Does Muscle Have "Memory"?

I've read many articles online, where someone stops lifting weights for a extended length of time, therefore, losing a lot of the muscles that he built. But when he gets back on track, he could easily re-build those muscles back. Like, it was easier to re-build it than when he FIRST weight lifted.

So... does muscle have this BEAUTIFUL "memory"??

If so, how come?

I know it is true, because I stoped to weight lift for 6 months and now I start to go to the gym again, and on the 10th workout I reached my previous weights. It is easier to get in shape if you ever exercised.

I've never heard of muscle memory described in those terms.  I've always heard it described in terms of some long, repetitive motion.  Specifically, when my orchestra teacher was telling us that eventually, our fingers would learn their positions because of muscle memory, and we'd have to think less and less about where exactly to put them because we'd practiced so much.

But even in this case, I think its more of a case of your nervous system remembering than your muscularture system.  Because you remember how it felt to move that heavy weight, your form is much better, and you react in a fast, powerful, confident motion instead of the tentative one you might have started with.

That's my experience anyway.

ohhh.... so it's true!! Because next week im flying off to another country... and it's winter there!! Very cold!!! So I "probably" woudn't be able to walk all the way to the gym everyday like I used to.... and I was afraid that I'd lose my muscles =((( and worse, take sooo long to re-build them!!

and tyrdrop (nice nickname btw!!) , that sounds like a pretty good assumption!!!

Very true!

I was a level 8 gymnast, but I quit about 4 years ago. Last night I stepped into a gym(nastics center) for the first time since then. Not counting stretching and warming up, I was able to throw level 7 skills (front handspring fronts, backhanspring layouts) within half an hour!

My form was just as good, but I didn't get as high as I used to. The coach explianed that while my muscles remembered the technique, they're weren't as strong when it came to tumbling. My legs are probably just as string as they were 4 years ago, just not in a gymnastics sense.  So in my case it has a lot less to do with tentative vs. confident performance (you either throw a skill or you don't).

True. The fancy term is neuro-muscular pathways. Muscle memory does not imply strength or speed, but complex movements that athletes learn by frequent repetition in training. I quit hammer throwing (Track and Field, not Highland Games) for 17 years. MY first workout back I remembered the footwork and body positions. My body just knew where to go. I can't throw as far in my 40's as I did in my 20's but it is still fun. My college coach still throw and he is in his 70's.

My definition of "muscle memory" is more the body learning what exercises you are going to do in what order and no longer "work" as hard as they used to- and that is why they say every couple weeks to change up your routine and do different workouts in different orders and such to keep the body guessing and working and adding benefits.

Wikipedia defines "muscle memory" as 

When an active person repeatedly trains movement, often of the same activity, in an effort to stimulate the mind’s adaptation process, the outcome is to induce physiological changes which attain increased levels of accuracy through repetition. Even though the process is really brain-muscle memory or motor memory, the colloquial expression "muscle memory" is commonly used.

Individuals rely upon the mind’s ability to assimilate a given activity and adapt to the training. As the brain and muscle adapts to training, the subsequent changes are a form or representation of its muscle memory.

There are two types of motor skills involved in muscle memory: fine and gross. Fine motor skills are very minute and small skills we perform with our hands such as brushing teeth, combing hair, using a pencil or pen to write, touch typing or even playing video games. Gross motor skills are those actions that require large body parts and large body movements as in the throwing sports such as bowling, American football, and baseball, sports such as rowing, basketball, golf, judo, and tennis, and activities such as driving a car (especially one with amanual transmission), piloting aircraft, playing a musical instrument, and marksmanship.

Muscle memory is fashioned over time through repetition of a given suite of motor skills and the ability through brain activity to inculcate and instill it such that they become automatic. To the beginner, activities such as brushing the teeth, combing the hair, or even driving a vehicle are not as easy as they look. As one reinforces those movements through repetition, the neural system learns those fine and gross motor skills to the degree that one no longer needs to think about them, but merely to react and perform appropriately. In this sense the muscle memory process is an example of automating an OODA Loop insofar as one learns to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

When one picks up a hair brush, one automatically has a certain motion, style, number of strokes, and amount of pressure as the hair is brushed without requiring conscious thought about each movement. Other forms of rather elaborate motions that have become automatic include speech. As one speaks, one usually does not consciously think about the complex tongue movements, synchronisation with vocal cords and various lip movements that are required to produce phonemes, because of muscle memory. In speaking a language that is not one's native language, one typically speaks with an accent, because one's muscle memory is tuned to forming the phonemes of one's native language, rather than those of the language one is speaking. An accent can be eliminated only by carefully retraining the muscle memory.

