The agonist muscles moves the body part from one position and the antagonist works to return the part to that same, beginning position. In other words, the agonist muscles contract while the antagonist muscles are fairly relaxed. Examples of opposing muscles are the biceps and triceps. For example, during a bicep curl, the bicep is the agonist because it is the one contracting during the movement; since the triceps stay fairly relaxed, they are the antagonists. On the other hand, triceps during a “tricep extension” are the agonists while the biceps are the antagonists. Some of the benefits to this sub-method is that it allows the athlete to use additional weight or increase repetitions, which may actually increase muscular endurance. When two exercises are done to only work one particular muscle, the athlete is adopting the agonist super set sub-method. Normally, the agonist superset includes both an isolated and compound movement. When the isolated movement precedes the compound movement in rapid succession, it is known as a pre-exhaust superset. Pre-Exhaust Super Sets An example of a pre-exhaust superset is doing traditional leg extensions (isolated) and deadlifts (compound) in order to really work the hamstrings. But, just like there is the pre-exhaust sub-method, method, there is also the post-exhaust method. It is very similar to the pre-exhaust method except the compound exercise is done first and the isolated exercise second. Super sets are not limited to only two exercises per muscle or muscle pairs. When three or more exercises are used, the lifter is using the giant set sub-method of super sets. Normally, only four or five exercises are used to target a muscle group. An example of a giant set targeting the back include: lat pull-downs, dumbbell rows, and dumbbell pullovers. However, the giant set can be a combination of the agonist and antagonist sub-methods.
