“Most people have heard of muscle memory. When a person starts lifting weights after a lay off, it’s much easier for them to return to their previous levels of size and strength than it was to get there the first time around. It also takes less time. Therefore the muscle fibers must obviously “remember” their former state.

Muscle fibers do not remember anything. Muscle fibers do not have a separate independent “mind” of their own. All memory is retrieved from inside the brain which commands all action and response.…

Physiologists know that any skeletal muscle activity that is learned can become essentially automatic with practice. Muscle memory is therefore a common term for neuromuscular facilitation, which is the process of the neuromuscular system memorizing motor skills. We know that repetition is the mother of skill and that practice makes permanent. After repeating the same movement over and over again, the movement seemingly becomes second nature. It’s like we’re not paying attention but of course it’s all coming from the same region of the brain that controls everything.”

The Myth of Muscle Memory – Sports Nutrition Articles – The Cory Holly Institute.