Fitness: How the Muscle Memory Effect can compensate for training breaks

Whether illness, injury or motivational hole – training breaks can have different reasons. After that, many people find it difficult to go back to the gym. After all, you have to develop the previously trained form with the same effort. Or?

Not quite. Because anyone who has reached a certain level during muscle training benefits from the so -called muscle memory effect, which is also known as muscle memory. “He describes the body’s ability to regain the original muscle mass and strength faster after a training break,” explains sports scientist Dr. Julian Bergmann. The effect occurs when trained regularly and intensively.

How exactly does muscle memory work in our body? This cannot be answered in conclusion, because different mechanisms are suspected behind it, says Bergmann. However, there are several explanations.

The muscle memory can be explained, for example, at the cellular level: “When training, the cell nuclei multiply in the muscle cell.

Another approach aims at neurological adjustments. “The brain remembers certain movement patterns, which leads to improved coordination and better muscle feeling.” The Muscle Memory Effect uses very quickly – the first neurological adjustments can therefore occur after two to four weeks of strength training. Even after long training breaks, muscle memory could still be effective.

According to the sports scientist, studies show that even after seven weeks of training break, a rapid reconstruction of the muscles is possible. In addition, there are “indications that the cell nuclei of the muscle cells, which form the basis for muscle memory, can be preserved for up to 15 years.”

For athletes, the muscle memory effect offers several advantages. “After a training break, athletes can regain their original muscle mass and strength faster.” According to this, athletes achieve visible success faster than less trained people. Muscle memory is also beneficial for stress reduction: “When returning to training, the body is less stressful because it can fall back on existing structures.”

Nevertheless, there are factors that weaken the effect. The older a person gets, the more the effect decreases. Even those who do not use their muscles over several years reduce the effectiveness of muscle memory significantly.

While the muscle memory effect has long been dismissed as a myth, it has now been confirmed by several studies as a real phenomenon, reports Bergmann. However, some aspects are still unclear: “Although studies show that the effect continues for at least seven weeks, the maximum duration of the muscle memory effect is not yet clearly determined.”

In addition, it has not yet been known how strongly the effect of person to person varies and what factors influence this. “The longer and more intensely someone trained before a break, the stronger the muscle memory effect can be.” So it is worth being hardworking from the start. Later, during a training break, you could benefit from it.