Having trouble wrapping my brain around this basic concept.
Where I’m getting caught up is that I understand that muscles can only pull, not push. And it has something to do with antagonist/agonist Muscle pairs. So if muscles can’t push, then how am I able to do a pushup? All explanations I can find are going right over my head.
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Some other terminology that may help you understand better is that muscles either contract or they relax. Ignore pull/push. And there are various types of contraction. In a pushup (and only considering the tricep movement in this example), you are performing a *concentric* contraction as you overcome gravity or raise yourself up. As you lower yourself you are still performing a contraction in the triceps called an *eccentric* contraction (as you resist gravity). Ignoring the chest/shoulders, your tricep is the agonist because it is the Prime Mover in the exercise. As you probably know the bicep is the antagonist to the tricep and it typically relaxes to let the triceps do their work (although it may not fully relax as during certain movements an antagonist acts to slow down a movement).
[https://www.ptdirect.com/training-design/anatomy-and-physiology/skeletal-muscle-roles-and-contraction-types](https://www.ptdirect.com/training-design/anatomy-and-physiology/skeletal-muscle-roles-and-contraction-types)
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