What do antagonistic muscles do? Synergist and antagonist muscles - examples of how to train Antagonist muscle training program for girls

Antagonists are those muscles that perform the opposite work - flex and extend, tighten and stretch, etc. Examples include the following muscles: chest and upper back, biceps and triceps, abs and lower back, quadriceps and hamstrings. Training these “pairs” brings enormous benefits to the body and figure, allowing you to reduce training time and use your resources with maximum benefit.

Training opposite muscle groups not only helps you look better, but also prevents many ailments. Strong muscles of the lower back and abs - prevention of osteochondrosis and hernias, the latissimus dorsi muscles paired with the pectoral muscles help the full functioning of the heart, lungs, etc.

You can train antagonist muscles according to several schemes - simply do exercises one after another, or perform supersets. A superset is an approach that combines two antagonist exercises. That is, first you do an approach to the abs, and then, without rest, an approach to the lower back. This alternation not only saves time, but also improves the functioning of the muscles themselves. When you do some kind of exercise, another muscle group is filled with blood and nutrients, and there are no obstacles to “loading” it too! In principle, you can train as you prefer - do supersets or just exercises on antagonist muscles one after another. I will give an example of a small complex.

Sets of exercises for antagonist muscles

Pair No. 1 – chest and upper back

The pectoral muscles give an attractive shape to your bust, and the back muscles help spread your shoulders and show the same attractive part of your figure in all its glory. Neglecting exercises for the upper back will lead to stooping, and if you don’t do it, then the “profile” view will not be very good. The full development of these muscle groups helps to form good posture and improve the shape of the breasts. It is only important to train correctly - the load on the back should be one third more! That is, two exercises for the chest and three for the back, then these antagonist muscles will work harmoniously and not cause a “distortion” of the figure.

Exercise to train your back muscles

The upper back works, the rest of the muscles (abdomen and legs) work as stabilizers. Lie on your stomach on a fitball, placing the ball under your hips, take a rubber band in your hands, and place your hands on the floor. Take turns raising your arms up, tensing the muscles of your back and upper shoulder girdle.

Exercise for the latissimus dorsi muscle

An expander or is suitable for work. Lie on the floor on your stomach, take a band or expander about 80 cm wide in your hands. Tighten the muscles of your back and buttocks and lift your body from the floor, bending your elbows, place the band behind your head. During the exercise, bring and spread your shoulder blades as much as possible.

"Mill" on fitball

It perfectly trains the upper shoulder girdle and vestibular apparatus, and works well on the latissimus dorsi muscle.

Now let's move on to chest training. As I already said, you can do two exercises - push-ups from your knees or straight legs plus raises with dumbbells or an expander.

Antagonist muscles No. 2 – abs and lower back

Ab crunches with fitball

The rectus muscle, upper and lower abdomen are strengthened. To perform the exercise, you will need a gymnastic ball, although if you don’t have one, a small pillow or rolled up towel will do.

Ab exercise with fitball

Using your abs, core, and hips, roll the ball forward as far as you can and then return to the starting position.

Exercise for the lower back

Raising the body from a prone position is a wonderful exercise that helps remove fat from the lower back, relieve pain in this area and “shape the back of your waist.”

The antagonist muscles - the abs and lower back - also have a peculiarity - the lower back in women, as a rule, is already loaded during the day (due to our love for high-heeled shoes and anatomical features), but the abs require additional load, so give it a little more attention.

Despite the fact that during “paired” training the muscles are well stretched, at the end of the workout it will not be superfluous!

After you have read the description of the exercises and looked at the photos, also watch the video.

Antagonist muscles are widely used in professional bodybuilding, since several muscle groups can be trained simultaneously, which means the desired result can be achieved much faster. A standard example of such muscles is the biceps and, since when one muscle is loaded, the second is connected, if the biceps stretches, the triceps bends, and so on. Thanks to such muscles, smooth movements are ensured during physical activity.

What are antagonist muscles?

In the simplest terms possible, this is a group of muscles that, during one specific exercise, performs several different functions (one muscle does the deadlift, and the second does the press).

Let us repeat once again: for example, the chest is responsible for pressing movements, and the back for traction, and all this necessarily occurs during one anatomical movement and only the position of the body can change briefly so that the necessary muscle or whole group can enter into active action muscles.

Peculiarities

If you decide to choose this approach to your training, then it will be useful for you to know some of the features associated with it.

All muscles are divided into several groups:

• Flexors;
• Extensors;
• Synergists;

Synergists- these are muscles that perform the same exercise, but in a different direction, and antagonists, on the contrary, they perform one exercise not only in one direction, but at the same time.

It is important to know: All antagonist muscles are closely interconnected with the joints, so it is necessary to ensure that the joints are not damaged, since then after they are damaged it will be very problematic to exercise.

