Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Hercules Workout: How to Become a Demigod?

We learned about Dwayne Johnson’s insane dietary plan that transformed him to a legendary level when he went to play the role of Hercules. Now let’s take a look at his workout training program. Taking his training to a new level, he bared how he built his frame of a demigod for eight months!

To play the role of Hercules, you have to train intensely, and The Rock has shared to us his workout regimen that would challenge even the most dedicated athletes and bodybuilders.

Here’s the workout:

Monday: Chest

Dumbbell Bench Press - 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Flat Bench Cable Flyes - 3 sets, to failure

Barbell Bench Press Medium Grip – 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Incline Dumbbell Press – 5 sets, 10-12 reps

Cable Crossover – 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Barbell Incline Bench Press Medium Grip – 3 sets 10-12 reps

Tuesday: Legs

Leg Press – 4 sets, 25 reps

Barbell Walking Lunge – 4sets, 25 reps

Leg Extensions – 3 sets, 20 reps

Seated Leg Curl – 3 sets, 20 reps

Smith Machine Calf Raise – 3 sets, to failure

Thigh Abductor – 3 sets, 15 reps

Barbell Lunge – 3 sets, 20 reps

Wednesday: Abs and Arms

Barbell Curl – 3 sets, 10-12 reps

Hammer Curls – 4 sets, 10-12 reps

Spider Curl – 4 sets, to failure

Triceps Pushdown – 3sets, 10 reps

Dips – Triceps Version – 3 sets, to failure

Hanging Leg Raise – 4 sets, 20 reps

Rope Crunch – 4 sets, 20 reps

Russian Twist – 4 sets, 20 reps

Thursday: Back

Wide-Grip Lat Pulldown – 4 sets, 10-15 reps

Barbell Deadlift – 4 sets, 10-15 reps

Barbell Shrug – 4 sets, 15 reps

Pullups – 4 sets, 15 reps

Hyperextensions (Back Extensions) – 4 sets, 15 reps

One-Arm Dumbbell Row – 4 sets, 15 reps

Inverted Row – 3 sets, to failure

Friday: Shoulders

Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 sets, 12 reps

Front Dumbbell Raise – 4 sets, 12 reps

Side Lateral Raise – 4 sets, 12 reps

Standing Military Press – 4 sets, 12 reps

Reverse Flyes – 3 sets, 10-15 reps

Saturday: Legs

Leg Press – 4 sets, 25 reps

Barbell Walking Lunge – 4 sets, 25 reps

Leg Extensions – 3 sets, 20 reps

Seated Leg Curl – 3 sets, 20 reps

Smith Machine Calf Raise – 3 sets, to failure

Thig Abductor – 3 sets, 15 reps

Barbell Lunge – 3 sets, 20 reps

Sunday: Rest

 Before starting on the workout, The Rock would do a 50 minute cardio session each morning.

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s Hercules Diet

WWE superstar turned Hollywood actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is about to star in the upcoming blockbuster film of Hercules and in this new iteration of the Roman hero and god, The Rock has embarked on an insane diet routine that has made him bigger than ever.

Playing a demigod is no easy task, as Hercules is known to have a huge well-chiseled physique, so to achieve that look, The Rock made a special dietary plan he called “12 Labors of Diet” which consists of 7 meals everyday and would do it for 22 weeks!

Johnson has shared this routine with his followers via his Twitter page. Below is the list of The Rock’s Hercules diet program.

Meal 1:

10 oz. filet with 4 egg whites

5 oz. oatmeal or cream of what (measured dry)

Meal 2:

8 oz. chicken, 2 cups white rice, 1 cup broccoli

Meal 3:

8 oz. halibut, 2 cups white rice, 1 cup asparagus

Meal 4:

8 oz. chicken, 12 oz. baked potato, 1 cup broccoli

Meal 5:

8 oz. halibut, 1.5 cups white rice, 1 cup asparagus

Meal 6:

8 oz. fillet, 9 oz. baked potato w/ salad

Meal 7:

30 grams casein protein, 10 egg whites scrambled with onions, peppers and mushrooms

1 cup Nemean Lion blood upon rising (served fresh and warm)

How to Achieve Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine Physique

Hugh Jackman is back as the Wolverine and he’s gotten bigger compared to his looks at his previous films. Wonder how he did it? The multi-talented actor revealed that you need to have an extra diet and most of all, getting fitness tips from other Hollywood actors like Dwayne Johnson. Bulking up requires hard work and The Rock’s advice inspired Jackman and took it to heart.

Jackman added up 25 pounds of lean muscle for at least six months with a diet containing 6,000 calories per day. The result was superb and very evident.

Here’s the killer workout to achieve that Wolverine physique.

