As one of the busiest men in Hollywood, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is the epitome of health and strength. Recently, The Rock shared his brutal leg day workout on Instagram and underlined the importance of training smarter, not harder.
Working out at his gym “Iron Paradise”, The Rock maintains an impressive level of fitness year-round. He has amassed widespread attention on social media with taxing workouts. One such routine is nicknamed “The Walk of Hell” and The Rock swears by it. Lifting 120lb chains around his neck, the Hollywood star performs weighted lunges when he needs a high-intensity workout.
The Rock revealed that he was forced to gain weight for his role in DC’s Black Adam. He described the process as physically demanding but is pleased to have taken away some lessons in proper dieting and exercise. Leg days are sometimes dreaded by even the toughest of athletes, so The Rock prepares accordingly by utilizing a power and strength diet. Johnson prefers to enter the gym with his nutrition locked in and accomplishes that by eating a meal consisting of steak, eggs, oatmeal, and 5 PB&Js,
The Rock Advocates for Slow & Controlled Reps
The Rock posted on Instagram late Sunday and gave his fanbase a taste of the arduous leg day workout.
“Absolutely brutal leg training today but, always grateful to put the work in and do my best to raise my personal bar.
You’ll see the weight I use is never an insanely heavy amount.
Tons of guys who are WAY stronger than I am, but because of all my injuries (5 knee surgeries, ruptured Achilles, torn quadricep off my pelvis, torn abdomen wall, complete shoulder reconstruction etc)
I’ve learned it’s not how much weight we use, but rather the quality of the reps and mind/muscle connection that matters most.Todays training sesh consisted of a 25-30min warm up – core work, foam roller, stretching and then quad, hams & glute activation – leg extensions, leg curls, glute abductions and single leg glute drives.
Then GIANT SETS begin.
*4-5 sets of 4-5 exercises per set.
Rep range 15-20.
No rest between exercises.Slow, intense, controlled reps with multi second negatives – increasing weight every set.
Single leg reps to double leg and moving foot positions and stance to hit all angles and muscles effectively.
To close it out I’ll finish with walking chain⛓ lunges (120lbs) to failure and superset with Romanian deadlifts.
Slow and super controlled on the deadlifts with a 1 second pause at the bottom.
Leg training complete.
Brutal.
Truth is, over the years I’ve actually learned to train HARDER.
But, in order to train harder, I had to learn how to train SMARTER.
That’s a key 🔑 to fitness success.
Hardest workers in the room, win the race.
Smartest workers in the room, win the journey.
You guys keep gettin’ after your health & fitness goals – and I always got your back.
It’s cheat meal time!!! 🙋🏽♂️😈” The Rock shared.
The Rock starts with a 30-minute warm-up which includes stretching and foam rolling, core work, as well as activation exercises like leg extensions, leg curls, glute abductions, and single-leg glute drives to prime the body for physical activity.
Following the warm-up, giant sets, all in the 15 to 20 rep range, are performed a total of 5 times. The workout is finished with his signature walking weighted lunges which are supersetted with slowed-down Romanian deadlifts with a 1-second pause at the bottom of each rep. A proponent of slow and controlled reps, The Rock emphasizes safe lifting after being injured several times in the past at the gym.
RELATED: The Rock Reveals His Chest and Tricep Workout To Get Into Superhero Shape For ‘Black Adam’
Johnson maintains that the quality of reps and muscle/mind connection are important aspects to getting a good pump. The famous actor doesn’t concern himself with the amount of weight as he did before and places more importance on completing proper reps to ensure muscle growth.
By increasing time under tension, The Rock is garnering results despite lifting a lighter amount of weight.
