antagonistic pairings

[dp1727]

can someone please help me out to understand what antagonistic pairings are? thank you

[karky]

you pair exercises that uses "oposite" musclegroups. For example upper back and chest. You could do bendt over rows and pair them with bench press.
Military press and pullups.. etc. catch my drift?

[dp1727]

thank you. is it only for supersets or even just when completing 1 exercise (all sets) before starting another, but making the next exercise antagonistic. thank you again.

[JoshDunn]

Doesn't necessarly have to be in a superset, or even in the same session but over a week there needs to be a balance.

[Lost Dog]

The common reason for antogonistic supersets is to take advantage of reciprocal innervation.

This is an effect that shuts off (or down) the opposite muscle group to allow another to work. Your pecs and triceps are firing in the bench press, so your back and biceps must relax. Then, you go to a row, which uses your back and biceps. This forces your pecs and tris to relax.

However, this "forced" relaxation allows you to recover faster than you would just sitting there and relaxing. You can either shorten you workout time, or lift heavier, depending on how you structure the timing of the superset.

No supersets
Set 1 of bench press, 2 minutes rest
Set 2 of bench press, 2 minutes rest
Set 3 of bench press, 2 minutes rest
Set 1 of row, 2 minutes rest
Set 2 of row, 2 minutes rest
Set 3 of row

10 minutes of rest, plus time to change exercises (1 minute?), plus lifting time

Superset 1 of bench press and row, 2 minutes rest
Superset 2 of bench press and row, 2 minutes rest
Superset 3 of bench press and row

4 minutes of rest time, plus time to move between exercises (2-4 minutes?), plus lifting time

In this example, the chest actually gets more than 2 minutes rest while you do your rows, so you can lift a little heavier and save time. Or, shorten the rests a bit more if you don't want to get too huge.

So, we're talking a minor time saving, in the example (3 minutes, maybe), but you also lift heavier in that example. Bonus.

[karky]

question:
can you also go like this

Bench press 1 min rest
row 1 min rest
bench press 1 min rest
row 1 min rest

etc. Thats the way i do it, instead of doing straight sets with 2 min rest between.

[JoshDunn]

Thats actually what Roland wrote.

[karky]

You sure? maybe i read it wrong..
I thought he meant doing one set of bench, then right after one set of row THEN 2 minnutes rest..

[Lost Dog]

You're both right. In my mind, I didn't care. But there is a subtle difference.

A1 bench, rest 1
A2 row, rest 1

or

A1, bench, rest 0
A2, row, rest 2

I've seen articles that insist that it's important to do them one way or another, but I don't see how it could make any real difference. It's only important to pick one way and stick with it for the whole program.

Your way might be more precise, in the sense that you can really manage the total rest time. If you had a watch, and checked it as you racked the bb from the bench, you could start your 1 minute right then. So, your time to change exercises would not be counted, since it's part of the rest time.

As long as you always do it the same way, you're fine. If you start off with 2 minute after both, you really have 2.5-3 minutes. If you switched to 1 minute afer each, you'd drop your total rest (from bench to bench) to 2 minutes. You'd shortchange yourself compared to the last week, and be able to lift less weight.

[karky]

yeah i guess your right, consistency is always key.