'Muscle Memory' May Not Really Exist

[Claire.]

'Muscle Memory' May Not Really Exist

Muscle tissue does not have a "memory" of past exercise training, new research suggests.

Muscles that have trained hard in the past and those that have not trained show similar changes in the genes that they turn on or off in response to exercise, the research found. That may be both good news and bad news for people, said study co-author Malene Lindholm, a molecular exercise physiologist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"It's encouraging for people who haven't trained when they're young because you don't have a disadvantage," Lindholm told Live Science. When you start exercising, "you can adapt just as well as people who have trained," she said. On the flip side, the findings also suggest that being a past tennis pro is no guarantee that you could quickly pick up the sport again at the same elite level, she added.

Read more: Live Science

[Four Winds]

The "memory" is stored in the brain not the muscles. 

[Four Winds]

The "memory" is stored in the brain not the muscles.