I must have been in the gym ten billion times working out. I just love to work out. I am bursting with vital energy and I have release that energy in physical activity.

Over the years and in my many billion workouts, I notice that sometimes I'm stronger and sometimes I'm weaker.

It only took me about 10 years in the gym to figure out why I'm strong as an ox sometimes and as weak as a kitten other times…

I'm a big believer in learning through experience, so I always pay attention to what I'm doing and how I'm feeling doing it,

Through experience, trial, and error I have learned one fool-proof way to instantly get stronger for any workout at any time.

In this article I will show you my secret tip for instantly getting stronger in the gym.

When I say you will instantly get stronger I mean YOU WILL INSTANTLY GET STRONGER!

I am not saying you will go from being Bruce Banner to being the Incredible Hulk, and I am not saying you will go from being Dr. Jeckyll to Mr. Hyde.

But I AM saying you will go from being regular you to strong you.

If you normally do 185 lbs for reps in the bench press and it feels hard, after you follow my secret strength tip 185 lbs will feel light.

If you normally use 150 lbs in the lat pulldown and it feels hard, after you use my secret strength tip 150 lbs will feel light.

If you normally squat 315 lbs and it feels heavy, after you use my secret strength tip that 315 lbs will feel light.

Follow my strength tip and all of your old “hard” weight sill seem light!

This strength tip works all of the time and anyone can do it…

How do you actually get stronger for you workouts?

Instantly getting stronger has nothing to do with food, stimulants, steroids, or supplements.

Getting instantly stronger has everything to do with “activating your strength.”

When I activate my strength I am instantly stronger for my entire workout.

What does “activating your strength” mean?

Well, it is very simple…

The human body has two very big muscle groups. These two muscle groups are the biggest muscle groups in the human body.

One muscle group is in the upper body and one muscle group is in the lower body.

At the beginning of a hard workout I will do certain exercises that will pump up the biggest muscle groups in my body.

When your biggest muscle groups are pumped you will have the power of those muscle groups helping you in your other exercises.

When these muscle groups are filled with blood and pumped, your entire body will become stronger instantly.

If you're training your upper body then you want to first activate the upper body muscle group.

If you're training your lower body then you want to first activate your lower body muscle group.

What are the two biggest muscle groups in the human body?

The biggest muscle groups in the human body are the 2 most neglected muscle groups…

The Traps & The Glutes

The traps are the biggest muscle group in the upper body. The glutes are the biggest muscle group in the lower body.

Traps and glutes are the BIGGEST muscle groups in the human body and they are the most NEGLECTED muscle groups in the human body.

If you make the 2 biggest muscles in your body stronger, what do you think happens to the rest of your body? It gets stronger!

When you pay attention to these muscle groups you will have no choice but to get stronger.

TRAPS

The traps are the most neglected muscle group in the upper body and they are the largest muscle group in the upper body.

You will find many men training their bis and tris and ignoring the source of their upper body power - the traps.

For your upper boy to instantly be stronger, you need to warmup your traps before you do your upper body workout.

*The lats may technically be bigger in size than the traps, but the traps are the upper body power muscle. The traps can handle enormous amounts of weight, much more than the lats can handle.

GLUTES

The glutes are the largest muscle group in the entire human body and they are the most neglected muscle group in the body.

All power comes from the glutes. When the glutes are trained, warm, and pumped up you will instantly be stronger in all of your lifts, especially in your lower body lifts.

To get stronger in your lower body workouts, you need to first warmup and train your glutes.

Here is the exact way you will instantly become stronger in the gym…

To get stronger in any workout, you will warm up your biggest muscle groups at the very beginning of your workout.

Remember:

• The biggest muscle group in the upper body are the traps.
• The biggest muscle group in the lower body are the glutes.

Before your upper body workout you will warm-up your traps.

Let's say you want to do a big chest workout and you want to break your bench press personal record. Let's say you plan to do 4 sets of flat bench press, 4 sets of incline bench press, and 4 sets of dumbbell flies.

Normally you would go to the gym and jump on the bench press, ignoring the other muscles in the upper body. You might be strong, but you absolutely will not be your strongest.

Without the strongest and seemingly invisible muscles trained and activated, it just isn't possible to be your strongest.

Here is what you do to activate your total upper body strength…

Before any big upper body workout that you want to be stronger for, start your workout with 4-6 sets of behind the back barbell shrugs.

Behind the back barbell shrugs are the best exercise for the traps.

After 4-6 sets of behind the back barbell shrugs, your traps will be strong and pumped, your strength will be activated, and you will be stronger in all of your other lifts.

Try it for yourself, next time you want to up your bench press number, do behind the back barbell shrugs first thing in the gym. Start with the empty bar to warmup, then do 4 sets with increasing weight.

For example: 135 lbs, 165 lbs, 195 lbs, 225 lbs. Focus on getting a full range of motion and warming up the entire trapezius muscle.

