At one stage or another, almost everybody who uses the gym has gone online in a bid to search out the workout program of their favorite celebrities. After all, if you're trying to learn how to build muscle you'll probably find it easier if your favorite movie star is teaching you, right? That's the theory many fitness enthusiasts have and one of the public figures who is usually at the forefront of this trend is wrestler and actor Dwayne Johnson.
While many celebrity fitness plans are gimmicks designed to sell dvd's, Dwayne Johnson is a figure who simply trains because he enjoys training. In today's article we are going to be paying special attention to the lower body routine he adopts in the gym.
Despite sticking to the proven basics, it would be foolish to assume The Rock leg workout is just going to be another ordinary gym session.
Over the course of the last fifteen months, Dwayne Johnson has undergone a complete body transformation, packing on a lot of muscle and shedding a considerable amount of fat in the process. This is largely thanks to a diet which sticks to the proven principles of hypertrophy and fat loss.
As with most things in life, the best results are achieved when things are kept simple. This applies here, too. While many gym members get caught up in looking for the next big secret exercise to emerge, those who stick to the old proven principles tend to experience superior results overall. Exercises such as Calf Raise and Squat remain unchallenged despite the many advances we've made in sports science over the years. Likewise, adjusting something simple like intensity can yield excellent improvements from a fat loss perspective.
If you can get the right techniques in place the actual exercises can be kept relatively straight forward, as you can see below.
* Five sets of Box Squats, with 25 reps per set.
* Leg Press - 4 sets of 25, 20, 18 and 16 repetitions followed by a burnout set of 25.
* Smith Machine Lunges - 4 sets of 16 repetitions.
* The Lying Leg Curl machine gets four sets of pyramid training with reps of 12, 10, 8 and 6. Again, this is immediately followed up with a burnout set of a further twelve.
* Standing Calf Raise - 6 sets of 16 repetitions with a burnout set of 20 to finish.
One of the biggest mistakes to make, of course, is to look at a session on paper and presume it's going to be very easy because it doesn't incorporate any new, ground-breaking techniques. In fact you have probably performed all of the exercises before. The thing most people overlook, however, is the intensity level. With just 30 seconds of rest after each set you will be pushed hard.
As well as the fat loss benefits of keeping down your rest periods, you will also notice two old principles of hypertrophy are at play here. Those are the pyramid technique and burnout sets.
Pyramid training involves gradually lowering your target reps with each set you perform, allowing you to steadily increase the resistance level as you progress through each set and cover a wide variety of rep ranges. This means you will literally work every fiber in the muscle being targeted.
The burnout principle, on the other hand, is designed to take your target muscle to absolute failure. It involves finishing your final set then immediately placing a lower resistance on the bar and pushing out up to 20 reps.
While it sticks to the basics, The Rock leg workout is by no means basic in it's execution. It shows that the trick to building the body your trying to achieve lies not in the exercises you perform but in the way you perform them. If most men are honest with the gym they'll admit that they don't hit their lower body with the same intensity they show when training the 'ego muscles', such as chest and biceps. Losing that bad habit is key to making the most of your potential on lower body workouts like this.
While many celebrity fitness plans are gimmicks designed to sell dvd's, Dwayne Johnson is a figure who simply trains because he enjoys training. In today's article we are going to be paying special attention to the lower body routine he adopts in the gym.
Despite sticking to the proven basics, it would be foolish to assume The Rock leg workout is just going to be another ordinary gym session.
Over the course of the last fifteen months, Dwayne Johnson has undergone a complete body transformation, packing on a lot of muscle and shedding a considerable amount of fat in the process. This is largely thanks to a diet which sticks to the proven principles of hypertrophy and fat loss.
If you don't know how to build muscle today's interview will assist you a lot.
As with most things in life, the best results are achieved when things are kept simple. This applies here, too. While many gym members get caught up in looking for the next big secret exercise to emerge, those who stick to the old proven principles tend to experience superior results overall. Exercises such as Calf Raise and Squat remain unchallenged despite the many advances we've made in sports science over the years. Likewise, adjusting something simple like intensity can yield excellent improvements from a fat loss perspective.
If you can get the right techniques in place the actual exercises can be kept relatively straight forward, as you can see below.
* Five sets of Box Squats, with 25 reps per set.
* Leg Press - 4 sets of 25, 20, 18 and 16 repetitions followed by a burnout set of 25.
* Smith Machine Lunges - 4 sets of 16 repetitions.
* The Lying Leg Curl machine gets four sets of pyramid training with reps of 12, 10, 8 and 6. Again, this is immediately followed up with a burnout set of a further twelve.
* Standing Calf Raise - 6 sets of 16 repetitions with a burnout set of 20 to finish.
One of the biggest mistakes to make, of course, is to look at a session on paper and presume it's going to be very easy because it doesn't incorporate any new, ground-breaking techniques. In fact you have probably performed all of the exercises before. The thing most people overlook, however, is the intensity level. With just 30 seconds of rest after each set you will be pushed hard.
As well as the fat loss benefits of keeping down your rest periods, you will also notice two old principles of hypertrophy are at play here. Those are the pyramid technique and burnout sets.
Pyramid training involves gradually lowering your target reps with each set you perform, allowing you to steadily increase the resistance level as you progress through each set and cover a wide variety of rep ranges. This means you will literally work every fiber in the muscle being targeted.
The burnout principle, on the other hand, is designed to take your target muscle to absolute failure. It involves finishing your final set then immediately placing a lower resistance on the bar and pushing out up to 20 reps.
While it sticks to the basics, The Rock leg workout is by no means basic in it's execution. It shows that the trick to building the body your trying to achieve lies not in the exercises you perform but in the way you perform them. If most men are honest with the gym they'll admit that they don't hit their lower body with the same intensity they show when training the 'ego muscles', such as chest and biceps. Losing that bad habit is key to making the most of your potential on lower body workouts like this.
About the Author:
Your next move: Learn how to build muscle with top personal trainer Russ Howe PTI. Today's session, the rock leg workout, is just one of tons ready on his free gym blog.
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