What are agonist and antagonist, agonist antagonist and synergistic muscles

The agonists are most muscles or muscle groups that are directly related to the starting point and execution of a particular action. For example, when doing a dumbbell curl, the biceps brachii contract hard to curl the dumbbell, then the biceps brachii is called the active muscle of the dumbbell to complete the action.

Antagonist muscles are a part of the human muscle, also known as antagonist muscles. It is a muscle that is located on the opposite side of the prime mover (actor) and relaxes and elongates at the same time during the contraction of the prime mover (agonist).

The agonist muscle is also called the "prime mover muscle". A group of muscle groups that the human body moves. It is a muscle group that directly completes the action. For example, holding dumbbells with both arms curl (elbow flexion.

The movement of the brachii muscles, biceps brachii of the arms.

The brachioradialis and pronator teres muscles are the active muscles of curls.

In the completion of the "curl", in addition to the above-mentioned muscles to participate in the work, the brachioradialis muscle, pronator teres and so on also play an auxiliary role. The muscles that play a supporting role are called "collateral muscles" or "secondary moving muscles". It is also a type of agonist muscle.

The antagonist and agonist muscles act in contrast to the muscles that oppose the direct completion of the action. Such as the triceps brachii in the "curl" of both arms.

The elbow muscles, etc., are antagonistic muscles. When the agonist muscles contract, the antagonist muscles naturally relax and relax, assisting the agonists to complete the coordination from the opposite side. In addition to coordinating and relaxing, the antagonist muscles also make appropriate contractions at the end of the movement to avoid joint damage during some intense and rapid movements.

In fitness movements, almost all movements are made of active muscles, antagonist muscles, and synergistic muscles, through the combination of these three muscle groups, resulting in a variety of training methods, but also due to the active muscle plexus resistance, antagonist muscles and synergistic muscles misuse, resulting in compensatory effects, not training to the correct muscle groups, but also cause injury, but also outweigh the loss. For these three muscles, there is no fixed muscle group that is an agonist muscle or which muscle is an antagonist muscle, but a muscle group used is determined by motor movements, whether the muscle group used is an agonist, antagonist, or synergistic muscle. When the agonist muscle is contracted, the assembled anti-muscle will relax, and conversely, when the agonist muscle is relaxed, the antagonist muscle will contract, and it is also because of the interaction of these two muscles that the human body can produce such a variety of movements.

Fundamentally put, when the target muscle group for today's training is the quadriceps muscles to do leg flexion and extension, the quadriceps muscles are our active muscles, and in training, the quadriceps muscles are mainly used to do the action, or the muscles to be trained are our active muscles. Antagonist muscles are relatively the muscles on the back of the agonist muscles, when the target group of today's training is the quadriceps, the biceps femoris is our antagonist muscle, in training, when the quadriceps muscles are relaxed, the biceps femoris will contract, and through this contraction action to help stabilize the speed and angle of the agonist muscles. Synergistic muscles are agonist muscles that are used to help the agonists maintain movement or balance during exercise.

When using the quadriceps muscles to do leg curls and extensions, the other leg muscles are called synergistic muscles, and the muscles of the other legs are used to stabilize and support them. All training movements are coordinated by these three muscles, so it is necessary for them to train and stretch, and can not omit the exercise of any muscle, when these three muscles are unbalanced, it is easy to generate pressure in the weaker muscles, be injured or muscle tightness. If you can understand these three muscles before exercising, it can be helpful for later training or sports performance, so as to reduce the occurrence of sports injuries.