The Science Behind Muscle Memory

Let’s say you’re learning how to shoot a basketball. The first attempt you make feels uncomfortable and awkward and you have no idea how professional basketball players can move their arms in those movements. You try again, using the same movements, and this time, it feels less uncomfortable. By the time you shoot your 100th shot, it feels like you can shoot with your eyes closed, and the ball would still go in the basket.

This is an example of muscle memory - a process of rewiring and reorganizing the nerves in our nervous system to make the connection between our brain and body stronger. When we develop muscle memory for a particular activity, we are creating a new neural pathway down our central nervous system (the nervous system connecting the brain to the spinal cord to our appendages, and so forth) so that as we practice and increase the number of repetitions of the movements, we cease to think about each movement individually and we rely solely on the memory of our body to carry out the motion.

As many advantages as this process pose, several setbacks can prove difficult to overcome. Let’s say, for example, that you learn how to shoot a basketball with incorrect form. You continue to practice with that form which teaches your nervous system a different set of instructions compared to a basketball player with the correct shooting form. Eventually, you meet a professional, who tells you that you have to re-learn how to shoot. It takes just as long, if not longer, to re-learn how to shoot the ball. Why?

When we learn things incorrectly, we are still creating a new neural pathway in our central nervous system. It is impossible to just change that pathway at specific points- instead, the movement has to be completely rewired into the nervous system. The challenge this process brings is the fact that as you are re-teaching your nervous system the correct movements, you have to also reject the original pathway you had ingrained. Breaking your “bad habit” becomes difficult when your muscles want to revert to the movements they are familiar with while you are trying to eliminate them and teach them the correct movements.

Source:

https://healthworksfitness.com/2017/07/31/muscle-memory-work/