If you’re looking to build muscle, increase strength, and save time in the gym, it’s time to take advantage of one of the most effective yet underused training methods: antagonist training.

This powerful approach to strength training uses opposing muscle groups—also known as antagonistic pairs—to create balanced workouts that improve performance and reduce training time.

Whether you’re an athlete, bodybuilder, or just trying to break through a plateau, integrating push-pull workouts into your routine can offer fast and noticeable results.

Antagonist Training Explained

Antagonist training leverages the natural mechanics of human movement, which is governed by the interaction of opposing muscle groups.

For every muscle that contracts (called the agonist), there’s an opposing muscle (called the antagonist) that relaxes or controls the movement.

This set of muscles that work against each other to allow movement and control (e.g., chest and back, quads and hamstrings) are know as an antagonistic pair.

How Antagonist Training Works

By pairing opposing muscles in a single session—such as performing a bench press (chest) followed by a barbell row (back)—you stimulate more muscle fibres, create better balance, and prime the nervous system for stronger contractions.

Benefits of Antagonist Training:

  1. Increased Power and Performance: Activating an antagonist muscle before its pair can improve the motor-unit recruitment of the agonist. In simpler terms, working the opposing muscle group primes your nervous system to make the following movement stronger and more explosive.
  2. Reduced Muscular Resistance: Fatiguing the antagonist muscle slightly decreases its ability to resist the following movement. This allows for greater force output during the concentric (lifting) phase of your main exercise.
  3. Time-Efficient Workouts: Instead of training one muscle group at a time, antagonist training allows you to alternate between pairs with minimal rest, making your workouts shorter but more effective.
  4. Greater Training Volume: This method allows you to train muscle groups more than once a week if your workout split is structured correctly, helping you achieve faster gains in strength and size.

Common Antagonistic Muscle Pairings

A basic antagonist training split will normally look something like this:

  • Day 1 – Chest and back
  • Day 2 – Quads and hamstrings
  • Day 3 – Shoulders and traps
  • Day 4 – Biceps and triceps

So, if you’re looking for a new addition to your workout, to help build muscle and strength, improve performance and give your muscles a much needed kick in the belly, why not add one of our antagonist training routines to your programme?