Muscle memory and the passage of time | Scholars and Rogues
source: http://www.scholarsandrogues.com/2011/03/11/muscle-memory-and-the-passage-of-time/
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- hoosierdaddy
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"I have always believed that athletic performances — especially the brilliant ones, the ones that leave an athlete convinced he or she is above all others — emotionally and psychologically reside in muscle tissue. I have no research to support that. But coaches always told me: If you hit the finish line first, take a moment to embrace, to encode, the memory of the moment. That’s important, they said: The ability to be faster, stronger, more enduring than others fades quickly.
"I can close my eyes and feel my old gymnastics routines on the rings and parallel bars. I cannot perform them, but I can do more than merely remember. My muscles fire encoded impulses to my brain. I sense the old rhythm and power more than just intellectually relive the moments. It is more than memory; it is physical sensation fused with history. That, I am learning, makes it less … frustrating … to have surrendered to time the physical ability to perform them."
"I can close my eyes and feel my old gymnastics routines on the rings and parallel bars. I cannot perform them, but I can do more than merely remember. My muscles fire encoded impulses to my brain. I sense the old rhythm and power more than just intellectually relive the moments. It is more than memory; it is physical sensation fused with history. That, I am learning, makes it less … frustrating … to have surrendered to time the physical ability to perform them."
