The best muscle activations

Before you strengthen, activate. Like stretches, muscle activation drills increase the flow of blood and nutrients to your muscles to improve flexibility. They also fire up your nervous system.

By applying a low level of resistance to your muscles, activations make the neurons that control them more sensitive. That way, when you get into the meat of your strength workout, those muscles automatically fire with greater intensity than they would have if you had gone straight into your strength sets.

“Muscle activation steps up your workouts,” says Equinox group fitness instructor Kristin Osbon in Orange County, California. She explains that, by performing targeted activation drills prior to workouts, exercisers are unlocking their muscles’ full potential. As a result, they reap greater strength and conditioning benefits.

However, standard activations like fire hydrants, donkey kicks, and arm circles get boring fast. That’s one reason Osborn’s workouts and classes combine dynamic, compound movements, often with resistance bands, to keep things interesting. They’re also more effective because they sync up multiple muscles or even groups of muscles at once.

Here, Osborn shares the best activations for every body part. Before your strength workouts, perform 1 to 2 sets of 10 to 15 reps of each exercise, with a goal of hitting a rate of perceived exertion of 6 to 7 (on a scale of 1 to 10). Maintain total-body tension and mentally focus on engaging your working muscles throughout each activation. Ideally, release and stretch body parts before you activate them.

In addition to the below combinations, it’s beneficial to do both pushing and pulling activations before upper-body workouts and at least one activation per body part before total-body routines.