Station A

(perform 8-12 reps of each exercise then move on to the next; complete 4 circuits of this station)

Squat

Dumbbell Step Ups (or Calf Raise Machine)

Medicine Ball Chops

Dumbbell Single-Arm Row (or Rear Deltoid Machine)

Crunches - 20

Step Ups – 15 steps per leg

Active Recovery – 2 minutes on Airdyne bike

Station B

(perform 8-12 reps of each exercise then move on to the next; complete 3 circuits of this station)

Gorilla Pullups

Standing Jump and Reach (or if possible, Vertimax jumps)

Fat Bar Curls

Jump Rope – 1 min

Active Recovery – 2 minutes on treadmill – incline at 2%, speed at 3-4 mph

Station C

(perform 8-12 reps of each exercise then move on to the next; complete 3 circuits of this station)

Standing Cable Fly

Standing Cable Press

Standing Triceps Extension

Wood Chops

Push Press

Active Recovery – 2 minutes heavy punching bag

Triceps Shock Workout

Talking about big arms for majority of people engaged in weight training, it’s all about biceps. But little did they know that what makes your arms stand out and get noticed by the watchful public eye when you’re wearing a shirt is by having a big triceps. Triceps or what they call triceps brachil in technical terms, is a three-headed muscle on the back of your arm responsible for elbow joint extension. 

Building triceps is the secret of getting big arms. Biceps only constitute small size in your arm than bigger triceps so focus in training your back-arm muscle to gain more definition.

If you’re already working out your triceps, you may include this killer workout program in your regimen. It will shock your muscles and help them grow bigger.

For this shocking triceps workout, you need to do it once a month. This is a nonstop workout (superset), doing one exercise after the other without rest, so if you’re just a beginner, better not to do this yet and focus first in building your strength and stamina.

Comprising the exercises are regular cable pressdowns, seated overhead cambered-bar extensions and overhead cable extensions.

Here’s the full breakdown.

Exercises:

Pressdowns – 4 sets; 12-15 reps

Seated overhead cambered-bar extensions – 4 sets; 12-15 reps

Overhead cable extensions – 4 sets; 12-15 reps

Road to Muscle Gain: What Ectomorphs Should Do

Sculpting the body is a steep climb if you are an ectomorph. It’s a hard battle that requires tremendous effort and focus to reach your target goal. First and foremost you have to build muscle before refining it. But it’s no easy task and definitely a long road ahead. You need to eat a lot, train with heavy weights and concentrate working out on compound exercises. Training is different compared to others as you should alternate both bulking and cutting phase.

To get muscle gains you should:

Eat more.

Ectomorphs have high metabolism so they burn calories faster. It’s their advantage to endomorphs however bodybuilding is a top factor that limits them. To bulk up, eat often, around 5-6 meals spread evenly throughout the day. Eat a lot of calories and protein. Thin people tend to fail to eat enough protein in their diet thus their gains are slow. Incorporate wide variety of meals rich in protein such as meats, eggs, fish, poultry supplemented with protein powder. For every meal, you should include huge protein percentage, taking up at least a third of your plate. As you eat on breakfast, lunch and dinner, strive to add 2-3 more snacks in between. Luckily for people in this category, they can eat anything such as pizza.

Don’t skip meals.

Remember that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Eat more on breakfast with big chunk of protein on the side. If you think that breakfast is a bowl of oatmeal or pastry with coffee or oj then you’re getting it all wrong if you want to have gains. Add some snacks after 2 hours from breakfast. Going hungry for too long and skipping a meal will put your body in catabolic state, which the body eats up your muscle gains to feed vital organs.

Resistance Training to Bulk Up.

Diet is just half of the process to build muscle. When you eat more, you need to burn them as it will only lead to fat storage if not converted to fuel your energy. Train heavily in correct manner. Include strength training to stimulate more of your appetite so you can eat more calories and protein. Strength training gives your body to segregate nutrients, placing them into muscles and not fat when you ingest protein and carbs.

However not every strength training regimen is able to facilitate nutrients segregation and muscle building. High muscular tension is needed wherein in we select the proper weights and exercises that put tension on certain muscles to grow. As what everyone says, all exercises can work on muscle, but not all can build muscle. There are some exercises that are great in creating tension in muscles. The key is to do heavy compound and multiple compound movements.

Both compound movements and multiple compound movements build mass over entire muscle. Examples of compound movements are deadlifts, pull-ups, squats and dips.

Multiple compound movements meanwhile are 2 or more movements strung together. These are Olympic lifts and their variations that include clean and jerk and clean and press.

Both of these movements are better at stressing muscles compared to isolation movements. The more you work on your muscle, the more weight that is lifted, the more testosterone your body produced and more testosterone means more muscle. Three of the exercises that stimulates body hyperthrophy are full barbell back squat, deadlift and clean and press.

Rest to Recover from Muscle Fatigue.

Gaining muscle is not just eat and workout. You need proper rest also. The goal when you’re on a workout plan is to be able to recover from your previous workout sessions so you can go back in full strength. The more sessions you can do and recover from, the more muscle growth periods you will create. More mass, more gains.

Hardgainers tend to have less than average recovery ability but this vary in every individual. If you can come back to the gym stronger after rest from previous session and don’t feel tired, your overall workload is within right range. This involves 3-5 workouts per week to most individuals, hitting 1-2 times on each muscle per week.