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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has trained hard for more than three decades, and his routine rarely stays the same for long. The Rock workout routine he followed for Hercules looked nothing like his Smashing Machine prep, and many plans online are guesses, fan templates or another trainer’s program with his name on it.
This guide sticks to what Johnson and his coaches have published or described in named interviews, laid out by era with a source and date for each detail. Then we cover the Dwayne Johnson diet, what research says about his numbers and a sample week a normal lifter can run.
Key Takeaways
- The Rock’s best-documented routine is the Hercules program, a high-volume body-part split designed by his longtime coach Dave Rienzi for the final 4–6 weeks of prep.
- In a 2015 interview, he said he trains six days a week, separates body parts and usually does 4 sets of 12 reps with 60–90 seconds of rest.
- His Hercules diet was seven meals a day totaling about 4,940 calories and 547 grams of protein, far more protein than research shows most lifters need.
- He has said he tried steroids at 18 or 19. Elite physiques also reflect genetics, decades of training and professional teams, so his plans are not a template.
- Our sample week keeps his body-part structure but trims the volume to about 9–14 direct weekly sets for most major muscles, so a normal lifter can recover and progress.
Who Trains The Rock?
Johnson’s main coach for more than a decade has been Dave Rienzi, a competitive bodybuilder who was already his strength and conditioning coach for Hercules, according to a September 2014 Muscle & Fitness cover story by Matt Tuthill. Rienzi also ran his Black Adam and Smashing Machine prep. Others have helped on specific projects:
- George Farah was his diet coach for Hercules. Johnson named both Farah and Rienzi as the “captains” of his prep team in a 2014 Bodybuilding.com feature by Andrew Vontz.
- Aaron Williamson trained him around G.I. Joe: Retaliation and his WWE comeback. He told Men’s Health UK in March 2023 that they trained at 5 a.m. daily for months using time under tension, drop sets and supersets, but that Johnson’s routine is “under strict lock and key.” The push workout in that article is Williamson’s own template, not The Rock’s plan.
Johnson also has business ties to fitness. Under Armour made its partnership with him official in January 2016, Fortune reported, and the first “UA x Project Rock” products followed that March, according to Hypebeast. In January 2021 he announced the ZOA energy drink with co-founders Dany Garcia (his ex-wife), her husband Rienzi and John Shulman, CNN reported.
The Rock Workout Routine by Era
Hercules (2013–2014): Rienzi’s High-Volume Split
This is the Rock workout plan most people mean, and it is the best sourced. Johnson released it in five installments on social media under #TeamHercules, and the 2014 Muscle & Fitness story printed it in full. Rienzi designed an old-school body-part split that stayed the same through six months of prep, but the published workouts were only the final phase, meant for the last 4–6 weeks, with 30 minutes of cardio 3–5 times a week. Rienzi warned that you “can’t sustain that level of volume too long without overtraining.”
| Day | Muscle Group | Main Exercises | Notable Details |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Back | Pull-ups, one-arm dumbbell rows, Hammer Strength rows, close-grip pulldowns, seated cable rows, straight-arm rope pulldowns, face pulls, heavy dumbbell shrugs | Pull-ups to failure; cable rows with two drops per set; shrugs held 15 seconds on the last rep |
| Day 2 | Chest | Incline barbell press, flat dumbbell press, incline Hammer Strength press, dumbbell flyes, cable crossovers superset with dips | Mostly 12 reps; dips to failure |
| Day 3 | Legs | Leg extensions, leg press superset with walking lunges, hack squats, Romanian deadlifts, lying leg curls, standing and seated calf raises | Very high reps: 25 on extensions, 50 on leg press, 75 on standing calf raises |
| Day 4 | Shoulders | Hammer Strength press, seated dumbbell press, standing lateral raises, one-arm cable laterals, machine rear-delt flyes, bent-over laterals | Lateral raises with three drops per set |
| Day 5 | Arms | Preacher curls, EZ-bar curls, dumbbell curls; rope pushdowns, rope overhead extensions, dips | Biceps and triceps each done as a tri-set of 4 x 12 |
Midway through this phase, at WrestleMania 29 on April 7, 2013, Johnson tore the adductor and rectus tendons from his pelvis. Muscle & Fitness reported triple-hernia surgery and a four-week recovery on reduced calories. He still arrived on the Budapest set at about 260 pounds, at a physical peak he said he was very happy with.
