Muscle Memory...a myth?
09-26-2005, 06:02 PM
#1
LOLZ McCain Sux
Thread Starter
Muscle Memory...a myth?
Me and my friend have lifted weights since we were in high school and even though we take long breaks (our last one was a little over a year) from lifting when we go back to the gym we can always basically start at a good weight (like at least 185) we may not be able to do 3 sets of 10 but we can still lift it. So is there such thing as muscle memory? Because we were also commenting on how our dads never lift weights and are both computer nerds as their jobs yet are still pretty damn strong. Once you start lifting is there like a place you basically stay at or hard to go below? Like once you start benching 300 would it be insanely hard to ever go down to only being able to bench 100?
09-27-2005, 09:59 AM
#3
Suzuka Master
If you stop, you will lose strength and size. You won't lose it all unless you starve yourself or something, but if you take a lot of time off you will not be as strong as you used to be.
However this isn't muscle memory. Muscle memory is the phenominon of you gaining back any strength or size you lost from not working out very quickly once you start again. I haven't read any studies on this, but just about anyone I've talked to who's taken a big break has said they gained back very quickly what they lost.
However this isn't muscle memory. Muscle memory is the phenominon of you gaining back any strength or size you lost from not working out very quickly once you start again. I haven't read any studies on this, but just about anyone I've talked to who's taken a big break has said they gained back very quickly what they lost.
09-27-2005, 10:19 AM
#4
I can verify that if you stop lifting and starve yourself you go back to the beginning even though you're heavier. I starved myself by cutting back to a meal a day or every other day this year and I dropped 15lbs and have had a lot of trouble getting back 5lbs of it. I am nowhere near the level I was before I decided to stop eating.
09-27-2005, 10:38 AM
#5
Senior Moderator
Originally Posted by ABreece
However this isn't muscle memory. Muscle memory is the phenominon of you gaining back any strength or size you lost from not working out very quickly once you start again.
What the original post discusses is not really muscle memory. But yes, muscle memory as described above seems to exist for me. You need to take a really long break to see what muscle memory is all about. Like 3 - 5 years. You WILL get weaker, but will ramp up alot faster than when you first started working out.
