Muscle memory does everyone automatically have it?

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Z Gear

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I'm not to sure about what muscle memory is and if it is important.
I was wondering about this since ever since I heard of this phrase. Do we all inherently have this type of memory built in because of our repetitive habits or movements. Can it be considered the way you systematically check your gear, or other routine things we do when we dive.

Can you tell me how you have used or developed muscle memory to help you in diving?
Would you consider this a vital skill to develop? Is it even a skill you can develop. How can I become better at having and or using muscle memory.

Frank G
Z GEAR - Z Gear
 
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I've already explained this, your muscles don't have the ability to think and remember things!
Damn, all these buzz words, you guys are killing me!!

It should be called something like "learned movement automation" or "repetitive training automation"
give yor brain a little credit.

the only things muscles remember if you want to call it a memory at all, is if they are very large from weight training, then you stop and get skinny, then go back and lift again your muscles will go back to where they were easier then breaking new ground for the first time.
 
Yeah I agree. It's all in your head.
 
All I will say is, if it's so important what does one do when piloting 2000lb's+ of steel down a highway at 60mph. Do we always buy the same car, same model, so we instinctively know how to drive it. Is diving any more complicated.
 
I have driven a stick shift all my life - quite literally for over 40 years. I recently bought a new car, and it's an automatic. From time to time, I'll pull up to a stop light and put my foot on the clutch . . . that the car doesn't have. That's "muscle memory"; action which is incorporated at a level so far below conscious that it's really very difficult to eradicate. That type of knowledge is almost always born of repetition, and sometimes TONS of repetition. You want to ingrain the action to the point where no conscious thought is required to do it at all.

When I first began to clip things off, it was stressful and required a lot of thought and a lot of fumbling. I remember the first time I realized my primary reg was neither in my hand nor in my mouth, and I found it neatly clipped off to the right chest d-ring, where it belongs. But I had no memory of putting it there at all.

There is a lot of advantage in practicing frequently required motion sequences until they are done without thought. You can only consciously process so many things, and if you are consciously managing routine actions, you have nothing left for the unexpected. Or, on the flip side, when something unexpected suddenly demands a bunch of your processing, routine matters, such as buoyancy, trim, and awareness of your buddy and your location in the water, will begin to fail. When routine things such as depth, position awareness, and buddy awareness have become automatic, then processing is available to deal with a new camera (my challenge today) or a new skill, or unexpected current, or whatever requires attention and the formulation of a plan.
 
Muscles do not have memory. Certainly, to be simple, the circuits in our brains benefit from repetitive training. I rather like being a thinking human rather than an automaton. The problem with repetitive training is what happens when a novel problem presents itself. So much for the "muscle" memory.

N
 
Lynne, why do you want to deeply ingrain responses via muscle memory. Your example of the absent clutch demonstrates the potential for failure when that occurs.

We tend to look at the positives of MM but what about the negatives, like when you do something automatically because it's what you always do but, in that case, it's the wrong thing. Dave Shaw was used to letting go of his canlight when he needed two hands because it was usually draped around his neck, until it wasn't.
 
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I have driven a stick shift all my life - quite literally for over 40 years. I recently bought a new car, and it's an automatic. From time to time, I'll pull up to a stop light and put my foot on the clutch . . . that the car doesn't have. That's "muscle memory"; action which is incorporated at a level so far below conscious that it's really very difficult to eradicate. That type of knowledge is almost always born of repetition, and sometimes TONS of repetition. You want to ingrain the action to the point where no conscious thought is required to do it at all.

When I first began to clip things off, it was stressful and required a lot of thought and a lot of fumbling. I remember the first time I realized my primary reg was neither in my hand nor in my mouth, and I found it neatly clipped off to the right chest d-ring, where it belongs. But I had no memory of putting it there at all.

There is a lot of advantage in practicing frequently required motion sequences until they are done without thought. You can only consciously process so many things, and if you are consciously managing routine actions, you have nothing left for the unexpected. Or, on the flip side, when something unexpected suddenly demands a bunch of your processing, routine matters, such as buoyancy, trim, and awareness of your buddy and your location in the water, will begin to fail. When routine things such as depth, position awareness, and buddy awareness have become automatic, then processing is available to deal with a new camera (my challenge today) or a new skill, or unexpected current, or whatever requires attention and the formulation of a plan.


Hey thanks for that great explanation! That makes a lot of sense to me and I really do see how I can use it in my dives. It also see the benefit as for myself because I also focusing on new things like filming and cameras and it is nice when some of the routine things we need to do when we dive can be become more automatic response or perhaps like an unconscious reflex or habit.

That example of the car you were driving is so true. That is interesting how the mind although is aware of the change it will still be dominated by the ingrained repetitive motion. The knowledge of the car not having the clutch does not over ride the repetitive learned motion of using the clutch. Only after repetitive motion of physically not committing the motion of pushing the clutch will the brain begin to ingrain a new automatic response to replace the current one.

It could be said that the brain will store both habits and will probably "activate" the response which is sought out, only after it fully recognizes which learned habit you wish to excersize, through a sequence of FAMILIAR movements, or actions.

---------- Post added May 16th, 2015 at 11:43 PM ----------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFzDaBzBlL0

Muscle memory and backwards bike. Very interesting experience.


That was a very interesting clip. I also started laughing when I watched him trying to ride the bike with the backward turning handle bar, and then also had trouble riding a normal bike which he had learned to ride when he was a kid.

Terribly Good!
 
I don't think I have ever seen posts before that discouraged divers from practicing skills. After all, building "muscle memory" or more accurately, procedural memory, is the purpose behind practice.

And how better to deal with the unexpected then when you have the basics firmly ingrained.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

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