celebrity series #4: the Rock

A strong workout to follow a strong workout (Serena’s) — Dwayne, “The Rock”, Johnson was requested to be our male celebrity for the following week.

As you may have guessed, his actual workout is insanity. The synopsis? Everyday he gets up at 4 a.m. and goes for a 30-50 minute run, then focuses on a different body part for that day: two days of legs, back, shoulders, chest, arms + abs.

Interestingly, on his “abs” day (which he lumps in with arms) he only does TWO ab exercises. To me, this is ACTUAL PROOF that you don’t need to spend hours focusing on ab work — you should be engaging your core while doing all of your strength training and that will be enough (unless you think the Rock’s abs aren’t good enough?)

He takes one day off: Sunday is rest day and the day he eats those fabulous cheat meals (according to the above linked article).

SO — to scale this all into a 50 minute class for Rise and Grind, we obviously needed to cut things down. And now, to make it accessible for home use, I’ve made some further changes so that it’s completely doable in any home (so some of the moves will be different than what we did in class).

If you have weights and bands at home and would like the original workout, send me a message and I’ll send it to you.

The playlist — I was able to find a playlist featuring The Rock’s favourite tunes to lift to and it’s here.

Equipment needed: towel, chair

Total time: 60 minutes —

• • there’s a cardio tabata at the beginning of each round to represent the daily run
  • you will then spend 10 minutes in each strength section and execute as many rounds as you can in that 10 minutes. Then, go onto the next round.
  • don’t feel pressured it do it all or nothing. This workout is supposed to be hell-challenging, but make sure it’s still fun. You can change the reps per exercise or the length that you are in each round. You can cut out the cardio tabata or split the workout into two days. This isn’t about perfection, and I think Dwayne would agree.

ROUND 1 — “legs” 

cardio tabata = high knees
– 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
– 8 rounds = 4 minutes total

strength — 25 X per exercise

1. walking lunge
2. squat 
3. glute kick back right (use without band if you don’t have one)
4. glute kick back left
5. single leg deadlift right
6. single leg deadlift left
7. low squat tap out (alternate sides you tap out)

ROUND 2 — “arms + chest” 

cardio tabata = high knees
– 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
– 8 rounds = 4 minutes total

strength — 15 X per exercise

1. towel bicep curl (hold towel tight between shoulders, at shoulder height, with your palms to the ceiling, keep shoulders at elbow height while you slowly execute a bicep curl)
2. towel hammer curl (same as bicep curl except palms facing in at each other)
3. tricep push ups
4. tricep skull crusher (lying on the floor just like the guy in the video, but using the towel held tightly between your hands)
5. tricep dip off a chair
6. chest press (lying on the floor just like the guy in the video, but using the towel held tightly between your hands)
7. diamond push up

ROUND 3 — “back” 

cardio tabata = high knees
– 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
– 8 rounds = 4 minutes total

strength — 12 X per exercise

1. Y-superman
2. T-superman
3. W-superman (starting position like above, but pull your elbows back — so now hands are by your shoulders — and execute from there)
4. pull-up superman (start with arms straight out, come up in regular superman, pause, and pull elbows back as if doing a pull up, reach hands back forward, come down, repeat)
5. dead stop push up
6. wide-grip push up
7. T-push up

ROUND 4 — “shoulders + abs” 

cardio tabata = high knees
– 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off
– 8 rounds = 4 minutes total

strength — 12 X per exercise

1. shoulder press (but with your towel — keep tension between in the towel, lower to chin height)
2. front press (but with your towel — keep tension between in the towel, lower to chin height, elbows stay parallel)
3. front raise (but with your towel — keep tension between in the towel)
4. row (but with your towel — you get the idea now?)
5. pike push up
6. (ABS) crunch X 20
7. (ABS) Russian twist X 20 per side