2015: Six Days a Week, 4 Sets of 12
His clearest description of a normal week comes from a 2015 Train magazine feature republished by Bodybuilding.com (updated August 31, 2015). Johnson said:
- He does 30–50 minutes of cardio first thing in the morning, usually on the elliptical after a cup of coffee, then eats breakfast.
- He lifts six days a week, usually in the morning.
- He separates body parts (legs, back, shoulders, chest, biceps and triceps) and mixes dumbbells, cables, barbells and machines.
- His workout is “constantly changing,” but he mostly does 4 sets of 12 reps with 60–90 seconds of rest.
The magazine printed a weekly schedule of legs, back, shoulders, arms and abs, legs again, chest and a rest day, each with cardio. Most exercises were 4 x 12, with high-rep leg work such as 4 x 25 walking lunges and leg presses. Treat it as one snapshot, not a fixed plan.
Black Adam (2021–2022): Building Black Adam
In 2022, Rienzi posted a “Building Black Adam” series on Instagram. As summarized by Coach magazine in November 2022, the prep ran about 12 months in four phases. The shared workouts covered arms, shoulders, back, chest and a bonus leg day, using high-volume arm sets on 30 seconds of rest, slow negatives for shoulders, tri-set finishers and a leg day with hip thrusts but no deadlifts.
The Smashing Machine (2024–2025): Bigger and More Athletic
To play MMA fighter Mark Kerr, Johnson had to get bigger. He told Variety, as reported by JoBlo in September 2025, that he gained 30 pounds of muscle built for “fast-twitch capacity,” did more trap and neck work than ever before and held the weight for three and a half months before moving on to the live-action Moana.
He told E! News, as carried by NBC Bay Area on September 9, 2025, that his days went cardio, breakfast, training, another meal, then MMA practice. Rienzi told GQ, as summarized by Men’s Fitness in October 2025, that the six-month prep added shrugs several times a week for the first time in years, plus heavy glute, hamstring and lower-back work.
Where the Sources Disagree
- Training days. He described six lifting days in 2015. The Hercules program has five.
- Rep ranges. He calls 4 x 12 his default, but his leg days have used 20 to 75 reps per set.
- The Hercules injury. Muscle & Fitness placed it about two weeks before filming and reported surgery. The 2014 Bodybuilding.com feature said six weeks and that he and his doctors skipped surgery.
The Rock Diet: What He Eats
The Hercules Diet
The most-quoted version of the Rock diet comes from the September 2014 Muscle & Fitness story, which printed a typical day from most of his six-month Hercules prep:
| Meal | Foods |
|---|---|
| 1 | Filet mignon, egg whites, oatmeal or cream of wheat |
| 2 | Chicken, white rice, broccoli |
| 3 | Halibut, white rice, asparagus |
| 4 | Chicken, baked potato, broccoli |
| 5 | Halibut, white rice, asparagus |
| 6 | Filet mignon, baked potato, salad |
| 7 | Casein protein and 10 scrambled egg whites with vegetables |
The listed totals were about 4,940 calories, 547 grams of protein, 469 grams of carbs and 99 grams of fat.
You will often read that The Rock lives on cod. The plans we could verify list halibut, salmon, chicken and steak instead. Cod may have featured in other phases, but we could not find a primary source for it.
His Usual Diet: Five Meals a Day
In the 2015 Bodybuilding.com feature, Johnson said he generally eats five meals a day, planned and measured in advance. His staples included chicken, steak, egg whites, oatmeal, broccoli, halibut, rice, asparagus, baked potato, salad and casein protein.
