Muscles remember past glory article

[Seraph]

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/62297/title/Muscles_remember_past_glory

Interesting little article about a recent study where they learned that your muscles retain the memory of their former fitness level. Now I'm curious if they will try and figure out how to transfer that dna that retains the information to another individual so that they can benefit from the donator's efforts? And would you consider that cheating?

[Allee]

I call BS. I tried to take up running again after 20 years off, and trust me, my legs weren't having a bar of it. No leftover nuclei there!!

[Neil Gendzwill]

I think you're a special case Allee - you've been engaged in pretty hardcore training at the opposite end of the spectrum from running.

I jumped back into running this year after 5 years of only running casually and swung back into it fairly readily.

[b0ardski]

Cheating schmeating; jack me in Morpheous,

I heard of muscle memory over 2 decades ago and have practiced "muscle mapping" for skiing, boarding, and hacky sack in younger days. Think Tai Chi for specific sports. Small controlled doses of certain drugs can greatly accelerate the effectiveness of muscle mapping, but memory fades over time so "use it or lose it" still applies.

[Seraph]

..have practiced "muscle mapping" for skiing, boarding, and hacky sack in younger days.

You have peaked my interest, specifics please.

Small controlled doses of certain drugs can greatly accelerate the effectiveness of muscle mapping, but memory fades over time so "use it or lose it" still applies.

I'm curious about this from an educational standpoint, not to actually try, so what you are referring to?

[b0ardski]

As I stated, it's more or less Tai Chi, using sport specific motions/exercises.

What makes it different from normal drills is hyper aware meditative mental state focused on breathing into & out of specific muscles/groups.

I don't remember the "movement" yoga form, Hatha I think. As in a walking meditation, mental focus on the movement is key. Like a freestyler running through the moves in his mind, total attention to the movements without the mental distraction of words/rules/coaching embeds muscle memory.

Practice movement starting as slowly as possible, gradually speed them up until they're fast enough to start getting sloppy then slow back down to as slow as possible. This embeds the movement memory in both the short & long, fast twitch & slow twitch cells.

As far as which serotonin amplifying drugs facilitate this, I plead the 5th.

[bobdea]

As far as which serotonin amplifying drugs facilitate this, I plead the 5th.

ohh, c'mon. as long as youre not offering them and you don't admit to possessing them yourself you're all set.

you already mentioned them, we're interested.

[110/220V]

There is no physiologic apparatus in muscle fiber to 'remember' anything...the musculature is highly adaptable through specificity...where do you scientists come up with these things?

[Neil Gendzwill]

"Muscle memory" is just a useful term for motion practiced so often that it doesn't require conscious thought. If it's done early enough, teens or younger, you are actually building neural pathways for the activity, later on it's a learned activity and so not as good. Like the difference between specialized hardware and software.

[b0ardski]

I had to do some digging when I googled it yesterday to find anything on conscious muscle mapping. Found a study comparing movement/motion images in the brain compared to visual images that was interesting. Qi-gong, Tai-chi, or taoist yoga were the closest I could come to it with limited time.

May do better to search the sports medicine route. I found that small doses of d-lysergic acid diethylamide, or any serotonin booster, greatly amplified conscious control, and sensitivity to, feedback of the muscles, especially when involved with dynamic balance in skating, skiing, and boarding practice, amplifying the effectiveness of that practice. I made a lot of progress in my boarding by using varying turn shape drills adapted from advanced ski instruction manuals in the early '90s.

Practice, practice, practice.

Intellectual understanding of particular movements can create an image in the brain, but the neural pathways created in the brain when focusing attention on the muscle movement and the resultant feedback, actually saturate the nervous system deep into the muscle tissues, creating "muscle memory". The muscles don't remember worded descriptions of motion. Memory is in the nerve cells

Neural pathways can be increased as well as created/recreated throughout your life, this has been scientifically proven in brain injury patients, albeit more effectively in still developing brains. You can teach an old dog new tricks if they're into learning them. Holographic theory in brain science hints at the anecdotal evidence from transplant and TBI patients; DNA is a chemical memory bank that can be altered.

[Seraph]

small doses of d-lysergic acid diethylamide

hmm okay, I think I'll take a pass on the Timothy Leary school of Snowboarding....:)

[b0ardski]

You have peaked my interest, specifics please.

I'm curious about this from an educational standpoint, not to actually try, so what you are referring to?

Drugs are bad mmm'kay, I'm not advocating better living/practice through chemistry; just offering the asked for anecdotal evidence. You can just use steroids/testosterone, the psychological effects as well as the dosage are easier to predict and control.

Tai-chi and movement yoga are the better way to holistic mind/body control,

as well as a great way to meet girls.

[Seraph]

hmm okay, I think I'll take a pass on the Timothy Leary school of Snowboarding....:)

Boardski,

My apologies if my comment came across as judgmental, it wasn't, just not for me, maybe others. That type of experimentation never held any interest for me hence the poor attempt at a comedic response. I thought the smiley face would have indicated my attempt at humor.

[Dan]

There is no physiologic apparatus in muscle fiber to 'remember' anything...the musculature is highly adaptable through specificity...where do you scientists come up with these things?

The article isn't actually about muscle memory, but about muscles' ability to bulk up. Basically it describes a study that suggests that muscles that have been trained/bulked up previously, when allowed to atrophy through lack of exercise, will bulk up again when training resumes more rapidly than if no training had been performed in the first place.

It seems reasonable enough to me. I take every fall/winter off of cycling, but the spring/summer muscle burn has never been as bad as my first season or two.

[carvedog]

There is no physiologic apparatus in muscle fiber to 'remember' anything...that we can scientifically prove.....

Fixed it for you.

[pow4ever]

Read a study a while back.

It's much harder to build new muscle fiber. Unless you starve them. existing fiber will only shrunk in size when you stop training and not just disappear overnight.

I am sure due to age and inactivity they will disappear eventually but it doesn't take much to maintain existing muscle.

In college it took me so long to able to bench to a certain weight level. Since then I haven't not lift seriously. But it will only take me 2-3 weeks to get to my max weights.

In that sense I agree muscle memory does exist.

Another study show memory in a different context.

There is a something I don't remember what it's call but the idea is there is a high water mark that's build into our physiology.

It's part of our evolution. Let's say you never ran more than 10 miles. and you always run around the same distance. Your body will try to limit you at 10 miles. Lots of time we feel like that we hit the wall that's genetic at play. The body know you can do 10 miles however it want to keep some energy in reserve just in case you get chase by a lion later. Of course now a day that the chance we get chance by lion are slim to now. It's a built in safety mechanism.

Basically it came down to a mental game. Once you were able to pass your previous records/high water mark. Your body raise the internal bar. Of course we are still limited by physics/joint strength and what not.

In that sense it's also a form of muscle memory.

--

David

[b0ardski]

Basically it came down to a mental game. Once you were able to pass your previous records/high water mark. Your body raises the internal bar. Of course we are still limited by physics/joint strength and what not.

In that sense it's also a form of muscle memory.

--

David

Mental game; the bar can be raised in the brain/nervous system as well, meditative mental focus will create new paths and strengthen existing neural networks all the way into the muscle tissues.

Just because our current science can't measure Chi/Ki/Prana doesn't mean it's not there, learn to use it:biggthump

p.s. there is no spoon