To get a glimpse of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is to understand that this is a man who doesn’t skip leg day. With his perpetually buff and gym-honed physique, Johnson doesn’t do off seasons. Instead, this is a man committed to the desire of pushing his body to its limits, of getting sweaty, a little bit dirty, and doing what few believed was possible, all the while taking his followers along with him in an effort to inspire their own fitness journey. It’s hardly surprising that Johnson’s workouts should be brutal: just look at the guy. That kind of body takes a staggering amount of work to achieve. But if there were ever any debate as to just how hard Johnson trains, consider his latest leg day finisher as proof. In a recent video shares to Instagram, Johnson demonstrates just how he torches his hamstrings and glutes.
In an IGTV clip, Johnson demonstrated his reloaded power squat, a brutal exercise that he performs for 4 sets of 25 reps at the end of his leg workout, before switching to lighter weights to then focus on greater volume. “These final 100 reps at the end of your leg training are brutal, but extremely productive,” wrote Johnson in the caption. “Put yourself thru hell when you train, but especially on leg day. Legs separate the men from the boys.”
To perform the exercise, Johnson uses a hack squat machine, but flips the script by actually facing in towards the back pad. “When you reverse the position on that sled you make it more hamstring/glute intensive (vs. if you face away and let knees translate forward it’s more quad),” explains Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel C.S.C.S. “It becomes just a bit hinge-y. Which is good, so he’s packing meat onto his hamstrings and glutes (as opposed to quads).”
Importantly, the machine also works to help Johnson control the weight for the high number of reps far better than if he were training with free weights such as a safety squat bar. In doing so, he’s able to keep himself in a range of motion that works for his goals. As Samuel explains, “Depth also speaks to that; he’s not going below a 90-degree angle at the knee or anything. He’s basically pushing for max hip drive on this.”
Not surprisingly, fans were blown away by Johnson’s leg day finisher and we can only hope those who watch the video are inspired to give it a try. There will be no more skipping leg day on our watch! Of course, to work out like a beast, you need some good tunes to match and Johnson, known for his epic playlists that power him through a workout, was listening to his own verse on Tech N9ne’s track ‘Face Off’ while working out in the Iron Paradise – which is definitely one way to do it. After making his rap debut with this feature in October, he reflected that the lyrics are “about drive, it’s about power,” adding that it’s a “bad ass song to train legs to.”
