Muscle Memory: REBT Metaphorical Dry Firing

[DISCLAIMER]

When serving in the United States Marine Corps (1996-2007) in the billet of military police (MP), I was introduced to the concept of muscle memory. Regarding this topic, one source states:

Muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition, which has been used synonymously with motor learning.

When a movement is repeated over time, the brain creates a long-term muscle memory for that task, eventually allowing it to be performed with little to no conscious effort. This process decreases the need for attention and creates maximum efficiency within the motor and memory systems.

Muscle memory is found in many everyday activities that become automatic and improve with practice, such as riding bikes, driving motor vehicles, playing ball sports, musical instruments, and poker, typing on keyboards, entering PINs, performing martial arts, swimming, dancing, and drawing.

Admittedly, the term “muscle memory” may be a misnomer and the topic is widely debated, as modern evidence suggests it’s not a specifically a physical memory within the muscles but rather a motor learning process within the brain that impacts skills (e.g., firearms manipulation).

According to one source, a relatively recent study “confirmed that once muscles gain extra myonuclei from training, they keep them even if the muscles shrink due to detraining. This supports the idea that myonuclei contribute to muscle memory.”

Anecdotally, I’ve experienced the motor learning process known as “muscle memory” throughout my life. For example, when I decided to delete social media apps from my cellphone, I subconsciously reached for my phone to check the apps for up to two weeks thereafter.

Similarly, when participating in official and unofficial firearms manipulation (i.e., shooting guns) as an MP (see the photo above), I found that I performed better than not when first conducting dry firing exercises. Regarding this routine, one source states:

Dry firing is the act of activating the shooting mechanism of a bow, crossbow, firearm, airgun or other ranged weapons without actually launching out any projectiles. The expression is also used to refer to any weapons training and tactical engagement simulation that does not involve live firing of ammunitions.

Dry firing is most commonly done with firearms, and can be performed by simply cocking an unloaded gun and then actuate the trigger to release the sear. It is however recommended to dry-fire using something to cushion the firing pin strike, such as a dummy round, a fake ammunition (commercially known as a “snap cap”), or simply the empty casing of a spent cartridge.

The more time I spent dry firing, the better I performed when shooting live ammunition. This worked even if it was a non-medical placebo effect (a phenomenon by which inert or ineffective remedies are introduced to exhibit results, simply because the person believes that it will work).

Now, when providing care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”), I invite people to consider that even though the brain (i.e., hardware) and mind (i.e., software) aren’t actually muscles, individuals can use metaphorical “muscle memory” care.

As Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) is informed by Stoic philosophy, this blog entry is part of an ongoing series regarding a book entitled The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman.

Epictetus once stated, “That’s why the philosophers warn us not to be satisfied with mere learning, but to add practice and then training. For as time passes we forget what we learned and end up doing the opposite, and hold opinions the opposite of what we should” (page 159).

Epictetus’s advocacy for practice and training, which are akin to dry firing in the interest of muscle memory, is something about which I’ve candidly written. Specifically, in a blogpost entitled Understanding, Belief, and Practice, I forthrightly concluded:

When recently asked how many clients with whom I’ve worked have practiced REBT on a regular basis, I surmised that one-third of the people in my life have genuinely met this standard. This figure surprised me, as well as the person who asked the question.

I have no problem with accepting personal responsibility and accountability [collectively “personal ownership”] for the role I’ve played in the approximately two-thirds of people who’ve apparently disregarded REBT. I doubt it’s true that I’ve had no effect on why some people haven’t stuck with this modality.

Additionally, I suspect that a lack of understanding, failure to believe, and neglect of [daily] practice have played a key role in why some people have neglected or abandoned REBT altogether.

Imagine I showed up to annual MP firearms qualification without having practiced or trained for the event. Without muscle memory having been carefully tended to throughout the year, how well do you think I’d perform at firearms manipulation? No well!

