What is Muscle Memory?

LAST UPDATED: May 1st, 2022

The most common New Year’s Resolutions are about losing weight and starting to go to the gym.

Sadly, most people don’t succeed at that.

But if you started going to the gym and then stopped maybe you shouldn’t be worried.

It’ll be easier to get back in shape thanks to muscle memory.

That means that your muscles remember every exercise you did.

This is known as muscle memory.

What is muscle memory in bodybuilding actually?

Let’s say that during our lives we manage to develop our muscles at a certain level and then we stop exercising because of different reasons.

That’s why we lose muscle mass and we go back to the shape we had before starting to exercise.

You will probably need a couple of months of good workouts and a well-balanced diet to get the muscles you want.

This is well-known to many of us.

That is muscle memory.

Muscle memory means that once you had muscle mass and strength it’s easier to get it back.

How does it work?

There are 2 types of muscle memory:

1. One that helps you recover your muscles after strenuous workouts

The catch might be the stretchability of the muscle fascia.

When the muscle grows it keeps the volume for a certain time, it stretches the fascia.

Then, when you stop exercising the muscle may atrophy, lose its volume, but the fascia stays the same size.

So, as long as the fascia is stretched the growth of the muscle is easier. (1)

2. One that allows you to ride a bike even though you haven’t done it in years

Muscle memory means that your muscles remember every move and how to build a muscle after injuries.

Frequent repetition of certain exercises makes the muscles, i.e. your brain, to remember the move and do it more easily after a long pause in working out.

No matter if you repeat moves from swimming, skiing, or push-ups, your brain activates muscle and joint receptors that send feedback to the central nervous system.

That way your brain knows what your body needs and which muscle to move.

Your brain creates ways to the central nervous system and the moves become automatic.

The type of exercising for a better muscle memory involves lifting light weights, then lifting medium weights, and finally lifting several heavyweights.

Sportsmen who exercise like this change the reps, and create new ways to make the brain remember different from the ones that repeat only one type of exercise.

The best thing is to do more different types of exercises since that’s how you’ll activate and make more muscle fiber and reduce the atrophy of parts or whole muscles.

Also, practice coordination and balance.

Remember – It is all in your head

This memory isn’t in the muscles but in your head.

It’s stored in your brain which codes information and notes different moves-both good and bad for you.

It stores them and when your body prepares to make a move your brain sends signals.

Proprioceptors receive the signals and they get the information about the move they remember.

How to ‘build’ muscle memory?

Repeating, repeating, repeating.

Scientists claim that 10,000 is the magical number you need to achieve.

Do you dare to start?

Start and do 10,000 pull-ups, push-ups, and dips in 2020.

Build your muscle memory for the years to come.

If you want to speed up the muscle-building process click on the link below and read more about the best bodybuilding supplements I am taking:

BEST NATURAL BODYBUILDING SUPPLEMENTS!