Faculty, Training

Muscle Memory

Author: Akshita Arora, Advanced Coach at FITTR and INFS Faculty

Your muscles are more powerful than you think. Not only do they add strength to your body, they also help you regain lost strength when you get back to your workout after a long break. Curious? Read more in this article.

Sometimes, lifters have to take a break from their workout due to various reasons like a planned deload, vacation, injury etc. During this time period, there can be a loss of muscular strength and muscle mass. And the fitness freaks will worry about losing all the muscle gains. Do you really have to worry?

muscle memory

If you had any such experience in the past, you must have observed that it didn’t take you much time to regain lost strength and muscle mass. This process of quick recovery is called muscle memory.

how do we develop this muscle memory?

1. improved neural efficiency

This fast regain is corelated with improved neural efficiency and functional capability that happens due to regular training done prior to the break. The body adapts to an activity that’s performed repeatedly over a period of time.

So you don’t need to fear losing your gains during this lockdown due to lack of proper resistance training. If you are an experienced lifter, you have good muscle memory. You are going to get the muscles back fast, once you resume your training.

2. the gain of satellite cell nuclei

The neurological mechanisms explain the rapid strength regain, but the mechanism behind the regain of muscle mass is still not clear. Research has linked it with a gain of satellite cell nuclei during the training phase and their retention of even in the detraining phase(1). These myonuclei support subsequent muscle growth in the retraining phase.

This memory is very long lasting as myonuclei are stable for more than 15 years and might even be permanent.

references

1. Gundersen, K. (2016). Muscle memory and a new cellular model for muscle atrophy and hypertrophy. Journal of Experimental Biology, 219(2), 235-242.
2. Seaborne, R. A., Strauss, J., Cocks, M., Shepherd, S., O’Brien, T. D., Van Someren, K. A., … & Sharples, A. P. (2018). Human skeletal muscle possesses an epigenetic memory of hypertrophy. Scientific reports, 8(1), 1-17.

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