Did you know your muscles are like your brain -- they have memory? When worked properly, they can be trained to become more efficient and stronger. Like your brain, if you don't use your muscles, you will lose their memories.
Bear with me while I give you the scientific explanation of how muscle memory is formed. The brain contains around 100 billion individual nerve cells, called neurons, which form a connection with each other every time you experience or encounter something new. The connections or "paths," are then linked to activities you know how to do, such as walking or running.
When you learn a new activity, your brain blazes a path of memory communication. This then increases in strength every time you repeat the same activity. If your neurons are not used regularly, the pathways weaken, and their communication strength fades. But when the activity is resumed, the pathways reignite and are strengthened. This is the principle that your muscles use to increase strength from training. This is also how they atrophy from lack of use.
If your workout has stalled and you no longer get results, you might have a muscle memory problem. Muscle memory is another way of defining being in a plateau. To keep seeing results, you must find ways to break the plateau.
Let's say you walk two miles daily on your treadmill at the same speed. You will see results the first month, but then your results will taper off because of muscle memory. By month three, you will only be maintaining. You need to shake that workout up!
Change is good when it comes to workouts. Alternate what you do for cardiovascular as much as you can. If you use a treadmill, then bike. If nothing else, change the settings on the machine. This will help break the muscle memory you have established.
Muscle memory is another reason to alternate your strength-training workouts. Throughout the week, change the area of the body you are targeting. A great way to tell when you have built up specific muscle memory is the ease in which you go through your workout. A workout should be just that -- work. If you are skating through it, it is time to shake it up.
For best results you should change the workout in some way every time you do it.
For instance, if you mainly use weight machines, then use more free weights. If you do things standing, then do them seated or on a balance ball. See what I'm getting at: Change, change, change!
If you take the time to change your workouts on a regular basis, you'll find the results and experience much more appealing.
To Your Success!
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