Is muscle memory involved when coming back to weight training?

[flycaster1]

Always exercised my whole life. Not enough as a bodybuilder, but enough to stay in shape and look good. During the last several years I have had a few operations that have gotten me of the exercise path. And, during the last year of not routinely exercising (3-4 days/wk, 1 hour weight training), I've gotten soft. So, holding to my New Year's resolution, I've been working out in our gym 3 days/wk doing triple sets (opposite muscle groups and legs for each set). I was never a heavy lifter and started working out with lift weight at 15 reps. Anyway, at 74 I am surprised that it seems that my muscles are tighten up and showing (somewhat) more than they did the year before going back to the gym. So the question is: If one has always worked out and then stops longer enough to loose a lot of the gain, does the muscle mass come back quicker for this individual than it would for one who never worked out (or only minimally) and just started to work out? It just seems to me that within a month of returning to the gym, I am improving rather rapidly.

[w8killer]

newb gains are usually fast and so is coming back from a layoff. Not sure which would be faster really. Something to search the interwebz for I suppose to see if any studies done on it...

[m314]

Congrats on getting back into the gym. I never plan to stop lifting weights myself, but as you know life gets in the way sometimes.

I've had to take a few breaks for different surgeries over the last few years. For me, it does seem easier to regain muscle mass and strength after a break. I don't know the science behind it, and some people disagree that muscle memory is a real phenomenon. It seems real in my experience.

[w8killer]

http://nutsci.org/2010/08/23/muscle-...the-myonuclei/

[gunabodybuild]

After a lay off i always gain the weight back really easily.

[TouaregV8]

I've been back in the gym for about a month after having a 1 year layoff. My strength always comes back quickly after a long layoff so I'm a firm believer in the "muscle memory" theory.

[BlackSwan88]

I was an avid weight lifter from age 14 to 32. Then got married, into a career, had kids..you know..life. I did do some racketball, but basically went from about 172lbs to a high of 232lbs. I fooled myself by thinking I wasn't "that fat". Last year I decided that health was my number one priority, as the Doc had a come to Jesus meeting with me on weight/diet/drinking. So I took the plunge, and reinvented myself. Initally lost 59 lbs in 4 months, mostly cardio, by month 5 got back into weight lifting. Then the magic started to happen...people stopped commenting on how much weight I lost and started making comments like "so you on droids?". So short story long, YES, I firmly believe there is muscle memory...after taking 15 years off, I've surpassed what I was before in (to me anyway) a very brief time. With that said, I have to put in one caveat, I never used to watch my diet, as my metabolims was so high, now I watch it like a hawk. So no doubt clean/lean diet added to the steep rebound. BTW, you are an inspiration to many of us. Nicely done!

[OperationChisel]

Absolutely. In fact, I've had times during my 15 plus years of lifting where I stop or get into something else like yoga. Every time I return to lifting, the muscle comes back fast. It's awesome. I'm forever grateful I started lifting young because I can always bust out some muscle pretty fast after a break.

[ljimd]

I've made 6 or 8 comebacks over the last 45 years. I agree there is something to muscle memory. The last couple comebacks the memory is slipping.

[bigtallox]

So the question is: If one has always worked out and then stops longer enough to loose a lot of the gain, does the muscle mass come back quicker for this individual than it would for one who never worked out (or only minimally) and just started to work out? It just seems to me that within a month of returning to the gym, I am improving rather rapidly.

Anybody who hasn't worked out in a while will make fast progress initially. The difference between somebody returning and somebody who is completely new to training with weights is that the person who has lifted before has at least some knowledge of how their body responds to training and what works and what doesn't work for them, and thus I think the term "muscle memory" is a horrible term, the memory isn't in the muscle it's in your brain.