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.
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.
One of the reasons for this is that Dwayne Johnson has achieved an impressive transformation in the last year. While his workout routine is something which anybody can do, of course, those results have also been achieved because of a strict diet and putting proven hypertrophy principles in place before hitting the gym.
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.
Today's plan consists of just five exercises, which are as follows.
* Box Squats - Five sets of twenty five.
* Leg Press - Pyramid training with four sets of twenty five, twenty, eighteen and sixteen reps. Any remaining energy is then mopped up with a burnout set of twenty five repetitions.
* Four sets of Lunges performed on a Smith Machine, with eight repetitions per 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.
* 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 classic bodybuilding principles here which will ensure muscular hypertrophy is accelerated. Those are the pyramid and burnout principles.
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.
Burnout sets are designed to mop up any remaining energy left in the targeted body part following the last round. By placing a light weight on the bar and pushing out up to twenty more repetitions immediately after your last set of a particular exercise you will be able to stimulate further growth.
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.
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.
One of the reasons for this is that Dwayne Johnson has achieved an impressive transformation in the last year. While his workout routine is something which anybody can do, of course, those results have also been achieved because of a strict diet and putting proven hypertrophy principles in place before hitting the gym.
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.
Today's plan consists of just five exercises, which are as follows.
* Box Squats - Five sets of twenty five.
* Leg Press - Pyramid training with four sets of twenty five, twenty, eighteen and sixteen reps. Any remaining energy is then mopped up with a burnout set of twenty five repetitions.
* Four sets of Lunges performed on a Smith Machine, with eight repetitions per 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.
* 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 classic bodybuilding principles here which will ensure muscular hypertrophy is accelerated. Those are the pyramid and burnout principles.
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.
Burnout sets are designed to mop up any remaining energy left in the targeted body part following the last round. By placing a light weight on the bar and pushing out up to twenty more repetitions immediately after your last set of a particular exercise you will be able to stimulate further growth.
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:
Author Bio: Learn how to build muscle with top fitness coach Russ Howe PTI. Today's workout, the rock leg workout, is just one of many ready on his exclusive gym blog.