For The Smashing Machine, Men’s Fitness reported that Rienzi had him eating six to seven whole-food meals a day plus a shake, high in protein and carbs, without “dirty bulking.”
The Rock’s Cheat Meals
- In late September 2012, he documented a cheat day on Twitter of 12 pancakes, four “double dough” pizzas and 21 brownies, as Grantland reported on October 1, 2012.
- The 2014 Bodybuilding.com feature described a similar “#legendarycheatday” that followed 150 days of strict eating. A later Mashed article from January 2021 put the same meal after a 172-day phase, so the exact number is unclear.
- More recently, his go-to has been sushi with two large chocolate chip cookies, which he has posted on Instagram, according to that Mashed report.
What the Research Says About His Numbers
At about 260 pounds (118 kg), 547 grams of protein is roughly 4.6 grams per kilogram per day. For comparison:
- The International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN) protein position stand says 1.4–2.0 g per kilogram per day is enough for most exercising people, spread across meals of about 20–40 grams every 3–4 hours.
- A 2018 meta-analysis of 49 trials found that gains in fat-free mass from added protein leveled off at around 1.6 g per kilogram per day.
- The ISSN position stand on diets and body composition notes that lean, resistance-trained people in a calorie deficit may need more, about 2.3–3.1 g per kilogram of fat-free mass, to hold on to muscle.
For a 200-pound (91 kg) lifter, 1.4–2.0 g/kg works out to about 127–182 grams of protein a day.
On calories, a 2019 review of off-season bodybuilding nutrition recommended a surplus of about 10–20% for building muscle, aiming to gain 0.25–0.5% of body weight per week as a novice or intermediate. His 4,940 calories reflected his size and training load, so set your own intake rather than copying his.
His cardio before breakfast is essentially fasted cardio. That is fine if you like it, but in a 2014 study of 20 young women on a calorie deficit, fasted and fed cardio produced similar fat loss over four weeks.
Steroids, Genetics and Realistic Expectations
Johnson told MTV News in 2009 that he and his friends tried steroids when he was 18 or 19 and “didn’t know what we were doing,” as NBC Washington reported that March. We won’t speculate beyond what he has said. For the full timeline of what he has admitted, see our article on whether The Rock takes steroids.
No celebrity physique is a fair benchmark. Johnson has elite genetics, more than three decades of training, a dedicated coach, measured meals and time to train twice a day, and some elite physiques also involve drugs. For how to tell the difference, see our guide to steroids vs natural bodybuilders, and for realistic drug-free targets, look at the best natural bodybuilders.
A Sample Week Inspired by The Rock’s Training
This is our adaptation, not Dwayne Johnson’s exact plan. It keeps what he and Rienzi have described (a body-part split, legs twice a week, 12-ish reps and some high-rep leg work) but cuts the volume to a level most people can recover from.
| Day | Workout | Exercises (Sets x Reps) |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Legs (quad focus) | Walking lunges 3 x 12 per leg; leg press 3 x 15–20; back squat 3 x 6–10; leg extension 2 x 15–20; seated leg curl 3 x 10–15; standing calf raise 3 x 12–15 |
| Day 2 | Back | Lat pulldown 3 x 10–12; barbell row 3 x 8–10; one-arm dumbbell row 3 x 10–12; pull-ups 3 x as many as possible, stopping 1–2 reps short of failure; dumbbell shrug 3 x 12; back extension 2 x 12–15 |
| Day 3 | Shoulders and arms | Dumbbell shoulder press 3 x 8–12; lateral raise 3 x 12–15; reverse machine fly 3 x 15; dumbbell curl 3 x 10–12; hammer curl 2 x 12; triceps pushdown 3 x 12–15; overhead triceps extension 2 x 12; hanging leg raise 3 x 12–15 |
| Day 4 | Rest | Walk or light mobility |
| Day 5 | Legs (posterior focus) | Romanian deadlift 3 x 8–10; hack squat 3 x 10–12; hip thrust 3 x 10–12; lying leg curl 3 x 12–15; hip abduction machine 2 x 15; seated calf raise 3 x 15 |
| Day 6 | Chest | Barbell bench press 3 x 6–10; incline dumbbell press 3 x 8–12; machine or Hammer Strength press 2 x 10–12; cable fly 3 x 12–15; dips 2 x as many as possible, stopping 1–2 reps short of failure |
| Day 7 | Rest | Off |
Why It Is Built This Way
- Volume. A 2017 meta-analysis of 15 studies found a graded dose-response relationship between weekly sets and muscle growth. A 2022 systematic review of trained lifters suggested 12–20 weekly sets per muscle as a sound standard. This week gives chest, back and quads about 12–14 direct sets, hamstrings and shoulders about 9 and arms 5, plus indirect work from presses and rows, leaving room to add sets.
