Why Lost Muscle Comes Back Faster Than You Think

We've all experienced this frustrating feeling. : after a fall, after an injury, after an operation or after a long break, legs melt away before your eyesThe fiery haunch becomes a memory, the skin floats a little, and the pedaling seems to come from another body. Yet, after a few weeks of serious recovery, the volume returns, strength too, almost miraculously. It's not magic, it's biologyWe explain to you….

By Jeff Tatard – 3Bikes.fr / Photos ©3Bikes

Muscle wasting, an obligatory passage

After a period of inactivity, immobilization, bed rest, or simple detraining, the body adapts. In the absence of stress, muscle fibers shrink, protein synthesis decreases, and the muscle loses volume. This is calledmuscle atrophy.
But be careful: it is not a total disappearance. The muscle does not disappear, it “shrinks”And above all, it preserves precious traces of its sporting past...

The two faces of muscle: contractile fibers and supporting tissues

To understand why recovery is often faster than wasting, it's important to remember that a muscle isn't just a bunch of fibers. It's a complex tissue, made up of two major components...

When we lose muscle, it is mainly contractile fibers that decrease of volume. On the other hand, the connective tissue, he remains largely intact. It maintains the structure, the “mold” in which the fibers can grow again. This is one of the reasons why recovery is so rapid: the frame is already in placeThe muscle only has to replenish the volume.

Muscle memory: a biological reality

But the secret doesn't end there. For the past fifteen years, researchers have confirmed the existence of a muscle memory. When a muscle hypertrophies, it not only gains in size, but also in cell nuclei (called myonuclei). These nuclei are used to produce the proteins needed for contraction.
And the most fascinating thing is that they don't completely disappear during the detraining phase.
Result: When you start again, the muscle can restart the machine much faster, because it already has the cellular material necessary to grow.

The role of sporting experience

This memory is also correlated to your muscular passiveThe more years of training you have accumulated, the more heavy loads you have accumulated, the more specific work you have accumulated, the more solid this memory is.
This is why a sprinter who has built thighs of 68 cm in circumference will be able to reinflate them much faster than a beginner: his muscle “knows” what it must become again.

An accelerated return… but not instantaneous

Beware of the false promise, however: muscle memory isn't everything.
Connective tissues must regain their elasticity, the tendons their resistance, and the nervous system its coordination.
The key is to be gradual. Pushing back too hard, too quickly, risks damaging the very connective tissue that helped you get started. reconbuild your muscle.

To conclude,

Muscle loss is never inevitable.
Thanks to the double effect of the connective tissue that maintains structure, And some muscle memory that keeps the recipe, the body has an astonishing capacity to regenerate itself.
In other words: the muscle you've patiently built never really leaves you. It sleeps, it waits, and all it takes is a little sweat to wake it up.

And that is perhaps the best motivation to get back on the bike after a break: knowing that not everything is at reconto construct… but simply to reactivate.

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=> And for more science behind our thighs and our efforts, dive into this landmark study on muscle memory: The concept of skeletal muscle memory: Evidence from animal and human studies