can best be described as a type of movement with which the muscles become familiar over time. Muscle memory, also called neuromuscular facilitation, is the neuromuscular system's memorization of motor skills.

[AntoineV]

Knowing that is good when you are taking some time off. Your body needs some time off sometimes so take it... what you might lose during that time you will regain faster then when you got it first.

[charlievanriper]

I thought "muscle memory" was the name for the function when the body creates neural pathways from the brain to the muscle so that it "remembers" what the brain is asking it to do. In other words, the first time ever in your life that you performed a bicep curl, you were creating neural pathways that allowed the brain to signal the muscle fibers to contract and perform the movement. Once this was accomplished, it was not "forgotten," and you could do it over and over again without teaching yourself how to do it again, hence the name "muscle memory." It's the same reasoning behind the phrase, "It's like riding a bike, you never forget."

Please, correct me if I'm wrong (and I know you will).

Basically in a way your right Rhino, This is why in any strenght or mass program you should always finish your compound lifts on the heavy side, dont walk away from a workout after doing a pyramid on your bench example up to 315 and then desend to 225. If you do dont expect your body to rebuild that night to the 315 reps as it will rebuild to what you finished at 225 on. Believe it or not its already been proven in the past. As a matter of fact this is why the vary last thing I do on Biceps is 1 set of the heaviest DB I can curl for 4 reps, Back is a fininshing set of Machine Reverse Rows as Heavy as I can do keeping good form and focused contractions ect.

[felipelpr]

a question:
I was on cutting, with cuts and Nitro, and was doing great.
but then, I got sick, and didn't work out for a week and 3 days. Lost almost an inch on each arm, lost some muscle mass.
Now I'm back (a week completed today), BUT I still want to cut. In order to get my usual size, should I stop with cuts and my cutting diet for a while, and bulk?
or because of the muscle memory, I should get back in my old physique in about 3 weeks?

Please, I really need an isight :(

thanks a lot!

[abucci58@gmail.com]

I feel this is 100% real. I've come back from a couple of layoffs due to shoulder injuries, and never have any problem returning to my previous state and growing from there. Then I again I have always held physical jobs, so I feel that that may contribute to maintaining somewhat as well.

[Ady]

I feel this is 100% real. I've come back from a couple of layoffs due to shoulder injuries, and never have any problem returning to my previous state and growing from there. Then I again I have always held physical jobs, so I feel that that may contribute to maintaining somewhat as well.

True that, coming back from 4th shoulder surgery and love the memory stuff, always helps

[Skumbo]

I'm assuming you're referring to being a person who lifted weights a lot (lets say you could squat 400 lbs) then you stop for a few years.

Assuming you never lost weight (most get a bit fat and gain some weight when they stop working out) and special circumstances withstanding (chronic conditions, really really poor diet, etc.) your body would have no reason to remove any of that muscle you had already, especially with caloric excess.

What happens is your muscles become "untrained" in the sense that you stop using many of the motor neurons/pathways that were created (your body creates more motor units) and increasing motor unit pools.

Keep in mind that your body is designed to survive, so you will automatically use as little muscle as possible while doing activities. Your body will activate the smallest motor units first, then go up the "list" so to speak. Most untrained (even trained) individuals cannot activate "all" of their muscle at once, the body just doesn't do that, but you can train it to do it more.

This is much of the reason why "untrained" individuals increase in strength so quickly in the first 4 weeks of proper training, not because they're suddenly gaining tons of muscle, but because their body is developing more motor units (to use muscle it wasn't before) and increasing how many fibres each unit recruits (increasing how much muscle can be used at once)

So back to the "muscle memory" thing. Basically, you still have most if not all of that muscle you had when you stopped, but your body isnt used to, nor does it want to use the muscle as it takes too much energy, and you've given it no reason to. So you'll quickly start getting back those motor units/pools you used to have, and begin to use all that strength again that you used to have.

Its because of this that children (preadolescent) and elderly (65+) in general have much higher muscular endurance than strength, because they havent made the motor units and that they degrade/need to be replaced over time, and many elderly don't use them so they "go away" to make you more efficient at using energy) respectively (for young and elderly).

They have more endurance cause they have the muscle, they just cant use it all *at once* like you would during a heavy set of squats.

So you haven't trained in a while, you figure out you can only squat 200 lbs (we'll pretend you have good flexibility hehe). In the next few weeks/months assuming you train and eat properly, you'll shoot up to near that old 400 lb mark because you have the muscle, you just need to get your body "used to using" all of it at once.

I can find some studies/specifics on it if you'd like.

Source: My Exercise Physiology degree I'll officially have in 3 weeks when i graduate.. also I did a whole term project reviewing this subject for my intro to ex phys class sophomore year. I should see if I still have it..