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Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 16:03:43
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jack5r
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I havn't read about it since i started lifting and I keep hearing it thrown around with a few different meanings. So could someone please explain fully what it is and how it works.
The First one and the one I don't really understand, well atleast not in a scientific way, is that if you lift for say a year then stop for a year and then come back to lifting that you will some how have some sort of advantage and be able to gain much faster than someone starting out for the first time. I don't mean an advantage because you have earlier experience of lifting and so know what you are doing. I have seen it mentioned that the muscle's will some how remember that you were once strong and so will get back to that strength faster. How exactly does this work, be as complex as you need to be please.
Another one which I am abit iffy with and I am pretty sure it is no more than a theory with little evidence behind it, is that if I was to do 5 sets of 5 reps with heavey weights and then on my last set do 20 reps with a light weight my muscle will somehow remeber the 20 reps better than the heavy reps and so strength gains will not be as good. This seems like rubbish to me as the muscle will of already had all the microtrauma and stress on the muscle/tendons from the heavy sets, the light set surly won't effect this (excluding a bad diet and overtraining). I have seen this thrown around a few times by people who don't seem to understand exactly what it is. Someone asks will a light weight burn out set at the end of my session be good or bad. The reply - It will be bad because of muscle memory. This one is all rubbish or alteast a theory with litte proof and alot of contradictions from other theories?
The third. Doing the same exercise time after time will stop the muscle growing to its full potential because of muscle memory. I agree with this to some extent. Load, volume, intensity or reps must be increased for the muscle to grow well. I don't agree that this is down to the exercise used though. Benching and cables. For me, load is load and as long as the stress on the muscle is the same the exercise will not make a difference at all. In the past I have heard people talk about using cables to target the inner section of the chest, which is rubbish as you cannot target a section of one muscle. Excluding seperate muscles (actual term?) as I know the chest is split into the major and minor as the delts are split into front, side and rear. So whats the thinking behind this one, just talk?
< Message edited by jack5r -- May 2 2008 16:44:22 >
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 16:45:45
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buzzer
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quote:
The third. Doing the same exercise time after time will stop the muscle growing to its full potential because of muscle memory.
thats RBE repeat bout effect not muscle memory.
there are no studies on muscle memory(not enough anyway) something does happen but what no one knows exactly.
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 16:52:47
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iaink
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quote:
thats RBE repeat bout effect not muscle memory
What is this RBE?
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 16:54:02
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jack5r
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Ok thanks Buzzer.
How do they know something happens? Is this is reference to my first paragraph yes?
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 16:56:16
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buzzer
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quote:
ORIGINAL: iaink
quote:
thats RBE repeat bout effect not muscle memory
What is this RBE?
when you use a weight over and over the body gets used to it,RBE( repeat bout effect)
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 17:08:05
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iaink
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quote:
when you use a weight over and over the body gets used to it,RBE( repeat bout effect)
So using the same load not same exercise? Juts wanted to be clear 
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 17:11:10
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stephen77
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muscle memory is a bad term.
its more accomdation.
if you do 5 sets of 5 then finish with a set of 20 reps. your strenght gains will not be reduced.
if this theory was true. If i did 5 sets of squats. but when i walk up the stairs to leave the gym. My body would adapt to walking up the stairs.
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 17:13:29
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iaink
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Back down sets are common with many a good lifter.
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 17:20:13
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jack5r
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Ok thanks. I will abuse the next person that uses muscle memory in the wrong context. 
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 17:44:08
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beefycol
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no such thing as muscle memory. your muscle is like a sponge so my man says, once you been big, and stop its easier toget big again than the first time round.
< Message edited by beefycol -- May 2 2008 17:52:06 >
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 18:46:02
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beefycol
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quote:
ORIGINAL: buzzer
quote:
ORIGINAL: beefycol
no such thing as muscle memory. your muscle is like a sponge so my man says, once you been big, and stop its easier toget big again than the first time round.
so what does your man call it,spongebob memory 
ha maybe. put there aint no thing as muscle memory
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 19:12:00
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beefycol
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quote:
The first time you trained, you recruited a certain percentage of muscle fibers during maximal lifts. As you trained more and more, this percentage increased. 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). Compared to the first time you trained,
you keep more muscle fibers more than you had first time round
quote:
When you start working out, your muscles interpret most of the lifts as new movements. So your neurons must develop the appropriate pattern of stimulation to get the weight up. Remember how shaky the bar was the first time you tried the bench press?
Fibers must be activated in just the right sequence to perform complex movements like the bench or the squat. And learning a new skill (just like trying to swing a golf club, etc.) may take quite a long time. The first time around, it may have taken you weeks to feel steady on the bench. Now those neural patterns have been developed and though they may be rusty, they can return very quickly after a layoff. 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.
there aint muscle memory the way things happen second time round gives the idea it has a memory but it dont
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 19:15:34
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JohnOvManchester
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quote:
ORIGINAL: beefycol
no such thing as muscle memory. your muscle is like a sponge so my man says, once you been big, and stop its easier toget big again than the first time round.
contradiction or crossed wires?
you say there is not such thing then go on to describe muscle memory mate?
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 19:19:04
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beefycol
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JohnOvManchester
quote:
ORIGINAL: beefycol
no such thing as muscle memory. your muscle is like a sponge so my man says, once you been big, and stop its easier toget big again than the first time round.
contradiction or crossed wires?
you say there is not such thing then go on to describe muscle memory mate?
yeah the science gives way it can exist by the way things happen but its the brain that controls it, rememebers things
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 19:26:02
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buzzer
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no one is saying muscles have a memory thats what the phenomenom is commonly known as.
but as no lengthy studies have been done on it most experts can only guess,just as the guy you are quoting is doing.
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RE: Explain muscle memory. - May 2 2008 19:28:06
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beefycol
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quote:
ORIGINAL: buzzer
no one is saying muscles have a memory thats what the phenomenom is commonly known as.
but as no lengthy studies have been done on it most experts can only guess,just as the guy you are quoting is doing.
just about to say that, no point getting in argument over it, there no lenghty studies, and there so many diff write up on it, and alot of stuff you read on the net can also not be true
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