Just How Much Does Muscle Memory Affect Us

Any athlete or sports player will undoubtedly heard of or even be familiar with the idea of muscles memory. Where our muscles can actually learn certain exercises, and perform them with perfection after enough practise. The thought-process behind this isn’t new, and there has been a lot of research put into the idea of muscle memory, and just how much we actually rely on it as opposed to just using our brains. 

There has long been a debate whether muscle memory exists at all, and even if it does, what kind of limitations it has. For the most part, sport scientists believe that muscle memory does, in fact, exist, and that it has a large part to play in many of the actions that we perform, even on a day-to-day basis. Whether it’s doing a certain exercise over and over, or knowing when to hit the right timing while online betting Australia, muscle memory has been a hot topic in the sport exercise world for thousands of years, and remains one that continues to be hotly debated to this day.

What Is Muscle Memory?

Synonymous with motor learning, muscle memory is the ability of our muscles to learn certain motor function, usually through extreme repetition done over time. The effect is not something that we can learn in a short period of time, but rather one that requires us to do the same action a number of times, and is usually linked with every day activities. This applies not only to what we do every day, but also in the sports and exercises that we take part in.

If we take exercise videos, for example; we may sit and watch as many as we like, for as many times as we want. No matter how much of the video we consume, and how familiar we become with the video, until we actually put the training to work, we simply can’t put the exercises into the practise the same way they do in the video. This is because our muscle memory and our visual memory are only partially linked, and the repetitive action of an activity is much easier for our brains to learn over time than what we can acquire visually. This entire process is down to two main types of memory: short-term and-long term.

Short-Term And Long-Term Memory

The way we learn through muscle memory is divided into the time-frame that we repeat a certain action, meaning that if we only do it a few times in a row, it won’t really be retained as a solid memory, but rather as something that we’re vaguely familiar with and could possibly repeat in the future.

For long-term muscle memory, an action requires continuous repetition over a long period of time. If we play a sport, a specific play might only be truly learnt if we practise it for a few weeks to months before we fully grasp it, and after which we never lose the ability to perform that play in any future games.

Muscle Memory As a Tool

Muscle Memory is an important part of our sports lives, and one that we should know how to fully utilise to gain its maximum effect, allowing us to learn something with enough practise, instead of studying it.