As you already understand, the most common movements of antagonists include flexion and extension.

How to train?

Training this muscle group is much simpler than you might think at first. But in order for the exercises to be easy for you, you need to remember a few simple rules on how to properly train antagonist muscles:

1. You need to train the muscles one at a time. For example, on one day the exercises are aimed at strengthening the arms, and on the second – on the legs, and so on.
2. Pay attention to all muscle groups, because if you do the opposite, such an approach will negatively affect the overall harmonious appearance of your body.
3. The training course must be selected individually for each person.

Exercises

Arm muscles:

• Take it from below, place your hands the width of your shoulders, and place the support on your hips. Now, slowly, lift the barbell towards your chest (it is advisable not to bend your elbows), and now we also slowly lower the barbell. To consolidate the result, perform several approaches;
• We return to the starting point, lift the barbell and hold at the top point and tense the biceps, then slowly lower the barbell to the starting position, without throwing it at all.

Leg muscles:

• Lie on the machine on your stomach, and place your ankles under the lever of the mechanism (your legs should be in a completely flat position);
• Bend your legs to the maximum;
• Now slowly lower our legs to the starting position;

  Advice: a very common mistake when performing this exercise is that the torso comes off the bench and all the benefits of the workout come to almost nothing. Therefore, to avoid such a situation when training your legs, you need to hold on to the legs of the machine and then your torso will be in the maximum required position.

• This exercise is performed at maximum with full range of motion.

The standard exercise, or as it is otherwise called, the leg press, is performed quite easily:

• The feet are placed on the platform at the width of your shoulders; for comfortable wearing, you need to turn them slightly outward;
• We rest our back completely against the back of the machine, squeeze the platform itself by lowering the locking lever using up and down movements;
• We grab the handles with our hands (they are located on the sides at shoulder height). This gives stability to your body, which makes performing the exercise much easier;
• After we are convinced that we are in a comfortable and stable position, we need to slowly lower the platform down, bending our knees at an obtuse angle;

  It is important to know: During this exercise, the pelvis should not “walk”. That is, the back and buttocks are in the same position as they were at the very beginning.

• We squeeze the weight completely to the maximum (do this until the lifting is smooth) up and then smoothly lower it;
• Now you can rest a little (no more than 1 minute), let the muscles get used to the load placed on them. Then it is advisable to consolidate the effect by doing several more approaches as many times as possible.

Pectoral muscles:

• We set the back of the bench on which you will practice at a level of 40 degrees;
• We lie down on a bench, place our feet shoulder-width apart (we place the main emphasis on them), and press the rest of the body completely against the same bench;
• We take the barbell and push it to the top as much as possible, while remembering to breathe correctly;
• After you have done the bench press, exhale and slowly lower the barbell, keeping your elbows completely unbent, since your arms should be in constant tension;

Advice: the bar needs to be lowered as close as possible to the chest, and then the weight is suddenly lifted to the top, almost with a jerk.

Back muscles:

• In order to maximally pump your back, you need to hang on the bar, and your arms should be completely relaxed. Now, from this position you need to pull yourself up until your chest touches the bar;

It is important to know: You will be surprised, but the greater the load on the bar, the more the back muscles will be pumped, since the load will be evenly distributed throughout the back. Otherwise, the entire load will go to the triceps and it will pump up, but the back will remain in this state. So, watch this carefully.

For every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. This is true for muscles too. Perhaps the biggest misunderstanding about how skeletal muscle functions concerns its specific role. Most people think that muscles have one specific role and that they always perform only that specific role. This is wrong. Muscles must work together to produce different movements and the role of a particular muscle could change depending on the movement. Muscles are located in groups: agonists, antagonists and synergists, which produce and modulate movement.

The most important aspect in understanding how muscles function to create joint movement is synergy. Synergy means that two or more units work together to achieve a result. Working together the whole result will be greater than the sum of the individual effects of the agents involved. Even the simplest joint movement requires muscles to work together in this synergistic or cooperative manner. When a group of organs work together to optimally perform a given motor task, it is called muscle synergy.

Typically, contractile organs that are directly involved in creating a certain joint movement are called agonists and those that are indirectly associated with some other role are called synergists. However, even if the muscle acts directly adding its own torque to the movement of the joint, it can still be correctly called a “synergist”. Other muscles, such as stabilizers, neutralizers, and fixators, which aid movement by counteracting unwanted movement or helping stabilize a joint are also synergistic.

Synergists and antagonists: an interesting explanation with examples awaits on the lines below.

Antagonists

Antagonist - able to resist joint movement, creating a torque that is opposite certain joint action. Typically this contractile organ is located on the opposite side of the joint from the agonist. The triceps is the antagonist for elbow flexion and it would also be correct to say that the triceps is the antagonist for the biceps and vice versa.

