The Rock Shares the Toughest Workout of His Black Adam<\/em> Training
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is busy mixing up the biggest, baddest physique of his career—and, thankfully, he’s giving his massive Instagram audience a look at the recipe for some insight into what he’s doing. Yes, we can smell what The Rock is cooking: big ass muscles.
The superstar actor has opened up to his followers about his full training program for his debut superhero role in DC’s Black Adam, which he has repeatedly described as an opportunity to “raise the bar” for the comic book movie genre. Johnson has provided some of the details about what exactly constitutes his six-day per week split over a few Instagram videos, straight from his Iron Paradise gym, often drenched in sweat mid- or immediately post-workout.
Every day starts with cardio on an empty stomach first thing in the morning, followed by a strength training-focused session in the weight room later in the day (or often, late at night). Monday is dedicated to back and biceps, using supersets to add volume. Mid-week workouts (think: Wednesday) is all shoulders. Thursdays see another back and biceps session, this time adding tri-sets and giant sets for max efficiency. Fridays are focused on the chest and triceps, again using giant sets to pack in more work.
That’s a full slate for anyone, but the rest of the week only leads up to the toughest training day of them all: leg day. Unsurprisingly, The Rock doesn’t just follow the Gym Commandments and not skip out on training the lower body—he takes special care to give his legs extra attention, saving the muscle group for last.
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As expected, the workout sounds like an absolute leg demolisher. He listed out all of the individual movements in the post’s caption, then provided some extra context in the video. The routine looks similar to the workout his strength and conditioning coach, Dave Rienzi, broke down for us back in 2019. Johnson tagged Rienzi in the post and clarified that the coach designed this program, too.
Johnson starts with a 20 to 30 minute warmup and stretching session, which he says is especially important because “training legs requires ALL YA GOT!” The workout is also composed of giant sets, which means that he moves from exercise to exercise, back-to-back-to-back, with as little rest as possible.
For the leg press (a.k.a. the compound pressing movement), Johnson says that he prefers using a two-legged rig that allows him to alternate working sides in a ladder routine. From there, he moves on to walking lunges with two 50-pound chains. This is one of Johnson’s most consistent exercises—Rienzi said that he often uses drop sets during lunges, meaning that Johnson will shed one, then both chains as he keeps lunging. The goal is to exhaust muscles.
From there, Johnson moves on to squats. First, he uses a Pit Shark machine, which moves the load from a bar on the spine to a belt around his hips. This provides a different challenge—this type of machine is often used by athletes looking to squat heavy weight while removing strain on the spine. But immediately after that, he hits the rack to perform a more traditional barbell squat.
If you’re wondering what type of number The Rock is hitting once he goes under the bar, you might be surprised; Rienzi told us that the focus isn’t necessarily on big weights, since on-screen performance is the ultimate goal. “Because he’s an actor and he’s an action star, and his roles are very physical, I can’t structure out programs that are too taxing on his nervous system,” Rienzi said in 2019. “If he’s squatting 500, 600 pounds, obviously that’d be very taxing on his nervous system and his adrenals and he wouldn’t be able to perform properly on-screen.” He was talking about a different program then, but it’s likely safe to assume the same principles apply now, especially since the back squat is the final movement in the series.
After the giant sets, Johnson closes out the leg day with some more targeted work on his hamstrings and calves.
“It’s a lot of hard work (especially balancing everything else life throws our way) but I really enjoy the challenge of new goals,” Johnson wrote of the session. That reads like an understatement. But all of the leg day punishment leads to one thing: his one day of rest for the week, filled with his infamous cheat day meals. After reviewing his last training day, it seems fair to say he earns it.
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