It’s been an entire month since Redditor nycballer posted onto r/fitness that he was going to try to eat and train like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for 30 days, and while The Rock himself was at least slightly skeptical at first…
…it appears that his skepticism was unfounded. Not only did nycballer make it the whole 30 days, he did it while adhering to this ridiculous regimen:
The Eating
Meal 1 – 10 oz cod, 2 whole eggs, 2 cups oatmeal
Meal 2 – 8 oz cod, 12 oz sweet potato, 1 cup veggies
Meal 3 – 8 oz chicken, 2 cups white rice, 1 cup veggies
Meal 4 – 8 oz cod, 2 cups rice, 1 cup veggies, 1 tbsp fish oil
Meal 5 – 8 oz steak, 12 oz baked potato, spinach salad
Meal 6 – 10 oz cod, 2 cups rice, salad
Meal 7 – 30 grams casein protein, 10 egg-white omelet, 1 cup veggies (onions, peppers, mushrooms), 1 tbsp fish oil
Calories: 5390, Carbs: 533g, Fat: 97g, Protein: 430g
The TrainingMonday – 50 minutes elliptical, Chest Workout
Tuesday – 50 minutes elliptical, Legs Workout
Wednesday – 50 minutes elliptical, Arms Workout
Thursday – 50 minutes elliptical, Back Workout
Friday – 50 minutes elliptical, Shoulders Workout
Saturday – 50 minutes elliptical, Legs Workout (repeat)
Sunday – Rest
ChestIncline Barbell Bench Press 4×12/10/8/6
Flat Bench Dumbbell Press 4×12
Incline Hammer Strength Press 4×12 (Alt arms, start extended)
Flat Bench DB Fly 3×12
Cable Crossover Superset w/ Dips 3×15/FailureLegs
Leg Extension 4×25
Leg Press Superset w/Weighted Walking Lunges 4×50/40
Hack Squat Machine 4×20
Romanian Deadlift 4×12
Lying Leg Curls 4×12
Standing Calf Raise 5×75
Seated Calf Raise 5×50Arms
Biceps – Perform all 3 as a Tri Set, Rest One
Preacher Curl w/ EZ Bar 4×12
Standing BB Curl w/ EZ Bar 4×12
Dumbbell Curl 4×12Triceps – Perform all 3 as a Tri Set, Rest One Minute Between
Rope Pushdown 4×12
Rope Overhead Tricep Extensions 4×12
Triceps Dips to Failure 4×12Back
Pullups (Wide Grip) 4xFailure
One Arm DB Row 4×12/10/8/8
Hammer Strength Two Arm Row 4×10
Close Grip Pulldown 3×12
Cable Row (Double Drop Set) 3×12
Rope Pullover Super Set w/ Rope High Row 3×15/15
DB Shrugs 4×12 (15 sec hold end of each set)Shoulders
Hammer Strength Shoulder Press 4×12/10/10/8
Seated DB Shoulder Press 3×10
Standing Side Lateral Raises 4×12
One Arm Cable Side Lateral Raise 3×20
Reverse Fly Machine 4×12
Bent Over Lateral Raise 4×10
The guy’s meal prep was literally insane:
For the record, nycballer is 6’3” and 207 pounds while The Rock is 6’5” and 260 pounds. You’d think that he would’ve gained weight eating over 5,000 calories a day, and yet at the end of his month-long training…
After eating 5300 calories a day for 33 days, more than 23 hours of cardio, and almost 80lbs of cod!, I gained a total of 1lb. After over 28 hours of weight training, I got leaner and gained some muscle in my upper arms (most triceps), upper legs (mostly quads), my upper chest (you can see it pulled my chest up).
As for his results, nycballer says that he went from being able to incline bench at around 115 pounds to being able to do 150 pounds, and can now rock the leg press at 220-240 pounds:
I got stronger, though I hadn’t done much isolated lifting in years, so definitely a lot of beginner gains here. I probably increased weights around 10-15% or so. Just to pick two random exercises for an example: In the beginning of the month, I started the incline bench at around 115lbs (4×12/10/8/6), and now it starts at 150lbs. I was originally doing the 200 reps of leg press at 160-180lbs, now it’s at 220-240lbs.
One change to the workout: in week 3, the lack of ab work became quite apparent, so I added 3 ab exercises: leg raises, russian twist, and stir the pot.
Most people would assume with all the food he was eating that nycballer would feel overly full, sluggish, maybe even nauseous from eating so much – however, this wound up not being the case. Supposedly he wasn’t even sore from working out!
HOW I FELT ALL MONTH
Terrific. Even with so much food, I never felt overly full. Every morning I would do 50 mins of cardio, then eat 10oz of cod, 2 cups of oatmeal, and 2 hard boiled eggs (at the gym!) then weight train. I always used to work out on a mostly empty stomach (just a shake) so I thought this would make me nauseous, but it felt good.Even with all the workouts, I never felt sore. All the food seemed to be fueling my recovery. Even the little aches and pains of being in your late 30’s went away. I also was serious about stretching/foam-rolling at the end of the workouts, so I didn’t feel very tight either.
In the end, nycballer says his month spent training like The Rock “was an extremely positive experience” and that he highly encourages “everyone to push themselves to try something new for a month.”
If I had to do it over, the only change would be to take a ton of measurements, pictures, body scans, blood tests, etc beforehand. Would have been nice to quantify it more. There seems to have been a nice change in my body fat %, would have been great to have those numbers (anyone want to make estimates?).
Would I suggest this plan to others? If you’re chasing the physical results, you’re almost certainly better off putting together a routine and meal plan specifically for you. It’s also extremely expensive, at $42/day. While cod is an excellent source of low calorie, low fat protein, that benefit doesn’t outweigh the cost of, say, chicken breast.
The results don’t lie: he didn’t gain any noticeable weight which means he’s definitely not lying about only gaining one pound, and you can see more definition in his stomach:
As for The Rock’s verdict? Well…
It looks like the man himself approves.
[Via Reddit]