- Reps. A 2017 meta-analysis of 21 studies found similar muscle growth with light and heavy loads when sets were taken to failure, although heavy loads built more maximal strength. So the plan mixes 6–10 rep compound lifts with 15–20 rep sets.
- Rest. Johnson’s 60–90 seconds is fine for isolation work, but rest 2–3 minutes on squats, rows and presses. In an 8-week trial in 21 trained men, 3-minute rests produced more strength and more thigh muscle growth than 1-minute rests, and a 2024 Bayesian meta-analysis found a small benefit to resting longer than 60 seconds, with no clear extra gain beyond about 90 seconds.
- Frequency. Legs are trained twice and most other muscles once. A 2019 meta-analysis of 25 studies found frequency made no meaningful difference when weekly volume was equal, although an earlier 2016 meta-analysis favored twice a week. If you prefer, rearrange the same sets into an upper/lower split.
How to Scale It
- Beginners (under a year of consistent training): Train four days (legs, back, chest, then shoulders and arms) and skip the second leg day. Use 2 sets per exercise for the first month and learn the main lifts with moderate weights.
- Intermediates: Run the week as written.
- Advanced lifters: Add a fourth set to the first two exercises each day, or add one drop set to the last set of the final isolation exercise, Hercules-style. Run that harder version for 4–6 weeks, then return to the base plan, as Rienzi did with Johnson.
Progression
Use double progression: when you hit the top of the rep range on every set, add a little weight and work back up. Keep most sets 1–3 reps short of failure, and take a lighter week with half the sets every 6–8 weeks or when performance stalls. Sessions take about 60–75 minutes.
Cardio
Add 20–30 minutes of cardio 3–5 times a week, similar to the Hercules guidance. A 2022 meta-analysis of 43 studies found that combining aerobic and strength training did not compromise muscle growth or maximal strength, though explosive strength suffered when both were done in the same session. An older 2012 meta-analysis found that running, but not cycling, reduced gains, so the bike or elliptical is a safe choice on leg days. Sleep counts too: the CDC recommends 7 or more hours a night for adults aged 18 to 60.
For other programs in this style, compare the Nick Walker workout routine and the Wesley Vissers workout plan. If strength is your main goal, try the Ohio State Buckeye workout chart.
The Bottom Line
The Rock’s workout routine is a hard-working bodybuilding split that changes with each film, and what carries over to normal lifters is the consistency and structure, not the extreme volume or calories.
- His best-documented plan is Dave Rienzi’s Hercules split, a five-day, very high-volume program meant only for the final 4–6 weeks of prep.
- In 2015 he described his default as six training days a week, separated body parts and 4 sets of 12 with 60–90 seconds of rest, plus 30–50 minutes of morning cardio.
- His Hercules diet supplied about 4,940 calories and 547 grams of protein a day, more than double the 1.4–2.0 g/kg the ISSN suggests for most lifters.
- For your own version, build toward 12–20 weekly sets per muscle, rest longer on big lifts, eat 1.4–2.0 g/kg of protein and sleep 7 or more hours.
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