Muscle memory? What’s that again?
Have you ever learned an activity or exercise and been told to do it but at first thought you have no idea where to begin? Have you ever noticed that without thinking if you just try do it, your muscles know exactly what to do? For example riding a bike or jumping rope. You may think you "forgot" how to do these activities, but really all you need to do is sit on the bike or pick up the jump rope. Magically, you're doing it! This is no miracle. Our muscles, like our brain and sometimes better, have memory. They communicate, act, and store all of our movements. For example, my inspiration for this post a dear client of mine whose name I will change to Tilly.
Last week I pushed Tilly out of her comfort zone and into the scary world of advanced squats on a Bosu Ball. For those of you unfamiliar with this fabulous piece of equipment not only do you need a session with me, but please see image above for visual. I turned this Bosu Ball torturous piece of equipment upside down so that she would be standing on the flat surface (as shown above) and would be very unsteady. She had done the squats before on the dome side (the blue side of above pic). This was an advancement.
Very afraid and hesitant and under my careful attention and guidance she climbed onto the dreaded Bosu. With a nervous chuckle and fear in her eyes she held my hands and stood straight on the ball and slowly bent her knees into a squat. She did 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Round 1: fear driven and legs uncontrollably shaking. Round 2: ever so slightly less afraid and definitely less shaky. Round 3: more confident and barely any shaking!!!! Fast forward one week. Today's session we gave these amazing awful squats another go. Round 1: zero fear, no instruction, less assistance, zero leg shaking!!! Round 2 and 3: even less assistance and all smiles!!!!
What explains that Tilly knew exactly what to do and that her legs where not shaking???
MUSCLE MEMORY!!!!
The neurons fired, the muscles contracted, the synapses formed and a memory was created!!! Although she may not have been mindful of what she was doing, her muscles were and they knew exactly how to cooperate with squatting on a very unstable surface. What smart muscles we have!
In your next workout try something slightly out of your comfort level and try challenge your balance. Stand on one leg while doing bicep curls or shoulder presses. Don't get too crazy without the supervision of a trained Fitness Professional!!!!
In good health,
Dani S.
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