Anyone who has ever stepped foot in a gym will be all too aware of one the unofficial commandments of the gym floor: ‘Thou Shalt Never Skip Leg Day.’ Too often do we see gym bros performing bicep curls, bench presses and lateral raises, all in the name of a muscular upper body. Take a look down, and that bulking frame is too-often supported by a set of chicken legs, which looks completely out of proportion.
So if you do any sort of weight training, make sure you always dedicate a day or a session to just your legs, performing squats, deadlifts, lunges and leg presses, to name a few exercises. Common knowledge, right? Right.
However, according to Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, it’s not the only leg day message you should be mindful of.
Taking to Instagram recently, the Black Adam actor tells his followers to “mentally prepare yourself.” And since he’s got literal tree trunks for legs, we’re inclined to sit up and take notice.
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The Rock is already a source of mental inspiration, regularly hitting the gym during the early hours of the day, and this leg workout is no different, seeing him hit the gym at midnight on a Saturday. But he adds that “training legs requires ALL YA GOT!” and as a result, adds “my pre workout warm up and stretching is a lot longer (20-30min),” hitting home another key message to ensure you’re properly prepped before attempting any sort of workout so as to avoid injury.
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So, what does The Rock’s leg workout consist of? The answer, “giant sets.”
- Leg extensions/leg curls
- Compound pressing movement
- Chain lunges
- Shark Pit squats (an exercise performed on a Pit Shark machine)
“Multiple rounds of these giant sets. These are a real b*tch so get your mind right and push yourself.”
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“Then I’ll finish off with hamstrings and calves. It’s a lot of hard work (especially balancing everything else life throws our way) but I really enjoy the challenge of new goals.”
“New things to build. Pushing myself. It gets my blood going.”
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He signs off by saying he’s going to indulge in a cheat meal, which as we’ve seen him prove before, isn’t necessarily as detrimental to making serious gains as you might think.
The Rock isn’t the only advocate of working out your mind, as well as your body. MMA commentator, podcast extraordinaire and comedian Joe Rogan is another who spruiks the message of challenging your “inner sloth,” in order to increase your mental strength.
As Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Strength does not come from physical capacity, it comes from indomitable will.”
Let that be a lesson for your legs…