7 by plankpilates Your body, like most things in nature, strives for balance. Your muscles are arranged in pairs so this can happen naturally. Each muscle in a pair, when they’re in action, is named either the agonist or antagonist. The agonist is the prime muscle working in a particular exercise or movement. It’s this muscle that creates an action. The antagonist is the muscle that’s directly opposing the agonist muscle. As the agonist contracts, the antagonist relaxes. A really good example of this is a bicep curl. You know ‘em. You love (or maybe dread?) ‘em. When the bicep (front of the arm) engages, the tricep (back of the arm) relaxes. These two muscles are considered a muscle pair, but their roles are not always the same. When you do a tricep extension to contract the back of the arm, the bicep relaxes. In this situation the tricep is now the agonist and the bicep has become the antagonist. This may be confusing in theory, but if you try either one of these exercises, you’ll fully understand the concept just by feeling where the muscles are engaging and relaxing, respectively. Image Since muscles work in pairs, it’s important that each muscle’s strength and flexibility is balanced. Let’s think about the upper leg. If you have tight hamstrings and weak thighs, there is an imbalance going on. Many people believe that stretching, stretching, stretching, is one of the only things you can do to get a muscle to open, but strengthening the antagonist of the muscle that is tight will further release the tight muscle. In the case of the upper leg, strengthening the quad will allow for the hamstring to release tension. The burden of muscle action is more equally distributed between the muscle pair. The tight muscle can work less with the help of the newly strong antagonist. Next time you’re in class think about this concept. Feel which muscle you’re working, and then think about which muscle is being released in opposition of the working muscle. You’ll be able to think about opening antagonist muscles instead of just powering through the agonist muscle burn.
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:43:02 +0000