Muscle Memory

I am curious about the research on muscle memory.  Since I've gotten back into weight lifting over the past 6-7 weeks, I've seen a tremendous improvement in muscle mass, definition, etc.  I know that its said that if you used to lift, your body often regains its former state quicker than if you had to build it totally anew. 

My question is: what sort of difference can muscle memory have if you lifted for years, but didn't eat as healthy/properly as now.  For example, if I lifted properly and consistently for years, but never quite ate enough protein to get huge gains in muscle, is it possible that I still built a large enough muscle memory to account for the rapid gains now?

I am happy for the results, naturally, but just curious as to some of the research out there.

well when you say "muscle memory" do you mean the way your muscle grows? ive heard this term alot from being in a martial art background and it is uesed to describ your muscles automatic move ment and reaction without thinking. so say you get on a bench press when u havnt for a decade and just do a set. How did u remember to push with your chest and upper body? you didnt this was your muscle memory. Your muscles rememberd the same way it was lifting way back then but that does not mean it switches in size to acommidate. but u are correct if u weight lifted awhile back then come back it is much easier to gain this mucle back mostly due to muscle tissue. your muscles might not seem as big as when you were younger ( or just a few years ago) but the tissue never quite goes away. when u gain muscle u rip the tissue and re build it too make u bigger. since u got the tissue already your pretty much just filling it up in an essence. which is why you are gaining muscle like crazy.

Chris

megachris, your usage of the term is most common.  There's a very different meaning intended here:  widespread anecdotal reports that regaining lost muscle goes much faster and easier than gaining it the first time.  This is common, e.g., among bodybuilders who lose a signficant amount of muscle due to injury, disease, or plain sloth, and later resume training.

silentium_socius, I'm not aware of any actual research on muscle memory in this sense.  And that doesn't surprise me:  it's neither a disease process (so the health industry won't study it), nor is it clear how someone could make a buck off it (so supplement companies won't fund studies on it either).

There are, of course, various informal theories.  One I like is that muscle growth is severely limited by bumping up against relatively inflexible connective tissue.  The "head point" in favor of this is that, in teenagers who aren't working out, muscle growth stops when bone growth stops (and so stops stretching out connective tissue).

Under this fantasy ;-), when muscle mass is lost, the relatively inflexible connective tissue doesn't "snap back" too, and "therefore" it's exceptionally easy for muscle to regrow to its previous largest size -- but no more than that, since at that point it's again bumping up against the connective tissue, and growth again comes much harder.  A good name to look up for more on that is Torbjorn Akerfeldt.

If that's correct, "muscle memory" is simply the result of stretched connective tissue staying stretched "for a long time" after muscle shrinks, and has nothing to do with how you used to eat.

Another theory is that some cellular changes in muscle fibers persist "for a long time" after the fibers shrink, and those changes are of such a nature as to facilitate growing in size again -- but that this effect somehow ends when the previous peak size is regained.  While Occam's Razor prefers "fewer moving parts" in general (and so I like this theory less), I don't think anyone knows for sure.

There's an article about the scientific basis for muscle memory at this link ...

http://www.thinkmuscle.com/articles/haycock/m uscle-memory.htm

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