Accelerated Muscular Development MemoryThe idea of muscle memory is very controversial. Most bodybuilders and athletes have at least at some point experienced accelerated muscular development as a result of this phenomenon, however, there is very little discussion about it in any scientific or athletic writings.
you decide to take a break for a month... Two becomes six. Then before you realize it, a year has gone by since you last hit the gym.
Gaining muscle mass is much easier the second time around. your muscles can reach their former size much easier that it took to get there the first time around.
While no one really has a clue as to why this happens, but it's great news for those of you who are starting out again.
With so many athletes and others observing this mystery of the iron game, some plausible explanation must exist. I?ll describe some possible reasons why your muscle may appear to have a memory.
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Certainly, we can?t overlook the possibility that muscle memory doesn?t really occur at all. In other words, it?s completely possible that these changes have nothing to do with muscular adaptation. Then why do muscles seem to progress faster during a comeback? Well, it could all be in your head. Here?s what I mean.
The first time you trained consistently, you were probably a bit hesitant with the weights. You weren?t too sure how your muscles would respond and most importantly, you didn?t have a good idea how much weight you could lift.
You know you can handle heavier and heavier weights because you?ve done it before. You probably expect to attain your former strength soon, anyway. For these reasons, you are more likely to add weight to the bar at a faster rate ? pushing yourself as never before.
The Nerve of those Muscle Cells
Perhaps the most likely explanation of muscle memory involves the neurons (nerve cells) that stimulate your muscles. These neurons tell all the muscle fibers (muscle cells) they innervate to contract. Simple enough, right?
What has that got to do with muscle memory? Well, one way your muscles may adapt to the stresses of consistent training is to increase over the long run the total percentage of fibers recruited during maximal and near-maximal lifts. Here?s the possible scenario:
The first time you trained, you recruited a certain percentage of muscle fibers during maximal lifts. Then you stopped working out. When making a comeback, this ability to recruit a greater percentage of muscle fibers remains intact. Therefore, you?re starting with a capacity to develop more force within a muscle (since more fibers can be activated).
Although you may think you?re starting from the same place, this greater strength will enable you to progress faster, resulting in an ability to regain muscle size at a quicker pace.
The second way that neurons may be involved in muscle memory deals with skill development. When you start working out, your muscles interpret most of the lifts as new movements.
What may be happening here is that after you stop working out you lose some of those neural patterns. When you work out again the neurological changes come faster. This accelerated restoration of neurological control will enable you to stimulate your muscles more efficiently, eventually causing the leveling off you reach in muscle strength and hypertrophy to be higher. You may be stronger and bigger when the neural patterning is done the second time around.
Muscular Adaptations
Another possible explanation of muscle memory concerns certain changes in your muscles that regular training may produce. First, you may be able to increase the capillary bed surrounding muscle cells, creating a greater blood supply to the working muscle. If this happens, and many scientists believe it does, you would then be able to enhance the nutrient (glucose, branch-chain amino acids, etc.) availability to the muscle cell. Since these waste products can limit performance, with the increased capillary bed, you would be in a position to train harder and longer.
This is the key in terms of muscle memory. These positive changes from an enhanced blood supply would be restored soon after a comeback since the capillary beds would quickly reopen. Thus you would have the advantage of a greater muscular stimulus from the start of retraining.
It is plausible that enzymes involved in protein synthesis may increase in concentration and activity following repeated muscular stimuli and damage.
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