When individuals are learning how to build muscle they often end up looking for their favorite celebrity and trying to discover the type of workouts they do in the gym to achieve their physique. Today we'll be looking at one such celebrity, Dwayne Johnson.
This trend has grown in popularity over the last ten years and, naturally, many celebrities have caught onto the fact that there is a good business opportunity here. This is why you'll often find personalities regularly releasing fitness dvd's which cash in on the 'next big thing' in fitness. As you'll discover, however, the superior workouts tend to come from those who purely train because they enjoy training.
The Rock leg workout is something which is particularly eye catching.
Don't be fooled into thinking all of the results Dwayne Johnson has accomplished over the last year have been achieved in the gym, of course. There are several factors which have been put into place to ensure maximum results even before he steps foot in the gym and these are the areas many people overlook, such as diet and rest.
There are two things here which are usually lacking in lower body training sessions. Those are intensity and basic movements. While many people get caught up in looking for the next big development in exercise and science, such as performing split squats while suspended with a resistance band, this routine sticks to the old classic moves such as Squats and Leg Press. Intensity also becomes a huge focal point of the session, with as little as thirty seconds of rest between exercises to boost fat loss.
Today's plan consists of just five exercises, which are as follows.
* Box Squats - 5 sets of 25 repetitions.
* Four sets on the Leg Press machine, with reps of 25, 20, 18 and 16 in a pyramid fashion. This is immediately followed by a burnout set of twenty five reps.
* Smith Machine Lunges - Four sets of sixteen reps. That's eight on each leg.
* 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.
To anybody who finds themselves constantly searching for the next big exercise to develop, this workout may look quite simple. This is a common mistake to make. While it certainly does stick to the basic movements, this actually works in your favor because those basics are still the optimal exercises for building a powerful lower body. Intensity is key here, keeping your rest periods as low as 30 seconds between sets will dramatically increase fat loss results.
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.
A technique which is nowhere near as commonly used as it used to be, the pyramid system is designed to help you hit each different fiber in the targeted muscle. It does this by gradually lowering the repetitions in each set, allowing you to add more resistance every time you finish a set.
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 Dwayne Johnson has certainly accomplished some incredible results over the last year or so, his workout is incredibly basic. Yet one quick look at The Rock leg workout is enough to see where most people go wrong in the gym. Don't be fooled into thinking you can just perform the same exercises and experience the same results because the key factor in this plan is intensity. While you have probably performed every single exercise on this plan before, the real trick to getting results is the fact that legs are trained with the same intensity as upper body. As much as the probably don't like to admit it, this is something most men do not do.
This trend has grown in popularity over the last ten years and, naturally, many celebrities have caught onto the fact that there is a good business opportunity here. This is why you'll often find personalities regularly releasing fitness dvd's which cash in on the 'next big thing' in fitness. As you'll discover, however, the superior workouts tend to come from those who purely train because they enjoy training.
The Rock leg workout is something which is particularly eye catching.
Don't be fooled into thinking all of the results Dwayne Johnson has accomplished over the last year have been achieved in the gym, of course. There are several factors which have been put into place to ensure maximum results even before he steps foot in the gym and these are the areas many people overlook, such as diet and rest.
There are two things here which are usually lacking in lower body training sessions. Those are intensity and basic movements. While many people get caught up in looking for the next big development in exercise and science, such as performing split squats while suspended with a resistance band, this routine sticks to the old classic moves such as Squats and Leg Press. Intensity also becomes a huge focal point of the session, with as little as thirty seconds of rest between exercises to boost fat loss.
Today's plan consists of just five exercises, which are as follows.
* Box Squats - 5 sets of 25 repetitions.
* Four sets on the Leg Press machine, with reps of 25, 20, 18 and 16 in a pyramid fashion. This is immediately followed by a burnout set of twenty five reps.
* Smith Machine Lunges - Four sets of sixteen reps. That's eight on each leg.
* 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.
To anybody who finds themselves constantly searching for the next big exercise to develop, this workout may look quite simple. This is a common mistake to make. While it certainly does stick to the basic movements, this actually works in your favor because those basics are still the optimal exercises for building a powerful lower body. Intensity is key here, keeping your rest periods as low as 30 seconds between sets will dramatically increase fat loss results.
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.
A technique which is nowhere near as commonly used as it used to be, the pyramid system is designed to help you hit each different fiber in the targeted muscle. It does this by gradually lowering the repetitions in each set, allowing you to add more resistance every time you finish a set.
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 Dwayne Johnson has certainly accomplished some incredible results over the last year or so, his workout is incredibly basic. Yet one quick look at The Rock leg workout is enough to see where most people go wrong in the gym. Don't be fooled into thinking you can just perform the same exercises and experience the same results because the key factor in this plan is intensity. While you have probably performed every single exercise on this plan before, the real trick to getting results is the fact that legs are trained with the same intensity as upper body. As much as the probably don't like to admit it, this is something most men do not do.
About the Author:
Your next move: Discover how to build muscle with expert personal trainer Russ Howe PTI. Today's session, the rock leg workout, is just one of many ready on his free fitness site.
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