Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, already one of the swolest action stars in Hollywood, packed on more muscle than ever before last year while getting ready to film DC’s Black Adam, a process which he described as the hardest physical undertaking of his career. Throughout that transformation, Johnson shared several insights into the diet and “giant set” workouts he was using to add size.
While his training regimen might no longer be quite so extreme, he is still taking his workouts incredibly seriously, and is determined not to waste a single rep in his home gym, a.k.a. the “Iron Paradise. In a series of recent posts to Instagram, the actor has been demonstrating a slowed-down, controlled approach to exercises which allows him to get the most out of every moment.
The first video is a “behind the scenes” look at the shoot for Johnson’s latest Project Rock gear drop, and shows him performing a set of weighted dips with chains around his shoulders. Towards the end of the set, when Johnson can no longer do any more complete dips, he stands up at the end of each rep so that he can focus on slowing the negative motion right down, increasing time under tension and getting as much eccentric contraction as possible. This essentially turns the exercise into a drop-set that allows Johnson to continue after reaching failure.
“Dips are pretty challenging for the shoulder joints overall, unless you squeeze your shoulder blades and own the mechanics,” says Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel C.S.C.S.
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Yesterday, Johnson uploaded another video, this time of an incline machine chest press, in which he exhibits the same eccentric technique. Johnson performs the move for 20 reps, counting out 4 full seconds on each lowering half of the lift.
“Slow & controlled,” he wrote in the caption. “Tearing those pec fibers.”
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You’ll notice that he doesn’t have a whole stack of plates loaded onto the machine—which is by design. Since he’s working within such a high-volume, tempo-focused framework, the weight is secondary to the time his muscles are spending under tension.
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