Why Flow Drills?

I know many of you may wonder why we review flow drills over and over again. one simple reason can answer your question: muscle memory.

What is Muscle Memory?

Muscle memory is a common term for neuromuscular facilitation, which is the process of the neuromuscular system memorizing motor skills.

When an active person repeatedly trains movement, often of the same activity, in an effort to stimulate the mind’s adaptation process, the outcome is to induce physiological changes which attain increased levels of accuracy through repetition. Even though the process is really brain-muscle memory or motor memory, the colloquial expression "muscle memory" is commonly used.

Individuals rely upon the mind’s ability to assimilate a given activity and adapt to the training. As the brain and muscle adapts to training, the subsequent changes are a form or representation of its muscle memory.

There are two types of motor skills involved in muscle memory: fine and gross. Fine motor skills are very minute and small skills we perform with our hands such as brushing teeth, combing hair, using a pencil or pen to write, touch typing, playing some musical instruments, or even playing video games. Gross motor skills are those actions that require large body parts and large body movements as in the throwing sports such as bowling, American football, and baseball, sports such as rowing, basketball, golf, judo, and tennis, and activities such as driving a car (especially one with a manual transmission), piloting aircraft, playing some musical instruments, and marksmanship.

Muscle memory is fashioned over time through repetition of a given suite of motor skills and the ability through brain activity to inculcate and instill it such that they become automatic. To the beginner, activities such as brushing the teeth, combing the hair, or even driving a vehicle are not as easy as they look. As one reinforces those movements through repetition, the neural system learns those fine and gross motor skills to the degree that one no longer needs to think about them, but merely to react and perform appropriately. In this sense the muscle memory process is an example of automating an OODA Loop insofar as one learns to Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

How many repetitions does it take to develop Muscle Memory?

As far as how many reps it takes to develop muscled memory, this topic is a little misguided; but after researching this the needed reptitions I have found a common misunderstanding. Many trainers say, "It takes 3, 000 to 5,000 repetitions to burn a movement into your body's muscle memory." However, during my research I came across this little article below.

"A 1941 book called Motor Learning by Doctors Richard Schmidt with Craig A. Wrisberg, followed by Schmidt's consistently updated book editions called Performance and Motor Control And Learning with Dr. Timothy D. Lee, along with a rotating collection of new research studies, states with a flurry of charts and studies that it requires approximately 300-500 repetitions to develop a new motor pattern. Conversely, once bad or inadequate habits are already in place, he states it takes about 3000-5000 repetitions to erase and correct a bad motor pattern."

So, what is the correct amount of repetitions? In my experience, the correct repetitions depends on the person. One individual might learn faster than another; but if you do have do regurgitate a specific number...just say 3,000. The reason I say 3,000 is that it gives you more reason to train.

Know thy self,
Alex

References

"MUSCLE MEMORY -- Dow 207 (1): 11 -- Journal of Experimental Biology". jeb.biologists.org. http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/207/1/11. Retrieved on 2008-03-19.

"Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 70, Issue 2 631-640". jap.physiology.org. http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/70/2/631. Retrieved on 2008-12-05.

How Many Reps Was That? Again? by W. Hock Hochheim