We’ve all heard it before: muscle memory is real.
Whether it’s riding a bike after years away or picking up an old sport, we assume our bodies retain movement patterns even after long periods of inactivity.
But what if everything we thought we knew about muscle memory was wrong?
A new study suggests that muscle memory doesn’t exist in the way we think it does.
While our brains may recall movements, our muscles don’t retain the ability to perform them on a genetic level.
That means no matter how good you were at skateboarding as a kid, you might not be able to jump back on a board and land a kickflip immediately.
But before you despair, there’s a silver lining: your body is just as capable of adapting later in life as it was when you were young.
Breaking the Myth of Muscle Memory
Malene Lindholm, a researcher at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, led a study to explore how muscles “remember” past movements.
The experiment involved 23 sedentary individuals who were asked to kick one leg 60 times per minute for 45 minutes, four times a week, for three months.
After a nine-month break, they returned to perform the same exercise—but this time using both legs.
After the trial, researchers took muscle biopsies from each leg to analyze genetic expression.
If muscle memory were real at a cellular level, the previously trained leg should have shown signs of adaptation.
However, they found no significant difference between the two legs.
The conclusion?
Muscles don’t remember movement at the genetic level. Once you stop training, your muscle cells lose their adaptations, supporting the old saying: use it or lose it.
But Why Do We Still Remember How to Ride a Bike?
If muscles don’t retain memory, then why can most of us hop on a bike after years of not riding?
The answer lies in neural memory, not muscle memory.
While our muscles may lose their conditioning, our nervous system retains the coordination and sequence of movements needed to perform complex actions.
Lindholm explains, “Your nerves have learned in which order to activate your muscles in order to perform a certain movement.”
In other words, your brain can recall the sequence of motions, but your muscles must rebuild their strength to execute them efficiently.
This is why professional athletes can pick up their sports more easily after long breaks: their nervous system still “knows” the movement, even if their muscles need to regain their power.
Evolution Explains Why Muscles Forget
If muscle memory doesn’t exist, why does the body allow skills to fade? The answer is evolutionary efficiency.
Keeping highly active muscles comes at a cost.
Muscles require a lot of energy to maintain, and if they aren’t being used, the body conserves resources by letting them shrink.
Lindholm states, “It’s a cost to keep up really metabolically active muscles or a big muscle mass, and there is no reason for the body to expend energy on that if we don’t need to use it.”
What This Means for Training and Fitness
So, if muscles don’t remember, does that mean training is futile?
Not at all. In fact, this research highlights the importance of consistent movement rather than relying on past training.
If you were once an athlete and want to return to peak performance, don’t expect your muscles to pick up where they left off.
While your brain remembers the movement patterns, your muscles need to retrain and rebuild their strength.
The good news?
Your body can still adapt, regardless of when you start.
The study suggests that even if you weren’t active as a child, you can develop the same level of fitness later in life.
The Takeaway
The idea of muscle memory may be comforting, but it’s largely a misconception.
Your brain remembers movements, but your muscles need consistent training to maintain strength and endurance.
So, whether you’re revisiting an old sport or picking up a new one, the key isn’t hoping your muscles remember—it’s putting in the work to train them again.
And the best part? Your body is always ready to adapt, no matter your age.