Antagonists and synergists

Explanation using the example of the main pairs of antagonists:

Imagine how you move your hand. If you bend your elbow, one muscle will stretch to lift your arm. The other muscle works in tandem, relaxing and balancing the first. When you relax your hand, the muscles take on opposite functions to straighten the arm. These opposites are called agonistic muscles or organs that contract and produce movement through compression.

Antagonist muscles, in turn, are muscles that provide the opposite of the movement of agonists. Sometimes antagonistic muscles control and slow down movement opposite its agonist partner, while in other situations it can be an antagonist during a certain movement. The terms agonist and antagonist do not define the properties of the muscle. They apply to organs that contract depending on whether the muscle makes a movement.

When you contract your biceps and muscles to flex your arm, the biceps is doing the primary movement and is therefore the agonist. There is another muscle on the underside of the shoulder called the triceps. Triceps in this case is an antagonistic muscle, relaxes and provides control of movement while the biceps performs the main contraction and movement. The antagonist in the human body, like the antagonist in a novel, works opposite to the protagonist, which in this case is the agonist muscle that undertakes the main action of movement.

There are several other examples of antagonistic muscles in the body. The first example is quite simple: what happens if we extend our arm and relax so that it is straight? The biceps are responsible for this. But how did the biceps become an antagonist when it was an agonist in the first example? When we have two muscles When performing opposite actions, muscles change from agonist to antagonist depending on who is performing the action. Which muscle performed the pulling action to extend the arm? Triceps! This makes the triceps the agonist when you extend your arm straight. And, at the same time, the biceps becomes an antagonist for this particular action.

What other illustrations of antagonistic muscles can be found throughout the body? There are antagonists in our legs, such as the gastrocnemius, large muscle. The muscles that stretch to bend the leg at the knee are agonists, and become antagonists when the leg is straightened.

Examples of the main pairs of synergist muscles:

1. Back – biceps.
2. Triceps are the pectoral muscles.
3. Legs - buttocks.

Synergist muscles help neutralize additional movement from agonists to ensure that the force generated operates within the desired plane of movement. They stabilize muscle movements and save them. By working synergistically, muscles also reduce the amount of work they have to do, which can improve endurance.

Sometimes synergistic muscles also form part of the fixator group and are necessary to facilitate fixation. Extremely important to use These braces are used to secure certain joints so that others can move effectively. For example, fixing the wrists while fully bending the fingers into a fist.

Synergistic muscles include the trapezius and deltoid for arm raises, the gluteal contractors during running, and the posterior deltoid and biceps brachii for rowing.

Example two muscle synergists working independently: when developing only the biceps, your rear deltoid will not be a significant load bearer, as in the rowing movement.

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Athletes who engage in bodybuilding know that there are synergistic and antagonistic muscles. Many training programs are built with this division in mind. In this article we will try to figure out which muscles are classified as synergists and which ones are antagonists, and what the difference is.

Antagonists

Athletes use this term to refer to the so-called joint flexors and extensors. Antagonist muscles create opposite effects for each other. How does this work in practice? During classes, the trainer will tell you how to properly tense your muscles. The antagonists work in turns. That is, during a certain exercise, one muscle is always working, and the second is at rest or in a state of slight static tension. Thus, during training you can work the muscles in pairs. The only thing you need to pay attention to is the restorative ability of the antagonists.

Antagonist muscles. Examples

They perform anatomical functions opposite to each other. All this happens within one movement. For example, the pectoral muscles perform pressing exercises, and the back muscles perform traction exercises.

Training systems take into account the ideal combination of antagonists, so training in such programs is more effective. Split schemes also take into account the basics of such division. Antagonist muscles are actively used in bodybuilding, examples:

• Quadriceps and hamstrings.
• Back and chest.
• Biceps and triceps.

The latter work on a simple principle. The triceps extends the joint of the arm, and the biceps, on the contrary, bends. The same thing happens with the legs. The hamstrings flex the leg and the quadriceps extend the leg. The back and chest are also antagonistic muscles. They provide pressing and pulling movements.

There are a number of additional muscles:

• Lower back and abs.
• Chest and rear deltas.
• Back and middle or front deltas.

A striking example is the temporal antagonist muscles. Their structure is studied at school. They perform the chewing function by raising and lowering the jaws. The principle is approximately the same as in the case of biceps and triceps.

Synergistic muscles

Synergistic and antagonistic muscles should be known to all athletes who want to achieve the desired result with less effort. There are significant differences between these muscle groups. Synergists act unidirectionally. Even in different exercises, they contract the muscles in the same way. Antagonists do the opposite.