Alternatively, if I took time to dry-fire and conduct life-fire exercises over the course of a year, I’d likely perform better during my annual MP firearms qualification. The same is true regarding REBT competency (possession of sufficient knowledge or skill) and performance.

Ergo, I advocate using a “muscle memory” approach to mental health. This requires personal ownership of one’s own outcomes. If you frequently practice (or not), then you own whatever result follows thereafter. Regarding this approach, authors of The Daily Stoic state (page 159):

Very few people can simply watch an instructional video or hear something explained and then know, backward and forward, how to do it. Most of us actually have to do something several times in order to truly learn. One of the hallmarks of the martial arts, military training, and athletic training of almost any kind is the hours upon hours upon hours of monotonous practice.

An athlete at the highest level will train for years to perform movements that can last mere seconds—or less. The two-minute drill, how to escape from a chokehold, the perfect jumper. Simply knowing isn’t enough. It must be absorbed into the muscles and the body. It must become part of us. Or we risk losing it the second that we experience stress or difficulty.

As I don’t agree with everything that anyone says, I often find myself quibbling with certain perspectives espoused by the authors. In particular, I maintain that we live in an imperfect world. Sometimes, the authors use Pollyannaish rhetoric with which I disagree (i.e., “perfect jumper”).

Nonetheless, even if my suggested non-medical placebo effect is subjective in nature, I’ve found that the very “monotonous [imperfect] practice” advocated by the authors has been advantageous throughout my life. Professionally, I suspect that this is one reason some people abandon REBT.

Apparently, many people avoid mental health practice and training which is tedious. Who can blame them? After all, I’m competing with social media influence when working with clients. It takes far less effort to watch a TikTok video than to complete REBT homework.

Besides, which is more appealing—listening to a social media content creator who tells audience members that society is the problem, or receiving the massage of personal ownership for one’s unpleasant outcomes which is delivered by a professional practitioner of REBT?

It takes time to symbolically dry fire. It also necessitates enduring discomfort in order to acquire necessary skills for muscle memory in the interest of proverbial firearms manipulation (i.e., reversing the process of self-disturbance: the process of upsetting oneself with unhelpful beliefs).

Additionally, TikTok is virtually free to use. Psychotherapy is delivered at considerable cost and expense to the client. Given these two choices, the easiest option is to abandon care for mental health, reject personal ownership, and lose oneself to the allure of social media content.

Favorably, I don’t value such irrational options, and neither do one-third of the clients with whom I work that actually use REBT tools. We use social media content to figuratively dry-fire while daily practicing REBT techniques (i.e., the ABC model and unconditional acceptance).

Therefore, when it comes time for metaphorical live firing, we’ve stayed ready so that we don’t have to get ready! Yet, you’re free to delude yourself with social media nonsense, if you so choose. Regarding my approach to rational living, authors of The Daily Stoic state (page 159):

It is true with philosophical principles as well. You can’t just hear something once and expect to rely on it when the world is crashing down around us. Remember, Marcus Aurelius wasn’t writing his meditations for other people. He was actively meditating for himself.

Even as a successful, wise, and experienced man, he was until the last days of his life practicing and training himself to do the right thing. Like a black belt, he was still showing up to the dojo every day to roll; like a professional athlete, he still showed up to practice each week—even though others probably thought it was unnecessary.

Exercising one’s metaphorical muscle memory of the brain and mind through practice and training will prove difficult for most people. It’s often quite difficult for me, given real-world events of an undesirable nature (e.g., discovering that someone close to me is abusing his wife).

Nevertheless, easy isn’t the goal. I’m trying to build resilience, increase high frustration tolerance, and improve my REBT competency and performance through metaphorical dry- and live-firing in regard to actually un-disturbing myself. That’s a challenging endeavor!

Now, I invite you to consider a similar muscle memory approach to rational living. Opportunely, you don’t need an actual firearm to conduct axiomatic dry firing exercises. All you preferably must or recommendatorily should do is practice and train on a daily basis. How about it?

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

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