THE GIST
- Getting in shape is easier for people who have been buff before.
- The findings suggest that exercise early in life could help fend off frailness in the elderly.
- The study also raise questions about how long doping athletes should be banned from competition.
Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why -- muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use.
That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren't lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained.
The findings suggest that exercise early in life could help fend off frailness in the elderly, and also raise questions about how long doping athletes should be banned from competition, says study leader Kristian Gundersen, a physiologist at the University of Oslo in Norway.
Muscles Remember Their Strength : Discovery News
- Getting in shape is easier for people who have been buff before.
- The findings suggest that exercise early in life could help fend off frailness in the elderly.
- The study also raise questions about how long doping athletes should be banned from competition.
Pumping up is easier for people who have been buff before, and now scientists think they know why -- muscles retain a memory of their former fitness even as they wither from lack of use.
That memory is stored as DNA-containing nuclei, which proliferate when a muscle is exercised. Contrary to previous thinking, those nuclei aren't lost when muscles atrophy, researchers report online August 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The extra nuclei form a type of muscle memory that allows the muscle to bounce back quickly when retrained.
The findings suggest that exercise early in life could help fend off frailness in the elderly, and also raise questions about how long doping athletes should be banned from competition, says study leader Kristian Gundersen, a physiologist at the University of Oslo in Norway.
Muscles Remember Their Strength : Discovery News