Is Muscle Memory Real or a Popular Myth?

You've likely heard of the term 'muscle memory', but is it a real phenomenon or simply a popular myth?

There are in fact 2x types of muscle memory:

• Neurological = Performing movements or actions automatically eg. brushing your teeth, riding a bike, knitting, playing a musical instrument or sport
• Physiological = The ability of previously trained muscles to regain size and strength faster than initially gaining them

The first type is actually slightly misnamed as muscles are the slave of the nervous system.

Therefore neurological muscle memory is actually a description of how the brain and nervous system work together to build strong connections and develop efficient movement habits.

Neurological muscle memory holds the key to getting out of chronic pain, heal an injury and restore pain-free movement. It's the foundation of The BYB (Befriend Your Body) Method.

But how?

Your Nervous System Is In Charge!

When we consider movement we often think only about the muscles and joints, possibly tendons and ligaments.

But muscles are told how to behave by the brain and nervous system.

Muscle is a tissue made up of many cells bound together to form a muscle fibre. Movement is created by skeletal muscle cells.

Like all cells, muscle cells are constantly sending information about their external and internal environment to the brain via the vagus nerve and bloodstream.

Based on the information being received the brain decides how the muscle cells should behave, and send instructions via the nervous system (neurotransmitters) and bloodstream (hormones) to the muscles.

Areas of the brain involved with creating movement

• Primary Motor Cortex (PMC) - in the frontal lobe. The right PMC controls movement on the left side of the body and vice versa/ Sends signals down the spinal cord to initiate contraction of skeletal muscle cells to execute the required movements
• Secondary Motor Cortex (SMC) - made up of the Premotor Cortex (PC - plans movement), Posterior Parietal Cortex (PPC - translates visual information into motor commands) and Supplementary Motor Area (SMA - coordinates complex movement patterns)
• Cerebellum - processes sensory inputs and motor outputs to create smooth automatic actions. Also controls posture to maintain balance
• Basal Ganglia - monitor somatosensory information so the motor cortex can create informed movements that are well planned and executed.

The Body Map in Your Brain

Different areas of the Primary Motor Cortex connect to, and control different parts of the body. This forms a kind of body map, known as the homunculus.

The size of the area on the homunculus allocated to that part of the body indicates the amount of sensation and fine motor control we have in that area.

You can see that a large proportion of the homunculus is dedicated to our face, hands, fingers and toes. 

Facial expressions are a major part of how we communicate and connect with other humans.  Our hands, fingers, feet and toes are the main ways we interact with and move through our environment. 

Damage to the PMC can result in loss of control or function of a particular body part or side of the body, like a stroke or neurological condition.

How Injury or Pain Affects Your Muscle Memory and Movement

Every single conscious movement you do requires the coordination of thousands of neural connections. Many of these are learned in childhood and we take them for granted.

For example, picking up a glass of water.

1. The urge to pick up a glass of water and take a drink is prompted by a sensation of thirst. 
2. You create a thought to pick up the glass of water
3. Your eyes see the glass
4. You access prior memories of lifting a glass
5. You plan the movement in your Premotor Cortex
6. The Primary Motor Cortex tells the muscles to hold the glass and lift it
7. The somatosensory cortex and cerebellum send feedback to the brain to tell it that the glass is in your hand, and where it is relative to your mouth

You do all of this automatically, quickly and seamlessly. Wow, what an amazing team your brain, nervous system and muscles are!

But when you pick up an injury this team effort becomes disrupted.

Damaged muscle cells accumulate oxidative stress and inflammation, which alters the signals they send to the brain. Based on these different signals your brain may tell your muscles to execute alternative, compensatory strategies to avoid certain movements, eg. walking with a limp, awkward bending mechanisms, stiff movements or reduced range motion.

These compensations serve to protect the injured area while it heals.

But if you keep doing these alternative strategies often enough and for long enough, they can become embedded into your brain and nervous system, becoming familiar and automatic

Over time you forget that you're compensating and they become your new normal. Your original movement patterns now feel foreign and unusual,

The Strange Case of Sensory Motor Amnesia!

So our neuromuscular system has a memory, but there's also a phenomenon known as Sensory Motor Amnesia.

Often when you get injured your brain will tell your muscles to brace so that the damaged area is immobilised and can heal. 

The act of bracing requires muscular contraction.

Muscular contraction is an active process requiring energy. A natural by-product is lactate.

Repeated contractions create a build up of lactate in the muscle cells. You'll experience the physical effects of lactate as a burning sensation or fatigue in the working muscles after doing something active, like running, lifting weights, gardening, playing sports.

If you continuously brace certain muscles as a compensatory strategy to protect an injury or avoid pain, it can become an unconscious habit.

The muscles being told to brace start to accumulate lactate. They'll feel sore, achy. hard and knotty. They might even feel weak, but are actually strong.

Say for example, your hamstrings and glutes are contracting to 40% of their maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) in order to stabilise your lower spine and pelvis, you could feel like your hamstrings are perennially tight and tense, no matter how much you stretch them, whilst your glutes feel weak, no matter how much you strengthen them.

This is because the hamstrings are fatigued from the constant contraction, whilst the glutes can only offer 60% MVC so don't feel powerful when you try to recruit them.

The solution here ISN'T stretching the hamstrings or strengthening the glutes, but to bring your conscious awareness to the tension in these muscles and then practice releasing that tension down to zero. 

This enables you to regain neural control of those muscles, so you can voluntarily tell them to contract but also to relax again. 

Sensory Motor Amnesia is often one of the underlying factors behind chronic pain, stiffness, reduced range of motion, loss of function and muscles feeling tense or tight.

The BYB Method helps you to reverse your Sensory Motor Amnesia, restoring conscious control of your muscles and relieving chronic pain and stiffness.

NEXT STEPS

I'm planning a new 6 week intensive, small group course where you'll learn how to recognise patterns of tension and pain in your body, and simple exercises to release them. Please click on the link below or reply to this email if you'd like to be added to the early bird interest list.

• Book into a Stretch, Yoga or Pilates class with me - become a student of your body to begin the process of self healing
• Register your interest in a new 6 week small group intensive course starting on Sunday 24th September: "The BYB Method: A roadmap to reducing pain and moving with ease" HERE.
• Attend a half-day mind-body retreat - these are deeply relaxing, fun, social small group experiences typically held in various locations within easy reach of Worthing, West Sussex. The next one is on Sunday 3rd December,
• Subscribe HERE to receive "The Movement Chronicle", a weekly e-newsletter delivering mobility and pain reduction tips directly into your inbox every Monday morning,

To find out more about my classes and retreats, or to join my email list you can contact me via any of these channels:

• Email at norma.pearson1@ntlworld.com
• DM me on Facebook Messenger 
• WhatsApp message to 07801 867361.