New Study Found Evidence Of ‘Muscle Growth Memory’

New research has found that our muscles’ DNA is able to “remember” periods of growth. This finding has important consequences for bodybuilder and professional athletes who have used steroids to quickly stimulate muscle growth.

The study has been conducted by at team at Keele University and published online in Scientific Reports. The scientists have found that earlier growth determines the epigenetic memory of the human skeletal muscle.

According to Newsweek, this exciting discovery of “muscle memory” has dramatic potential for the long-lasting effects of muscle growth drugs. The discovery of the muscle memory also offers new insight into how rehabilitation and exercise programs can target muscle growth responsible genes.

Eight untrained male subjects participated in the study over a 22-week period. Each subject performed a targeted resistance exercise that has been followed by a period of rest and another exercise. At several points across the study were taken muscle biopsies. The scientists analyzed for epigenetic alterations over 850,000 genomic sites.

Adam Sharples, senior author of the study, explained in a statement that, when it grows following exercise in earlier life, muscle genes become more untagged with the epigenetic information. Even when we lose muscle again, these genes remain untagged. The gene switches on to a greater extent because of this untagging, leading to greater muscle growth as a response to training in later life.

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