Study proves that muscle memory develops in DNA

A new scientific study 1 reveals that muscles "remember" their growth!

It happens all the time. You stamp your credit card code without even thinking about it. You can not remember the chords of a song, but your hands play them anyway. You have not played sports for ages, but in a way, your body still remembers how you do it.

It's called muscle memory, but we did not really know until recently how it worked.

Muscle memory is actually a type of motor learning, a type of procedural memory that consists of consolidating a certain task (consciously or unconsciously) until you can do it almost automatically.

Sometimes, muscle memory gives the impression that the body works without thinking. But that's not all !

For the first time, a study has shown that human muscles also have a "memory" of anterior growth, and this process occurs at the DNA level.

The authors of the study explain in the prestigious journal Nature:

"We have shown that genes in muscle can break free from this epigenetic information when they develop as a result of an effort in the past. It is important to note that these genes are not affected even when we lose muscle again, but this process helps to "change" the gene to a greater extent and is associated with greater muscle growth in response to a effort made later in life. "

What is epigenetics?
Epigenetics, a rather strange term, roughly means "outside" or "above" genetics. In general, it describes the effect of external or environmental changes on DNA.

In this case, this does not mean that DNA is changing or mutating, although it is a change in the way genes express or behave, so to speak.

Epigenetics is actually about turning genes on or off. It can explain cellular memory, in the sense that a physical experience experienced by a cell can be "memorized", chemically speaking.

This has important implications for athletes, especially for those who are recovering from a muscle injury.

For doped athletes, this could mean that the ban on using steroids for muscle growth for a year or two is just not long enough. As the effects persist in the long term, the ban should also be long-lasting, according to the researchers.


"If a high-level athlete takes substances to increase his muscle mass, his muscles will remember this earlier muscle growth. If the athlete is caught in the act and takes a suspension, this short-term prohibition may not be sufficient, as he may continue to be better off than his competitors, even if he does not. take more, because he took steroids earlier in life. "

Références ↑ Human Skeletal Muscle Possesses an Epigenetic Memory of Hypertrophy