Hi all. I am just starting to exercise again after 4 yrs of doing nothing. Before I quit, I was lifting quite a bit and had some nice muscle development. I thought I read somewhere that your body remembers these attempts and rewards you with quicker muscle development when you start lifting again. Is that true?

I'm not sure about weight training because I've never really done it consistently. With running however, my body totally did not remember ANYTHING. After being in pretty good running shape a few years ago and then having a year long hiatus, it was back to square one.

Oh, that is a shame. Are you running again?

YES! the muscle memory your talking about isn't stored in the muscle its a neurological pattern/schema that is stored in brain. it may however take a while for the schema to be dug out and for the musles that have wasted away to be rebuilt and working as efficiently as they once did.

another really interesting thing you might want to try is watching people lift. there is a newly discovered part of the brain called mirror neurones. there was an article abour 2 years ago in scientific american basically when you watch someone perform a motion mirror neurones fire in your brain in the pattern required but without your muscles actually moving.

so you can improve your technique by watching somoene just make sure you watch someone who is doing the technique perfectly

slimmingsi: I just hate that I worked so hard on my body 4 yrs ago and even though I was still overweight, I had a lot of muscle working for me. That's interesting that it's a neurological pattern/schema. So, from what you are saying, it sounds like it will take less time to rebuild the muscles than if I were building them for the first time?

About watching people lift...sometimes I sneak a peek while I am on the treadmill but I don't want to get caught watching people because I'd hate it if they were watching me.

no muscle building is muscle building and takes the same time. the neurolical pattern is the control the neurones have on the muscles the more you do something the more effiecient the muscles becomes at the movement.

so it will take less time to get as good as you were skill wise at a movement but muscle building is the same as thats a biological function

Yes, I just finished off my 3rd week of 3x a week running!

While searching for something else on one of my favorite bodybuilder's forums today I ran across a thread about this very subject.
***WARNING*** The forum isn't cut from the same cloth as 3FC, lots of ribbing and verbal abuse - mostly guys talking, you know how that goes. However, since it's a bodybuilder's forum, you might find it enlightening....
http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hlight=plateau

slimmingsi: aw, slimmingsi, I am so disappointed! I guess it's one of those cases where I wanted a "magic pill" so to speak, to solve it. I am just in a hurry to get back into the condition I was in (not to say that I wasn't overweight but I was much slimmer).

aneleh: congrats! It sounds like you are back in the game.

FB: that is an interesting thread, thanks for sharing. It seems most of them believe in muscle memory, so seeing as that is what I want to believe, I am going to hope that they are right!

I definitely see that with running and lifting. It doesnt matter how long I take off now, my return to longer distances and equivalent weights happens much quicker.

A lot of it is mental. A significant part of "I cant" in exercise is mental "I cant", not physical. Once you have run 10 miles or lifted X pounds, you know you CAN, maybe not right now, but you CAN. You progress faster.