Muscle memory is a very real, but what is it and how does this process work? What happens in the cells and tissues of the body when muscle memory is formed? Does muscle memory involve short term memory, long term memory, or both? These are just a few of the questions that bodybuilders and physical fitness enthusiasts ask to understand the muscle memory process.

The phrase “practice makes perfect” reigns true when it comes to strength training and fitness activities. Tasks that require the use of muscles become easier the more frequently they have been performed. Eventually the task can be accomplished without any type of conscious effort because the body has been trained to go through the motions of the repeated behavior. This is true even if it has been months or years since the same activity was performed last.

Strength Training Has Lasting Benefits

Muscle memory means that when you return to training following a break, your body regains lost mass and size much more easily. Even more so, someone who was well developed at a muscular level will more quickly return to their previous condition with less effort and in a shorter amount of time. Muscle fibers remember the previous condition and work more efficiently to get back to it the familiar state.

Are Brain or Muscle Cells Responsible?

Does muscle memory involve brain cells or muscle cells? Originally this process was thought to occur in the central nervous system of the body but new evidence suggests that the actual muscle cells and fibers undergo a change as well. This is especially true in the area of strength training when mass has been accumulated previously. New data shows that the fibers of the muscles never truly return to their original condition and shape that they were in before any initial strength training was performed. Advances in imaging techniques has allowed researchers to view and monitor muscle fibers like never before. Researchers have determined that changes in our muscles occur on a structural level from strength training, and that these changes are not reversed when strength training is discontinued for an extended period.

Do Muscle Fibers Really Remember?

The new information has caused researchers to consider that the nuclei of the cells involved in a strength training session are changed as a result of the workout. This process does not involve brain cells or what most think of as actual memory though. Since muscle cells are the biggest in the body and they are many times larger than most other cells, they also have more than one nuclei inside of each cell. Cells that have this attribute are referred to as synctia.

How Does Muscle Memory Happen?

When the fibers become enlarged, certain cells in the tissue called stem cells will multiply rapidly and then join with the fibers already in place so that a larger volume in the cell is formed. Strength training and other physical fitness efforts result in additional nuclei being added to the muscle cells. Evidence shows that these extra nuclei do not disappear even when training efforts stop for long periods of time. These nuclei additions are what researchers believe provide muscle memory. The more you strength train the more nuclei your cells will have, the better the muscle cells will remember these activities, and the faster you will regain your former size when you start your workout again.

Source

http://www.learnmuscles.com/MTJSP09_BodyMechanics.pdf

http://sportsnscience.utah.edu/musclememory/