AHHHH !! That's so beautiful !!! Muscle memory kicks donkey butt!!

but I have a question... dbackerfan, you said that it's good to change up your routine and do diff workouts in diff orders to keep the body from guessing and adding benefits...

does that mean that if i don't change my workouts at all (but maybe add heavier weights as time goes by), then I wouldn't be getting ENOUGH benefits than if I were to change the routines ??Would I not be able to build more muscles??

I have learned from experience that there is truth to the muscle memory  statement.  

I had bunion and hammer toe surgery on both of my feet last year and was in a huge walking boot for 8 weeks for each foot.. I was totally flipped out by how soft my calves got I mean there was no muscle and my podiatrist told me not to worry within a week of having the boot off I would be fine..

He was right, right after the boot came off I was weak, but within one week I was normal... for the most part.

But my dr kept saying that my muscles would remember.. and they did.

sooji- yes your workouts will be more beneficial if you don't do the same routine in the same order every week- even as you add weight.  When I was doing a circuit gym (Curves) years ago - they would change the direction of the circuit every week and once every 3 months totally change the layout of the equipment so our bodies would have to get adjusted to a new routine.  So changing up a routine can be as easy as instead of every Mon, wed Friday doing x body parts in x order do different body parts and the sets in a different order.  For example I will do squats then leg press then lunges, deadlifts one week then the next week do the deadlifts lunges leg press then squats or even every other week or every other workout to always keep my muscles confused so they aren't just "working from memory with little effort" but are really working out cause they have no idea what I'm gonna ask them to do next.  Sometimes I can just change it up by doing a different exercise for that muscle group and drop one of my regulars.

Original Post by sooji:

AHHHH !! That's so beautiful !!! Muscle memory kicks donkey butt!!

but I have a question... dbackerfan, you said that it's good to change up your routine and do diff workouts in diff orders to keep the body from guessing and adding benefits...

does that mean that if i don't change my workouts at all (but maybe add heavier weights as time goes by), then I wouldn't be getting ENOUGH benefits than if I were to change the routines ??Would I not be able to build more muscles??

oo, a chance to use a new term, 'muscle perturbation'. i change my workouts about every 6-8 weeks. some times even after 4 weeks i stop feeling like im challenging myself. the only thing that is hard about that, is that changing can be mentally disruptive some times, learning some new moves. but it can also give you a new sense of motivation. usually after the 2nd or 3rd workout from a new routine you start to feel more comfortable. and it becomes kind of fun coming up with new routines, if you dont like a new one after 2 weeks you can always go back.

dbackerfan

- Ohhhh.... okay, so you mean that we can do the same workouts that we've been doing, but just change the workouts AMONG THEM every week??

Would that be enough to keep my muscles from guessing??

octo-luv

- you change every 6-8 weeks?? Is it too tiring to change it every week?

lol i actually never keep track of what order i do things in... I decide what im gonna do that day once I get to the gym... I almost never even know what body part im going to focus on that day

Original Post by sooji:

octo-luv

- you change every 6-8 weeks?? Is it too tiring to change it every week?

actually its not too bad. & i usually get bored by the 4 or 5th week & can't wait to start a new one. it keeps me interested, i guess i like planning & seeing what different kind of results i get in my performance.

like melkor suggested i try the real fast fat loss plan from t-nation & i was amazed at the endurance i gained & that i felt like i could move a mountain in & outside of the gym.

i do try to keep up my running though, so sometimes i concentrate more on speed & if i have a race i concentrate more on distance.

systemdrop

- lol you dont plan at all? hahahaha.. that's quite surprising... then how do you know which parts you haven't worked out for quite a while and which parts you have been working on often? I know i dont write down my workout schedule, but I still keep in mind which part of my body I need to work on.

octo-luv

- what is this "real fast fat loss plan" that melkor mentioned?

t-nation real fast fat loss

the first 4 weeks were a real butt kicker for me. same peeps that did new rules of lifting n stuff.

Hi,

You might be interested in my recent post to a question on this topic titled, "Is it easier of harder to regain muscle lost during an exercise break?"

Mary

maryhartley

- Ooooh!!! Thank you thank you!!! That really did help me!!