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.
Of course, there is a booming fitness career for celebrities who wish to latch on the next big thing or fad diet and sell dvd's to the masses. This means many of these plans are not effective. Johnson, however, is a guy who trains simply because he loves working out. One look at his lower body routine is enough to see this.
The Rock leg workout is something which is particularly eye catching.
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.
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.
* Four sets of Lunges performed on a Smith Machine, with eight repetitions per leg.
* Leg Curl - 4 sets of 12, 10, 8 and 6 repetitions with a burnout set of 12 at the end.
* Last but not least is the Standing Calf Raise. Six sets of sixteen followed by 20 reps as a burnout set.
You may be looking at the routine and thinking it's a fairly standard workout and in truth you would be correct. The trick is to monitor your intensity level during the session, keeping rest times down to as little as 30 seconds in between each set and 60 seconds as you switch between exercises.
Furthermore, there are two proven hypertrophy principles at play here which will ensure you also get sufficient tears in your muscle fibers to stimulate maximum growth in your lower body. They are the pyramid principle and the burnout principle.
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.
This works quite well with the burnout principle. Burnout sets are designed to clear out any remaining energy in the targeted body part following the last set. They get their name from the feeling of burning generated in the tissue by taking it to absolute failure. To use this technique simply lower the weight after your final set and push out up to 25 repetitions at this lower resistance. The only rest between your final set ending and your burnout set beginning is the amount of time it takes you to lower the resistance.
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.
Of course, there is a booming fitness career for celebrities who wish to latch on the next big thing or fad diet and sell dvd's to the masses. This means many of these plans are not effective. Johnson, however, is a guy who trains simply because he loves working out. One look at his lower body routine is enough to see this.
The Rock leg workout is something which is particularly eye catching.
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.
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.
* Four sets of Lunges performed on a Smith Machine, with eight repetitions per leg.
* Leg Curl - 4 sets of 12, 10, 8 and 6 repetitions with a burnout set of 12 at the end.
* Last but not least is the Standing Calf Raise. Six sets of sixteen followed by 20 reps as a burnout set.
You may be looking at the routine and thinking it's a fairly standard workout and in truth you would be correct. The trick is to monitor your intensity level during the session, keeping rest times down to as little as 30 seconds in between each set and 60 seconds as you switch between exercises.
Furthermore, there are two proven hypertrophy principles at play here which will ensure you also get sufficient tears in your muscle fibers to stimulate maximum growth in your lower body. They are the pyramid principle and the burnout principle.
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.
This works quite well with the burnout principle. Burnout sets are designed to clear out any remaining energy in the targeted body part following the last set. They get their name from the feeling of burning generated in the tissue by taking it to absolute failure. To use this technique simply lower the weight after your final set and push out up to 25 repetitions at this lower resistance. The only rest between your final set ending and your burnout set beginning is the amount of time it takes you to lower the resistance.
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 fitness coach Russ Howe PTI. Today's session, the rock leg workout, is just one of tons available on his free fitness site.
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