The Rock’s Workout & Diet – Back, Arm, Bodyboduiling & Weight Training, Exercises, & More…

Dwayne Johnson workout

There are not many guys who have had such an amazing rock-solid career as Dwayne Johnson.

It’s no wonder this guy, so famous in the wrestling world, was dubbed “The Great One” and “The People’s Champion”.

Dwayne Johnson rose to fame as a popular wrestling personality.

He became known as The Rock.

Later, he became a box-office star.

He appeared in movies including ‘The Scorpion King,’ ‘Hercules’ and ‘The Fast and the Furious” franchise.

Not only wrestling, but his movies have raked in at least $10 billion across the world! That’s ‘Dewey’ for you, also dubbed the “Most Electrifying Man in All of Entertainment.”

Can you believe this powerful wrestler also graduated from the University of Miami with a bachelor of general studies in physiology and criminology!

Dwayne’s grandfather and his dad had both been wrestlers.

Dwayne followed suit, becoming one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time.

For eight years, he wrestled for the World Wrestling Federation.

When his movie career took off, he stopped wrestling in 2004.

The Rock Workout Routine & Diet Plan – The Jumanji Star’s Bodybuilding Training

Current Stats

  • Birthday: 2 May 1972
  • Weight: 118 kg. – 260 lbs.
  • Birthplace: Hayward, California, USA
  • Accolades/accomplishments:
    • 2015 – Guinness World Record – For taking the most selfies in three minutes. He achieved this with 105 fans.
    • 2017 – His Project Rock sneakers with Under Armour sold out in less than 24 hours.
    • 2017 – He was honored at a ceremony as the 2,624th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California
    • 2000 – An autobiography ‘The Rock Says … ‘ was a number one bestseller on The New York Times list.
    • 2020 – Dwayne topped the Forbes list of highest-paid actors two years in a row.
Here are a few more prominent ones
  • 2019 – Wins the MTV Generation Award
  • 2018 – Wins the Teen Choice Award for Film – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
  • 2015 – Declared the “Man of the Century” by the Muscle and Fitness Magazine.
  • 2016 – Won The Eighth Annual Shorty Awards

Read here about all the nominations and winning awards he has collected over the years.

Workout Principles of Dwayne Johnson

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson

You need to become disciplined like never before in your life if you want to look like Dwayne Johnson.

He is a very busy Hollywood star in many hard-core action movies.

These take a toll on the body.

Things he never compromises on though are his diet and his workouts.

These are his workout principles:

1) If you don’t love the pain of working out, forget it

You have to enjoy working out from your heart.

Take it from The Rock himself, “Working out is my therapy, and it’s cheaper than a shrink. I can’t imagine my life without training, honestly. Working out anchors my day. For me, training is my meditation, my yoga, hiking, biking, therapy all rolled into one. I love it.”

You won’t achieve what Dwayne has achieved if you aren’t disciplined to work out 6 times a week for 90 minutes a day.

2) The early bird catches the worm

Dwayne Johnson says he usually gets around 3-5 hours’ sleep each night.

He says he loves putting in hard work as early as possible.

He told Bodybuilding that he likes to get his day started on the right footing mentally and physically.

3) Warming up takes longer than the entire workout

If you love to sleep late, forget the Dwayne Johnson workout program.

He gets up at 4 am every day and hits the road or the treadmill for his cardio-hour warmup.

He’s been following this daily ritual faithfully for the past few years.

4) Be prepared to lift stuff hard, often, and heavy

This is the most important portion of Dwayne’s workouts.

Usually, he will do four sets of each exercise as seen below, with 12 repetitions on each set. He will take 60-90 seconds rest in between.

Dwayne says anyone who follows his program needs to be mentally prepared. It’s the progressive overloading of weights that makes the muscles grow.

5) Pyramid structure sets

Dwayne usually makes use of the pyramid-structure way of training.

It’s a weightlifting routine where you start with high repetitions and low weight.

It is important to maintain form in every repetition.

Then as the weeks pass, you increase the weight while reducing the number of repetitions.

6) High reps for arms and biceps

George Farah, Dwayne’s trainer says lots of people do isolation exercises for arms and biceps in the wrong way.

He says the muscles in the arms are usually small and will get burnt out quickly if you train them with massive weights.

You want to train your biceps and triceps with high intensity and proper form to have the right pump.

7) Only positive outcomes

In college, Dwayne suffered a knee injury.

With his inability to do squats, he engages in other leg exercises like seated leg presses, lying leg curls, and the Smith machine lunges instead.

8) Treat yourself but don’t cheat yourself

Dwayne Johnson treats himself once a week. No cheating was allowed on the other six days.

His type of cheat meal is 4 double-Pepperoni pizzas, 12 pancakes with syrup, and 24 brownies with a jug of milk!

Although Dwayne used to follow different workout plans at the beginning of his training, over the past few years his workout routine revolves around the traditional bodybuilding method.

Different body parts get trained on separate days.

The only workout principle needed to follow is that of continuous improvement and good form.

Dwayne Johnson’s Training Methods

Everybody wants to have The Rock body of Dwayne Johnson.

