About a month ago I read about an Olympic figure skater whose mother passed away shortly before her competition. She was out of sorts mentally so she was going to do her routine on muscle memory. I don't know but it turned out but this interested me because I've heard the term before but didn't really grasp it. I've been training for a 25K race in May and have noticed that even if I'm tired or unmotivated that my legs will carry where I need to go. Muscle memory also explains why I'm no longer good at basketball or golf. My muscles don't remember all the motions that I'd done so often when I was young.
Wikipedia says "When an active person repeatedly trains movement, often of the same activity, in an effort to stimulate the mind’s adaptation process, the outcome is to induce physiological changes which attain increased levels of accuracy through repetition. Even though the process is really brain-muscle memory or motor memory, the colloquial expression "muscle memory" is commonly used.[1]"
Now I understand better what I need to do to improve in one activity and also not to get so down on myself now when I do dabble in basketball, golf, or another sport. Since the brain is also a muscle it seems like it would make sense that we can improve our minds through repetition too. I'll leave that to the Tony Robbins of the world.
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