Synergists work according to this principle: large muscle groups come into motion together with minor ones. Athletes call them small. We are talking about multi-joint exercises in which all muscles are involved. There are three pairs of synergistic muscles:

• Buttocks and legs.
• Biceps and latissimus dorsi muscles.
• Chest and triceps.

Effective training. Where to begin?

Trainers still argue about what is the most effective way to train and what programs to use. Based on terminology, antagonist muscles are muscles that act in opposite directions. This means that the movements of the antagonists are proportionate and smoother. Therefore, many athletes advise training these muscles first. As practice shows, all split schemes are strictly individual. It is difficult to say which workout will be more effective for a particular person. Many experiments have been conducted to prove this statement. Here is one of them: two athletes were engaged in the same program, training antagonist muscles. They spent the same time on exercise, rest, and the time interval between approaches was the same. As a result, progress was obvious in one, while minor improvements were noticed in the second athlete. Therefore, it can be concluded that the ability to recover varies among people. And in this case we are not talking about rest and sleep. Athletes have different hormonal backgrounds and individual rates of muscle fiber and glycogen recovery. That is, the athlete who had unnoticeable results during antagonist training should switch to training on synergistic muscles.

Programming

To competently create a training program, you need to understand your predisposition. That is, which activities are most effective. Once you determine what is more important to you - antagonists or synergists, you can create a sequence of exercises.

The classic split scheme begins with training large muscle groups. First, the latissimus dorsi, hamstrings, chest and quadriceps muscles are pumped. It is better to set aside a separate day for leg exercises. Training a synergist is impossible without working out the secondary muscle, and as a rule, it quickly becomes clogged. Trainers advise doing such exercises at the end of classes. For example, a tired triceps will not allow you to effectively do the chest press, and the biceps will not allow you to work the latissimus dorsi muscles.

It is better to train antagonists one by one. At the beginning of the week, it is better to devote yourself to the muscles of your back, legs and chest. At the end of the week, it is more advisable to train your biceps and triceps. To work out each muscle bundle, you can do it every day, dividing the days of the week into antagonist training.

Application in bodybuilding

As mentioned above, antagonistic muscles are muscles that do not interfere with each other during training. This significantly increases the intensity and effectiveness of training. For example, if you trained your chest muscles, your back muscles will not be affected.

In bodybuilding, they use some kind of supersets - combined exercises. That is, when working with antagonists, you can easily perform isolated exercises for biceps and triceps.

Athletes using a system of strength training, as a rule, achieve great results. However, this is not a mandatory condition. Determine your predisposition, and only after that start practicing. It is best to consult with a trainer who will help you create an individual split scheme specifically for your body. Don't forget that any effective workout requires balanced nutrition and rest.

Antagonist muscles are muscle groups or muscles that perform opposite anatomical functions. For example, the back muscles perform traction movements, and the chest muscles perform pressing movements. All this happens within the framework of one anatomical movement, with the only difference being that the position of the body in space changes while the force vector remains unchanged.

In bodybuilding, antagonist muscles play a very important role, since split training schemes are built on their basis. This is due to the fact that these muscles are ideally combined with each other and can be effectively trained in one day.

Examples of antagonist muscles

Without understanding which muscles are antagonistic, it is almost impossible to correctly create a split scheme, and with it a training program. Let's look at examples of these muscle groups.

Main antagonist muscles:

• Biceps + triceps: biceps flexes the arm, triceps – extends;
• Chest + back: the chest is responsible for pressing movements, the back is responsible for traction movements;
• Hamstrings + Quadriceps: The femoral biceps flexes the leg, the quadriceps extends.

Additional antagonist muscles:

• Front/middle deltas + back
• Rear deltoids + chest
• Abs + lower back

Application in bodybuilding

Thanks to antagonist muscles, you can significantly increase the intensity and effectiveness of your workout, since these muscles do not interfere with each other, even when performing heavy basic exercises on them within the same workout.

For example, after completing a heavy workout on the pectoral muscles, you can easily proceed to the same heavy workout on your back. At the same time, the intensity of the back exercises will not be affected in any way. This is a classic example of the benefits of training antagonist muscles.

Another example. Try combining, for example, training your back and biceps in the same way. Or back and leg muscles. You will immediately feel that after doing back exercises, the intensity of your biceps or legs workout has dropped significantly.

Another advantage of antagonist muscles is their ability to combine into. For example, try combining isolated biceps and triceps exercises into a superset. Despite the apparent severity of such a workout, you will complete it without any problems. However, the situation will be exactly the opposite if you decide to combine, for example, an exercise for biceps and back into a superset.

Thus, antagonist muscles play an important role in strength training. If you are still not using their benefits in your sports practice, try it. You will immediately feel a significant increase in intensity, and with it a faster increase in strength and muscle mass.

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