Muscle Memory: Nature’s Assist to Efforts to Recondition Your Body

by Melinda Burris Willms

We have all had to cope with interruptions to our personal fitness routines as we have been forced by the necessity created by mandated gym and fitness studio closings to adhere to “shelter in place” restrictions and social distancing protocols instituted to flatten the curve and stop the spread of COVID-19.

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In the weeks ahead, as these restrictions are slowly lifted, and we return to our “new norm,” competitive athletes and fitness enthusiasts are questioning how much time and effort it will take to return to their former fitness levels. There is good news on this front: muscle memory—the body’s natural ability to store remembrance of learned exercise movements in the brain, and the propensity of certain cells in muscle tissue to rebuild mass more quickly in subsequent training—is a real thing.

Muscle Memory: A Real Phenomenon That is Often Misunderstood

            The true origin of muscle memory and how it works is often misconstrued. Experts point to our shared experience of mastering activities like riding a bike, which, as the saying goes, is “like riding a bike: once you learn it, you never forget.” There is truth behind the spirit of this saying; when we learn how to successfully execute a physical movement or series of motions, it becomes simpler, often becoming an action we complete as if it is second nature. Because people respond in this way to repetitious exercise, it gives the impression that the body eventually learns to perform the action through learned memory. This misconception explains the common misunderstanding among the general public as to what muscle memory actually is.¹

While the lay person thinks of muscle memory in the terms described above, biologists approach muscle memory as the study of how muscle growth and decline occur. Neuroscientists, on the other hand, concern themselves with researching and understanding the role the brain plays in our ability to acquire and retain new skills.¹

Myonuclei: Possibly the Key to Explaining Why It’s Easier to Return to an Exercise Routine Than Starting From Scratch

If you’ve ever done any type of serious exercise, you know that the first time you attempt the motions, they feel awkward and are difficult as you are likely working groups of muscles you have either never really worked before or seriously neglected. It takes real time and effort when you are a newbie to reach your comfort level.¹

However, if you are like 99.9% of us who have let life or excuses get in the way of our normal workout routine, you also know that it is much easier to get back into your preferred form of exercise and re-establish your groove than it was to hit your stride when you first began your training. This illustrates the fact that it’s much easier to regain lost muscle than it is to make those first gains.¹

Biologists have long searched for answers to help us understand why this is the case. At present, the prevalent theory is that even when muscles wither, muscle cells remain. This current understanding is at odds with the long-held belief that not exercising your muscles causes the death of muscle cells.¹

According to Sarah Chodosh, a health writer with degrees in neurobiology and philosophy of science, this premise is based on an understanding of myonuclei—tiny organelles that are accepted to be the primary “indicators of muscular growth at a cellular level.”¹ Myonuclei are so minute, they are difficult to track. However, biologists conducting new research at the University of Oslo were able to successfully track specific cells by tagging them in an effort to determine whether growth or decay was detected. The study demonstrated that while muscles atrophy, myonuclei wither, but do not disappear.¹

Although the findings of the team at the University of Oslo initially met with pushback from other biologists, as subsequent research studies have been conducted, that criticism has abated, leading many experts in the field to conclude that those original findings have now been largely accepted by the medical community. However, it should be noted that there are researchers in the field who still contend it is likely that at least some portion of myonuclei disappear.¹

The Motor Cortex and the Connection Between Neurons, Motion, and Memory

So, what part does the brain play in muscle memory? According to neuroscientist Ainslie Johnstone, while skills such as riding a bike or more elite athletic activity necessitate building up and training certain muscle groups, “the processes that are important for learning and memory of new skills occur mainly in the brain, not in the muscles.¹”

Chodosh points out, it is the areas of the brain that drive movement, specifically the motor cortex, that nurture keener connections “between neurons that serve as the representation for the motion, and it’s these connections that make the memory better and easier to access.”¹

Melinda Fulmer is a well-established writer and editor who has written extensively in numerous respected health and fitness publications for over 15 years. In a recent article, Fulmer addressed the questions that have long surrounded just exactly how muscle memory works. Fulmer’s research revealed a study where 19 participants, all “young men and women who had never played sports or formally exercised” were involved in a study to investigate how previous muscle training assists in seeing faster results when exercise resumes.²

Researchers measured the muscle size and strength of each of the participants’ legs before the study began. Training then started, but focused on one leg only. A variety of exercises were performed using the single leg, ranging from leg presses to extensions for a period of 10 weeks. The study then took a 20-week hiatus.²

Once the participants returned, researchers again measured their muscle size, and then muscle biopsies were done on both legs, followed by a vigorous workout including both legs. Following the workout, muscle biopsies were conducted again, “checking gene markers and biochemical signals within the participants’ muscle cells,” as it is thought these factors are linked to the health of muscle and its rate of growth.²

The research findings revealed substantial differences in comparisons between the one leg that had been chosen to be exercised in the initial phase of the study and the leg that had received no training. The leg that had been worked out in the first phase of the study, “had retained 50 percent of its strength gains during the five months without exercise.”²

What Does This Mean for Hurdlers? The Link Between Plyometric Exercises and Muscle Memory

Hurdlers can reap the benefits of muscle memory by including plyometric exercises in their workout routines. Plyometric exercises also enable hurdlers to train the neuromuscular system, which is capable of allowing individuals to cultivate high levels of speed and strength—the very combination required to achieve the explosive power hurdling demands.³

Plyometric exercises assist athletes in acquiring optimized skill levels due to their concentration on “training the muscles’ stretch-shortening cycle.”³ These types of exercises focus on the “negative, movements that occur as a muscle puts on its brakes.”³ To gain an understanding of the kind of motion we are discussing, think of what happens when you jump off of a box. Upon landing, your knees naturally bend “slightly as the muscle fibers in your legs simultaneously lengthen and contract to absorb the shock – this is the eccentric phase of the cycle.”³

Coach McGill often stresses the importance of warming up before doing any type of exercise—this is of paramount importance to protect your health and properly acclimate your body, so you are capable of giving your best performance. Not surprisingly, it is also important to do warmups before beginning any type of plyometric exercise. However, be careful not to overdo your warmup session, as doing so will tire you out. Dr. Donald Chu, an expert in human kinetics and author of Jumping Into Plyometrics, emphasizes the “need to establish muscle memory, or neuromuscular patterning, while the body is fresh. Once the body is fatigued, it tends not to adapt in the same way.”

Take Away

While it is natural to be concerned if you have let your workout routine slip due to the unusual circumstances we all find ourselves currently living in, take solace in the knowledge that your brain and muscles remember the work and sweat you have put in in the past and it will be remembered when you return to your regular training schedule.

References

1. Chodosh, S. (25 January 2020). Muscle Memory is Real, but it’s Probably Not What You Think: The term can refer to two different things.
2. Fulmer, M. (2020). News Flash: Bouncing Back From Sheltering in Place and Avoiding the Quarantine 15.
3. Pattison, K.| (June 2007). Elastic Energy.

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