What do to before starting a workout?

Your nervous system controls your muscles. Problem is, many of us walk into the gym in a daze, either straight from work or right out of bed. If you're half asleep, so is your nervous system. This severely impedes your ability to generate maximum force with each exercise.

A lazy nervous system keeps you from recruiting more muscle fibers. There's an easy fix to this problem. Before you get to your main workout, fire up your nervous system using these exercises:

1. Jump rope for 1 minute. Rest for 15 seconds.

2. Run at top speed for 10 seconds or perform maximal bodyweight jump squats for 10 seconds. Rest 15 seconds.

3. Hang from a pull-up bar for 15 seconds. This series should only take only two minutes.

The first two movements wake up your nervous system and the hang will open the intervertebral space in your spinal column to free up nerve transmissions to your muscles. Do it before every workout and you'll see results.