For every movement your body makes, a combination of muscle contractions occur. For each of these contractions there is a relaxation in the opposite muscle. Welcome to the world of muscle pairs.
Virtually all muscles have an opposite. When a muscle is contracting it is known as the agonist. When it contracts, it causes its opposite muscle, the antagonist, to relax. For example if you flex your biceps, its opposite the triceps relaxes. If you flex your triceps the biceps relaxes. This is something called reciprocal inhibition
So why should you care about this? Read on...
Table of contents
Supersets and alt-sets
Knowing your prime antagonist helps in the creation of effective supersetting or alt-setting if you goals are not hypertrophy or endurance. Supersetting is were you perform two exercises back to back. If you are seeking hypertrophy or looking to exhaust a particular muscle, then agonist supersets such as bench press followed by chest flyes, is the way to go. Alt-setting is where you are doing two exercises alternatingly, not necessarly as a supeset, but as a way to save time.
If you are not going for bodybuilding or the like, then agonist-antagonist supersetting or alt-setting provides the benefit of the second exercise (focusing on the antagonist muscle to the first exercise) causing reciprocal inhibition, meaning your prime agonist muscle from the first exercise relaxes and stretches, helping improve its recovery between sets.
Stretching
Antagonist-stretching is an effective form of muscle stretching whether it is done actively or passively.
An example of actively stretching your hamstrings is by raising your knee up and extending your leg at the knee. This contracts your quadriceps causing your hamstrings to relax and stretch. This kind of active movement is believed to be better for increasing range of motion and flexibility in the stretched muscle.
You could also do this passively, by flexing the antagonist muscle if possible whilst stretching.
Interestingly you can mix it up with a form of strectching that seems contrary to the point of reciprocal inhibition. It is antagonist static stretching. An example is if you are doing biceps curls, then you would stretch your triceps between sets. Research shows that this form of stretch can cause an increase of repetitions and agonist activiation during the exercise.
Split routines
Knowing your muscle pairs helps in the devising of more effective split routines. If you train chest and triceps primarily on what you might call a "push" day, then the next session you train upper back and biceps on a "pull" day. This allows you to avoid overloading the previously worked out muscles whilst given them a stretch through reciprocal inhibition.
Muscle pairs
It can be quite confusing matching up each specific muscle to its opposite especially when certain actions call different muscles or parts of a muscle into action or relaxation. Thus I'll try to keep this as simple as possible by basing it on the primary motions, common exercises for those motions and the primary muscles. Keeping it simple also helps for devising agonist-antagonist muscle pairings for supersets or split sessions amongst other things.
Action
Exercises
Agonist
Antagonist
Spinal flexion
Sit-ups, hollow holds
Rectus abdominus
Erector spinae
Spinal extension
Back extensions, good mornings
Erector spinae
Rectus abdominus
Horizontal flexion
Press-ups, bench-press
Pectoralis major
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Horizontal extension
Cable rows, seated rows
Rhomboids, trapezius (mid)
Pectoralis major
Elbow flexion
Bicep curls, chin-ups
Biceps
Triceps
Elbow extension
Dips, triceps extensions
Triceps
Biceps
Shoulder flexion
Pull-ups, pull-downs
Latissimus dorsi
Deltoids
Shoulder extension
Shoulder press
Deltoids
Latissimus dorsi
Knee flexion
Hamstring curls
Hamstrings
Quadriceps
Knee extension
Leg extensions
Quadriceps
Hamstrings
Hip flexion
Bent-knee leg raise, hanging-knee raise
Iliopsoas
Gluteus maximus
Hip extension
Hip thrusters
Gluteus maximus
Iliopsoas
Ankle flexion
(Dorsiflexion)
Banded foot pulls
Tibialis-anterior
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Ankle extension
(Plantar flexion)
Calf-raises
Gastrocnemius, soleus
Tibialis-anterior
Lombard's paradox
Now whilst we know how muscles are meant to work and the effect they have on their opposite muscle, there is a interesting circumstance known as Lombard's paradox where this goes out the window. Lombard's paradox is where both the agonist and antagonist activate at the same time, this is commonly seen when standing up from a seated or squatting position.
Recap
Knowing the antagonist muscle to that which you are working out allows you to fine tune your training in various ways. Whether it be more effective alternating sets, stretches, or split routines. Whilst the musculoskeletal system is highly complex and there are a multitude of different muscles and muscle heads activating in any given movement, each with their own antagonist, exercises can be broken down into their prime agonist and the primary antagonist.
If you have any questions then feel free to ask away in the comments or send me some feedback!
Lyle Richardson,
Gym Pal - Your Friend In Fitness
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