Just wondering if anyone has experienced this after stopping training for a while and then starting back. I have just started back after injury and am intrigued as to whether this would happen as I have heard the term being banded about.
Most people have heard of muscle memory. When a person starts lifting weights after a lay off, it's much easier for them to return to their previous levels of size and strength than it was to get there the first time around. It also takes less time. Therefore the muscle fibers must obviously "remember" their former state. Muscle fibers do not remember anything. Muscle fibers do not have a separate independent "mind" of their own. All memory is retrieved from inside the brain which commands all action and response. Like everything else on this planet muscle fibers simply adapt to the environment in which they are exposed to or bathed in. If they are forced to contract with a specific load causing stress, disruption and microfilament damage, they will adapt and remodel provided the conditions required for such adaptations are met. If there is insufficient or no load they will return to their former state and continue wasting in the absence of sufficient stimulation. What we don't use we lose. It's called disuse atrophy. Here's the reason why progress is made more quickly the second, third or whatever time around, provided ones current state of health does not act as a biochemical hindrance. Our brains have the capacity to store data and skills learned from the past in the form of emotion and memory. The portion of the brain associated with memory includes the cortex of the frontal, parietal, occipital and temporal lobes, parts of the limbic system including the hippocampus and amygdaloid nucleus, and the diencephalon.
Yes. I was a dancer as a kid, a pretty serious one. When I started climbing, many years later, I was astounded at how quickly everything came back, and how quickly I got toned.
Thanks for that guys, I did wonder how it would work. So really your brain is recognising the actions and responding with the "here we go again" and adapting better. Poor brain, it will have had a big shock! Better start the motivation to start the old fitness diet again.
google must be your friend (unless ur a biology nerd) on a side note, i found myself break-falling into my bed (before sleep) and throwing up random arm triangles without even thinking about them is that muscle memory? :smt095
I read break dancing instead of break falling first which gave me some weird images of you in your PJ's getting your groove on pettyofficer. Mind you, on a different note, doing arm triangles may mean you are a chicken dance expert [YOUTUBE]-_MPCUyuqJ8?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/YOUTUBE] It would be understood should you really not want to admit this
lmao not what i meant a long time ago, a coworker of mine was telling me how he was telling his son that fighting should come at the speed of a reflex, and not be something in which you have to 'think' about. After doing repetitive movements, such as those associated with fighting for example, things become more natural and fluid. It seems like I'm not even thinking about this stuff at all when it happens.