It will take a huge amount of dedication and discipline to build a physique like his.

The guy who is behind the training of Dwayne Johnson is George Farah.

He is also Dwayne’s nutrition guru.

The Rock’s Workout Routine

DAY/MUSCLE GROUP

EXERCISE

SETS

REPETITIONS

Day 1- Legs
Running and Treadmill 1 30-50 minutes
  Barbell walking lunge 4 25
  Leg press 4 25
  Leg extension 4 12
  Seated leg curl 3 20
  Thigh abductor 4 12
Day 2 – Back
Running and Treadmill 1 30-50 minutes
  Wide grip lat pulldown 4 sets 12 reps
  Bent-over barbell row 4 sets 12 reps
  One-arm dumbbell row 4 sets 12 reps
  Barbell deadlift 3 sets 12 reps
  Pull-ups 3 sets To failure
  Dumbbell shrug 4 sets 12 reps
  Inverted row 3 sets To failure
  Hyperextensions (Back) 4 sets 12 reps
Day 3 – Shoulders
Running and Treadmill 1 set 30-50 minutes
  Dumb-bell shoulder-press 4 sets 12 reps
  Military press – standing 4 sets 12 reps
  Front dumbbell raises 4 sets 12 reps
  A side lateral raise 4 sets 12 reps
  Reverse-machine flyes 4 sets 15 reps
  Bent-over rear delt raise – seated 4 sets 12 reps
Day 4 – Arms/Abs
Running and Treadmill 1 set 30-50 minutes
  Dumb-bell bicep-curls 4 sets, 15 reps
  Hammer curls 4 sets 15 reps
  Spider curls 4 sets To failure
  Triceps pushdown 4 sets 15 reps
  Overhead triceps 3 sets 15 reps
  Hanging-leg raises 4 sets 20 reps
  Rope crunch 4 sets 20 reps
  Russian twist 4 sets 20 reps
Day 5 – Legs
Same as as Day 1 above    
Day 6 – Chest
Running and treadmill 1 set 30-50 minutes
  Barbell bench presses 4 sets 12 reps
  Incline dumbbell presses 4 sets 12 reps
  Dumb-bell bench-presses 4 sets 12 reps
  flat-bench cable-flyes 4 sets 12 reps
  Incline hammer-curls 4 sets 12 reps
  Dips (chest-version) 4 sets To failure

 

This training and workout plan does look pretty disciplined and tough, but that’s exactly as it is supposed to be.

Dwayne Johnson’s Diet

So how does Dwayne Johnson get his bodybuilding physique? His conditioning coach, IFBB pro bodybuilder George Farah trains him.

To sustain his huge muscular body, he eats and drinks nearly 5000 calories a day. He will eat between 5-7 meals a day.

Check out his diet:

Meal 1

  • 10 oz. cod
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2-cups oatmeal

Meal 2

  • 8 oz. cod
  • 12 oz. sweet potato
  • 1-cup veggies

Meal 3

  • 8 oz. chicken
  • 2-cups white rice
  • 1-cup veggies

Meal 4

  • 8 oz. cod
  • 2-cups rice
  • 1-cup veggies
  • 1-tbsp. fish oil

Meal 5

  • 8 oz. steak
  • 12 oz. baked potato
  • Spinach salad

Meal 6

  • 10 oz. cod
  • 2-cups rice
  • Salad

Meal 7

  • 30 grams casein protein
  • 10 egg-whites for an omelet
  • 1-cup veggies (onions, mushrooms, peppers)
  • 1-tbsp. Omega-3 fish oil

Notes from Dwayne

  • “I do cardio 4–5 a.m., and then I take 4–6 scoops of Optimum’s Amino Energy.”
  • “After cardio, I eat breakfast [Meal no. 1].”
  • “After breakfast, I hit the iron for 90 minutes.”
  • “Post-workout I have 60 grams Optimum Nutrition’s Platinum Hydro-whey with 15 grams of glutamine.”
  • “Thirty minutes later I consume 32 oz. of Gatorade

Although his diet varies depending on the kind of physique he works toward in a movie, it has plenty of fibrous carbs, starchy vegetables, and proteins.

And apparently, he loves cod.

Dwayne Johnson’s Supplements & Recommendations

  • Optimum Amino Energy
  • Optimum’s Nutrition Platinum Hydrowhey
  • 15 grams glutamine
  • 32 oz. of Gatorade
  • Protein shakes
  • BCAAs
  • Casein Protein
  • Fish oil
  • Creatine
  • Glucosamine
  • Multivitamin
  • Pre-workout supplement

Recommendations of Dwayne Johnson

If there is one person who can define totally body fitness, that person would be Dwayne Johnson.

You don’t get that body, the arms, legs, abs, and pec, for nothing.

But if you think it’s impossible to look like him, follow his recommendations and his philosophy to get to stay fit like him.

Here are the 5 philosophy tips that he recommends:

  • Be yourself
  • Always give your all
  • Overcome adversity
  • Always be prepared
  • Swing away, because after all

“With drive and a bit of talent you can move mountains.” – Dwayne Johnson – The Rock