So often I hear people talking about muscle memory as if it’s a thing. Something where the muscles remember movements, and pathways, or levels of contraction.
Muscle memory is a myth.
It’s simply not true. There is no such thing as muscle memory. If it were people who had accidents and suffered injury to the spinal cord wouldn’t be paralysed. Their “muscle memory ” would take over, and they’d be able to move. But they can’t and don’t because it doesn’t exist.
The brain holds all of the tools for movement. The nervous system is both signaller and receiver of information. It’s the brain’s ability for memory, spatial, physical, musculo-skeletal that form habits. These allow us to fast track patterns of movements that we do repeatedly. When we rest, the brain creates neural networks, or reinforces them, so that over time, we don’t need to think about doing our shoelaces, but can have a conversation at the same time.
Why does it matter?
Because if you imagine the muscles have a co-ordinating role, that’s where you’ll focus when you want to improve your movement. If you know that it’s all about the brain, all of the time, then you’ll realise that to improve what you’re doing, you need to include your brain in the picture.
Including your thinking to improve your physical self
This is where Feldenkrais comes in. You’ll learn to co-ordinate yourself better in each lesson. You’ll learn to feel yourself more clearly over time. This takes some of us longer than others, but including your brain in the picture of your body isn’t a habit most of us have. Descartes and his followers have a lot to answer for!
the Feldenkrais Method with Emma Alter 