The Rock Shares Lessons He Learned From His Dad During His First Workout
Ever a man of the people, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson has been using his time of coronavirus lockdown to connect with his fans, answering questions about his life and dispensing some of the knowledge he’s gained over his career. Last week, the actor shared a story about the most important career move he ever made in a Facebook video. More recently, he told a story about the first lessons he learned from his father, pro wrestling legend Rocky Johnson, in the gym.
Johnson took the question from inside his personal gym, the Iron Paradise, after wrapping up a lower body training session.
“I first started working out when I was 12 years old,” says Johnson. “My first official workout was with my dad, Rocky Johnson, rest in peace old man, he passed away January 15th of this year.”
While Johnson is reverent about his father, he pulls no punches in describing how tough his old man could be. “My dad was a workout beast and animal and he was built like a brick house,” he shares. “I would always go to the gym with my dad and watch him on the weekends, but wasn’t allowed to work out. so I’d just watch him and all his OG buddies in the gym, training hard and clang and bang, those old school dudes. S0 12 years old in Hawaii, my dad finally said, ‘Alright you can come to the gym with me’,” he shares.
As they headed into the gym, Johnson says his dad told him one thing. “‘Listen. You’re gonna work your ass off. I don’t want any bullshit.’ He goes, ‘Whatever you put on the bar, when we do bench press, you have got to push it up. Whatever weight you choose, you’ve got to push it up, out of the hole,” he says.
Johnson recounts starting out with the barbell and 25 pound plates on both sides (that’s 185 pounds, for those keeping track). He nailed the first set, no issue. Next set, his dad wanted to add just five pounds on each side, but Johnson, noticing people were starting to watch him train, wanted to add 10. With 35 pounds on each side, he barely pushed the weight out of the hole. But feeling himself, he told his dad to put on 45 pounds.
“I don’t know why by the way because I had a fucked up afro and acne all over the place, but I was still feeling myself,” Johnson laughs.
His dad gave him a lift off, and the weight buried him.
“I started to panic and my dad was standing over me saying ‘Push the weight up, push the weight up!'” says Johnson, who also shared the his dad’s chewing tobacco spit was falling on his face. “I’m getting embarrassed, I’m panicking. And my dad says ‘I’m not helping you, I told you.’ And there’s a big scene in the gym…”
Johnson says he got up and was so embarrassed the he wanted to to swing at somebody, but his dad told him to pick up the weights, and offered his most sage advice.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry about other people looking at you. Don’t ego train. Don’t ever train for your ego. It doesn’t matter, who gives a shit who’s watching you? You train for results and you train with weight you can control.’ That’s how you’re gonna be a master basically in the gym, is what he was trying to say,” Johnson says.
Johnson wraps the tale by emphasizing the two lessons he thinks you should take away from this story.
“Two lessons out of this: Don’t ego train at all—this generally applies to men. We are the ones with egos in the gym,” he says. “Don’t ego train, don’t train for your ego. Train for results. And throw on weight that you can handle.”
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