{"id":22435,"date":"2023-03-03T12:00:07","date_gmt":"2023-03-03T12:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/?p=22435"},"modified":"2024-11-28T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2024-11-28T14:11:15","slug":"muscle-memory-gym","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/uk\/the-core\/muscle-memory-gym\/","title":{"rendered":"Muscle Memory and Gym: Can you rebuild lost muscle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are times when regular gym-goers take long breaks from the gym. Whether it\u2019s a nasty injury, a long holiday or a change in priorities, such a lay-off is common. After a couple of months, your muscles shrink smaller and your strength diminishes. Does this mean all your hard work was for nothing? No, not at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from the holistic benefits you attained during that period of growth, your muscles also underwent physiological adaptation. And this lays dormant for years. This change is more commonly known as muscle memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

So what is muscle memory? How does it work? And most importantly, how is it relevant to the gym? Read on to learn everything you need to know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is muscle memory?<\/b><\/h2>\n

In the context of gym and muscle growth, muscle memory refers to the phenomenon that it\u2019s much easier to regain lost muscle mass than it is to put on new muscle mass as a beginner.<\/span><\/p>\n

Studies demonstrate that after a period of detraining, people who had previously undergone resistance training were able to regain their muscle strength more quickly than people who had never trained before.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you train for a number of years, gaining mass and strength as you do so. Then you get an injury which prevents you from training at all for three months. In these three months, you will lose a large amount of your muscle and strength. However, when you return to the gym, you regain muscle and strength very quickly – much faster than when you initially built it. This is because of muscle memory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"how<\/p>\n

How does muscle memory work?<\/b><\/h2>\n

Improved coordination<\/b><\/h3>\n

The first reason muscle memory occurs is due to the CNS (Central Nervous System). When a person performs a certain movement or exercise repeatedly, their CNS learns how to perform that movement more efficiently.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By forming neural pathways that make it easier for the brain to send signals to the muscles, it allows for improved muscle activation and coordination. As a result, the person performs cleaner, more meaningful reps, getting more bang for their buck than a beginner might.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the same idea about learning to ride a bike, drive a car, or play a musical instrument – the long-standing neutral pathways exist, and the person is able to pick it back up more quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Increased myonuclei<\/b><\/h3>\n

For a long time, the CNS was believed to be the sole reason for muscle memory. However, there’s another even more powerful reason behind this incredible phenomenon: the maintenance of myonuclei, despite atrophy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a groundbreaking study by Brussgard et al in 2010 [<\/span>1<\/b><\/a>], it was discovered that the myonuclei we build during an initial stage of training remain, even if the muscles themselves grow smaller. These myonuclei are then re-awaken once training resumes, accelerating the growth of your muscles back to their previous state and beyond. Not only can we execute the reps better with our neural pathways, but our muscles respond more quickly to the training.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s explain these phenomena more deeply, with the latter taking precedence.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Muscle memory and myonuclei<\/b><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

The factories of muscle cells<\/b><\/h3>\n

When you begin resistance training, your muscles respond by becoming stronger and bigger in order to adapt to the new stimulus. At a cellular level, one vital aspect of this is increasing the volume of myonuclei.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Myonuclei are the nucleus of muscle cells (or muscle fibres). They contain the genetic material that controls muscle growth and repair. The number of myonuclei in a muscle fibre determines its ability to grow, as more myonuclei allow for more protein synthesis, which is necessary for muscle growth.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The process of resistance training leads to muscle damage and inflammation, triggering muscle repair and growth. As muscle fibres do this, they require new myonuclei to support the increased protein synthesis needed for muscle growth. Think of them like little factories in the cell that work to increase production and size.<\/span><\/p>\n

The myonuclei are supplied by the satellite cells. These satellite cells can differentiate and fuse with the damaged muscle fibres to provide new myonuclei, leading to muscle hypertrophy (increase in muscle mass). This process is called myonuclear addition. So, rather than saying you\u2019re chasing gains, you can say \u2018myonuclear addition\u2019. Sounds impressive, right?<\/span><\/p>\n

If you were to summarise all of this quickly: the more myonuclei a muscle cell has, the greater its potential for growth. Simple.<\/span><\/p>\n

Laying dormant despite atrophy<\/b><\/h3>\n

If you stop training, your muscles eventually get smaller. This is called atrophy. After a few months, they could reduce to an untrained size.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite the decrease in size, research suggests that the vast majority of myonuclei you built up during your training phase remain within the muscle. This is even without long periods of not training. In other words, even if the muscle shrinks after months of inactivity, the myonuclei tend to stick around. Think of it like closed factories waiting to be reopened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But when you start training, they start working. Since they are already there, the muscle cells can skip the process of creating new myonuclei, allowing strength gains and hypertrophy to occur at a much faster rate than the first time. The factories reopen and the gains commence once again.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as one 2020 study concludes, such \u2018myonuclear permanence\u2019 allows the muscle fibre to regrow more efficiently during retraining, a phenomenon referred to as \u2018muscle memory\u2019 [<\/span>2<\/b><\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n

Simple explanation:<\/span><\/p>\n