Muscle Memory Phenomenon

The investigated changes lie at the heart of the process, which has been meticulously studied by sports doctors. Specialist explanations focus on the fact that muscle memory is the result of: speeding up the work of motor neurons; the appearance of new synapses, or connective nerve cells, in which the processes of transmitting nerve impulses are also faster; improving the function of the motor cortex, which in turn leads to an increase in the number of blood vessels that are recovering. These changes also apply to the muscle cells themselves, where the essence of the changes is to increase the number of nuclei in the multinucleated cells of muscle tissue. This is caused by the fact that regular physical exertion, which affects the muscle fibers, requires the production of larger amounts of contractile structures, namely proteins - actin and myosin. The process of mitosis increases the number of cell nuclei and activates the process of hypertrophy.

As previously noted, muscle memory facilitates the rapid restoration of overall strength endurance. It enables the production of the appropriate quantity of ATP that the body has previously generated. During the intensification of physical exertion, the cellular respiration process is amplified, resulting in an increase in the synthesis of ATP proteins responsible for glycolysis and glycogenesis (energy provision to the body). In simpler terms, muscle memory allows the body to stimulate the utilization of stable muscle reserves, leading to an increase in muscle tissue and a long-term requirement for ATP.

According to the above data, muscle recall enables muscles to remember specific body movements that are recorded at a certain psycho-physical level and continue to function without conscious human intervention. Muscles remember certain patterns of muscle contractions during movement in a given exercise, and if someone performs a certain activity regularly, they actually teach their motor cortex to perform complex coordinated movements with minimal involvement. These functions are controlled by the motor cortex of the brain, and when a movement pattern is recorded by the motor cortex, it is transmitted to the basaloid (subcortical) nuclei located deep in the brain. Therefore, it is possible for a person to perform complex coordinated movements while thinking about something completely different. There are many inconsistencies regarding the location of muscle recall, but most sources indicate that it is not located in the muscle tissue itself, but in the nervous system that controls muscle function. Muscle recall is not stored directly in the muscles, but in the gamma motoneurons, which enable all motor processes and maintain muscle tension. Gamma motoneurons control muscle tension through spindle-shaped muscle fibers, and when muscles stretch too quickly or too strongly, spindle-shaped muscle fibers send impulses through sensory neurons to the spinal cord. Sensory neurons trigger a reflex in slow motoneurons LMNs, which send a signal causing the contraction of normal muscle fibers and their synergists. In short, during the execution of each exercise, an information flow is established between the brain and the muscle fibers that transmit information about the work performed, external load, number of repetitions, and similar to the brain, which organizes, stores, and preserves all these data, forming muscle recall.