What is muscle memory and how do you use it?

What is muscle memory and how to use it?

It is the one that helps athletes recover after a break.

Even simple everyday activities involve a complex sequence of tensing and relaxing different muscles. We use most of these movements frequently throughout our lives, which means we perform them more quickly, smoothly and accurately.

With regular practice, even complex movements such as riding a bike, knitting or playing a musical instrument can be performed automatically and without thought. It’s all about muscle memory. World Class trainer Alexander Karpov helps to understand what it is and how to use it.

What is muscle memory?

Muscle memory is commonly understood as the ability of the organism to return former muscle volumes and strength after breaks in training. Skeletal muscles consist of muscle fibers, each of which is the result of fusion of several cells.

A muscle fiber contains several nuclei (myonucleiaders, as they are sometimes called). And their number, according to researchers, is the muscle memory.

What is muscle memory for?

Muscle memory is one of the factors to consider when it comes to restoring strength and mass after a long break in training. It is what will help you get back to your former form. The harder and more efficiently you trained earlier (in other words, the better your muscle memory), the faster your form will return.

Even if a muscle atrophies during a break, the myonuclei in it are preserved. A muscle fiber of a person who has trained and made visible progress after a pause in training becomes smaller and, consequently, weaker, but there are a lot of nuclei in it. They are inactive and do not synthesize proteins, but when training resumes, they become active and the fibers quickly return to their former size.

It is worth noting that the theory of muscle memory is applicable not only to the return of physical form, but also in relation to health and longevity. As we age, muscles atrophy and recover from injuries very poorly. To avoid these problems, you should do strength training when you are young: this way you can accumulate a stock of myonuclei sufficient to maintain muscle mass in old age.