When Dwayne Johnson was cast in the lead role for DC black adamHe saw it as an opportunity to enter the the best form of his career, packing on more muscle than ever before to embody the physique of a larger-than-life superhero. He has described the process as one of the hardest things he has ever done, and now his strength and conditioning coach David Riens offers insight into the challenging training program that helped Johnson achieve those epic gains, beginning with his “3D superhero arms.”
“The goal of the building phase was to build only lean muscle,” explains Rienzi in a new Instagram video. “We weren’t bulking up, we weren’t putting on tons of pounds. That meant taking the intensity to another level, and these were some of the toughest workouts DJ has ever done.”
Rienzi begins the session by targeting the triceps with rope pulldowns. “You’re going to want to really squeeze in at the bottom of the rep, with 30 seconds of rest between sets,” he says. This is followed by dumbbell skull crushers, where he advises extending your arms further back to keep that tension on the triceps. He breaks the sets of 12 here into 4 reps with 3-second negatives, 4 with alternating static holds, and 4 regular reps.
Then there are the double cable pushups, where Rienzi alternates between an underhand and overhand grip, and dumbbell kicks with 2-second grips.
After 90 seconds of rest, Rienzi moves on to the biceps and starts with barbell curls. “Focus on pausing at the top of each rep,” he says. “Starting at the gate you’re going to get a crazy bomb.” The next step is dumbbell concentration curls, where he performs 4 reps with 3 seconds down, 4 with 3 seconds hold, and 4 traditional.
Rienzi finishes the workout with a triple set of incline dumbbell curls, incline hammer curls, and EZ-bar spider curls—he calls this his favorite part of the session, finishing strong by working both the biceps and triceps.
Here is Black Adam’s full arm workout:
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Rope pushes (4 x 20)
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Dumbbell Skull Crushers (4 x 12)
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Double Cable Thrusts (4 x 10)
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Barbell Curls (4 x 20)
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Dumbbell Concentration Curl (4 x 12)
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Tri-set: Incline Dumbbell Curl, Incline Hammer Curl, EZ Bar Spider Curl (4 x 8 of each)
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