Total Recall

Uncovering the mechanisms that deliver the muscle memory effect.

- Pedro van Gaalen

MANY OF US HAVE BEEN OR WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE TIME OFF FROM GYM OR TRAINING DUE TO INJURY OR ILLNESS. WHILE THIS FORCED RECOVERY PERIOD IS ESSENTIAL, IT GENERALLY LEADS TO A CERTAIN DEGREE OF TRAINING REVERSIBILITY, WHICH INCLUDES DECREASES IN PERFORMANCE, MUSCLE ATROPHY AND LOSSES IN STRENGTH. THE SEVERITY AND MAGNITUDE OF THIS LOSS IN PHYSICAL PROWESS IS COMMENSURATE WITH THE AMOUNT OF TIME YOU REMAIN INACTIVE. 

HOWEVER, WHEN THE TIME FINALLY COMES TO GET BACK TO TRAINING, THOSE ATHLETES WHOSE BODIES HAVE BEEN CONDITIONED OVER A NUMBER OF YEARS, THROUGH SYSTEMATIC, PERIODISED AND SCIENTIFICALLY-BASED TRAINING PROGRAMMES WILL REGAIN MUSCLE SIZE AND STRENGTH MUCH FASTER THAN SOMEONE WHOSE BODY IS PERHAPS LESS CONDITIONED TO TRAINING, OR IS STARTING TO TRAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME. THIS IS DUE TO A PHENOMENON COMMONLY REFERRED TO AS MUSCLE MEMORY.

Muscle memory, in the true sense of the meaning, refers to improved neuromuscular facilitation, which is the process whereby the neuromuscular system learns, ‘memorises’ and retains specific motor skills through the repeated training of specific movement patterns. This process involving the brain, nervous system and the muscular system is the most popular and dominant theory used to explain muscle memory.