How to Combat Muscle Memory by Angus O’Brien
Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that can assist you in becoming very good at something or bad through continuous repetition. This is fantastic while learning new movements and correct technique, but once familiarity has been established change must be implicated as your muscles will soon become too familiar with the exercise and the positive results you once saw will soon plateau.
Changing the exercise performed on a muscle group is the most common way to combat the negative effects of muscle memory; other effective ways include increasing the load, change of grip and change of hand position.
There are three variations of grip and hand positions.
Grip variations:
• Pronated grip (overhand) – Outward hand position so that your hands are facing away from the body.
• Supinated grip (underhand) – Inward hand position so that your hands are facing towards the body.
• Neutral grip – A ‘semi-supinated’ grip where your palms face one another.
Hand positions:
• Shoulder width apart
• Narrow (slightly narrower then shoulder width)
• Wide (slightly wider then shoulder width)
These variations can be applied to selected exercises from most muscle groups.