Talk:Stretching

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This document was transfered from [Badmintology] by the original author --JoeWright 18:32, 24 April 2006 (CDT) and now serves as the sole source for the document, to be edited by the scientific community.

Agonist / antagonist

Some authors misuse the term "antagonist", in this context. Antagonist muscle means "the muscle that produces opposite effects". For instance, a flexor is antagonist relative to an extensor, and vice versa.

When we actively stretch a muscle, that muscle is agonist or antagonist? Some authors call it agonist. They are wrong. For instance, to stretch the hamstring, you need to extend the knee and flex the hip (the hamstring is biarticular). If you do that actively, you need to activate hip flexors and knee extensors (psoas, iliac, quadriceps). Since you flex the hip and extend the knee, and the hamstring, if contracted, does the opposite, the hamstring is the antagonist.

By the way, there's a stretching technique called CRAC (contract-relax, antagonist-contract). The name of this technique is correct, although "antagonist" does not refer to the muscle to be stretched. The stretched muscle, before being stretched is contracted, i.e, agonist. Hence, in this particular case, the opposite muscle can be considered to be antagonist, relative to the muscle to be stretched. This is just because the muscle to be stretched was initially contracted. Paolo de Leva 16:09, 31 March 2008 (CDT)