Then move on to your bench press and you will be amazed at how strong you actually are now that your biggest muscle groups are activated.

How to perform behind the back barbell shrugs

In this video starting at 5:25, Lee Haney will show you how to correctly perform behind the back barbell shrugs.

Before your lower body workout you will warm-up your glutes.

A normal lower body work would look like this: 4 sets of squats, 4 sets of leg press, 4 sets of leg extensions, and 4 sets of leg curls.

Where is the glute training in there? Nowhere to be found.

Glute training is almost never done but if you want to instantly be stronger for your lower body workout, this is what you will do…

Before any big lower body workout, start your workout with 4-6 sets of barbell hip thrusts.

Barbell hip thrusts will directly stimulate and pump your glutes.

With pumped glutes you will be instantly stronger for any lower body lift.

I have found barbell hip thrusts to be the #1 way to stimulate and pump up the glutes. You will want to go a little heavy on this lift because the glutes are so big that light weights will do nothing for them.

I will do my barbell glute thrusts like this:

• 1st set - 135 lbs, 15 reps
• 2nd set - 225 lbs, 12 reps
• 3rd & 4th set - 315 lbs, 10-12 reps

After 4 sets of barbell hip thrusts at a mildly heavy weight I am perfectly ready for any other lower body exercise. After the glutes are pumped, all other weight just seems easy.

If 315 lb squats were hard before warming up my glutes, they are now easy with the biggest muscles in the lower body pumped.

This video will show you how to perform barbell glute thrusts.

Full body workouts vs Body-part split training

You can use this strength technique in both body-part split training and in full body training.

It makes no difference what your split is, when you pump your traps or glutes first you WILL be stronger for the remainder of your training.

Here are some example routines:

CHEST

• Behind the back shrugs (4 sets of 10-15)
• Barbell bench press (4 sets of 8-12)
• Barbell incline press (4 sets of 8-12)
• Flat bench dumbbell flies (4 sets of 12-15)

BACK

• Behind the back shrugs (4 sets of 10-15)
• Bent rows (4 sets of 8-12)
• Lat pulldowns (4 sets of 10-12)
• Machine rows (4 sets of 10-15)

SHOULDERS

• Behind the back shrugs (4 sets of 10-15)
• Overhead barbell press (4 sets of 8-10)
• Dumbbell lateral raises (4 sets of 12-15)
• Rear delt dumbbell raises (4 sets of 12-15)

LEGS

• Barbell glute thrusts (4 sets of 10-15)
• Glute ham raises (4 sets to failure)
• Barbell squats (4 sets of 8-12)
• Leg press (4 sets of 15-20)
• Leg extension (4 sets of 15-20)
• Leg curl (4 sets of 15-20)

FULL UPPER BODY

• Behind the back barbell shrugs (4 sets of 10-15)
• Barbell bench press (3 sets of 8-12)
• Bent over barbell rows (3 sets of 8-12)
• Lateral dumbbell raises (3 sets of 10-15)
• Alternating dumbbell curls (3 sets of 10-15)
• Triceps extensions (3 sets of 10-15)
• Hammer curls (3 sets of 10-15)
• Barbell wrist curls (4 sets of 20)

FULL BODY WORKOUT

• Barbell glute thrusts (4 sets of 10-15)
• Behind the back barbell shrugs (4 sets of 10-15)
• Bent over barbell rows (3 sets of 8-12)
• Barbell bench press (3 sets of 8-12)
• Overhead barbell press (3 sets of 8-10)
• Barbell curls (3 sets of 8-12)
• Lying barbell triceps extensions (3 sets of 8-15)
• Glute ham raises (3 sets to failure)
• Barbell squats (3 sets of 8-15)
• Hamstring curls (3 sets of 12-15)

The Science of Strength Activation

The science of strength is very simple: to be stronger, warm up the largest muscle groups in your body.

Rather than focusing on small groups like bis, tris calves and deltoids, focus on the big ones first.

With the big muscles pumped, the small muscles instantly become stronger and can handle heavier weights with greater ease.

It can be a real pain adding all of the weight to the bar to perform behind the back shrugs and barbell hip thrusts.

But you know what they say: No pain = no gain.

Yes, it can be annoying to set up the lifts but the rewards of your newfound strength will far outweigh any mild annoyance.

Remember, it is not necessary to activate your strength before ALL of your workouts.

But…

If you're doing a heavy strength workout and want to be at your absolute strongest, you absolutely need to activate your strength at the beginning or your training session.

After you try it and see for yourself how strong you become, you will never go back.

Guaranteed!

Happy lifting and have a nice day.

-Victor Pride

PS - For more undiscovered fitness tips, including the secret of working out hard and not getting sore, and many great unknown exercises, check out Body of a Spartan. If you're a real hard-core gym rat, you will love it. If you're not a hard-core gym rat but want to be, you will love it too.

PPS - If you want to get REALLY strong, check out RED GROWTH.