Do you know your muscle memory

We often hear, “It’s just like riding a bike,” when trying a skill we might have forgotten. What makes us remember how to ride a bike, swim or run? That’s called muscle memory. Yes, muscles have memories, but they are not like memories in our brains.   

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), “As your muscles are trained, the number of muscle fiber nuclei, or myonuclei, can increase as muscle mass increases.” To put it simply, the more you do an activity, the more muscle memory you build. This explains why when we have bad habits, trying to break them gets harder and harder as time goes on.   

Muscle memory has a positive side. For example, learning an instrument and teaching your fingers how to move in the correct spots is important. Harvard Health states that doing the right activity should be challenging and complex and should involve practice to get better. Repetition is also one of the main factors in retaining muscle memory.   

Another thing about muscle memory is that the more we learn one skill, the more prone we are to retain the benefits. For example, if you are training for a marathon and then stop training after the marathon, you will still remember how to run and pace yourself. Depending on how long your break is will determine how strong you will come back when you start to run again.   

Overall, muscle memory is good for you. Without it, we would forget some of the things we do every day. We also need muscle memory to help us learn new skills and retain information.   

For information on new exercises to learn, read these additional resources: