What The Rock Is Cooking: Man Follows Diet And Exercise Plan Of Dwayne Johnson
Most people looking to spice up their life a bit would go on vacation, try out a new hobby or get a haircut. Not Mark Webster. Instead, he looked to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson for inspiration.
Webster, a 37-year-old startup founder living in New York City, decided to create Rock’ing for 30 Days, a monthlong challenge where he follows The Rock’s eating and exercising plan verbatim. That means spending about two hours a day, six days a week, in the gym doing cardio training and weightlifting, as well as eating exactly the same amount of food the six foot, five inch, 260-pound former professional wrestler gobbles down each and every day.
The Rock’s diet has been well-documented over the years on the movie star’s Instagram page, as well as in interviews with fitness websites. Webster collected all the information he could on how much Johnson eats, and the numbers are pretty staggering. Over the course of the day, Webster found The Rock eats seven meals for a total of 5,165 calories, 566 grams of carbohydrates, 109 grams of fat, and 460 grams of protein. That’s nearly three times the amount the USDA recommends for the average male. The most interesting aspect of The Rock’s diet is his consumption of cod. Johnson eats about 2.3 pounds of the fish each day, which stat-site FiveThirtyEight calculated to mean he spends about $1,400 a year on cod alone.
As for gym time, The Rock spends about 50 minutes each workout on the elliptical before hitting the weights for upwards of 90 minutes. Webster found Johnson’s training plan looked something like this:
Monday: 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
Sunday: Rest
In a recent Reddit post, Webster said he was about halfway through the challenge, and had learned a few tidbits thus far. The hardest part of the whole endeavor was the meal prep. "All in all, it takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to do all the prep," Webster told Tech Insider. "My kitchen becomes like a little cafeteria." Eating like The People’s Champ doesn’t come cheap either: Webster said he spends about $42 per day on himself, rocketing his food costs over the course of the month up to around $1,200.
Webster said ingesting more than 5,000 calories each day hasn’t affected his weight at all. He’s noticed his abs and shoulders are a bit more defined, and his midsection feels flatter and wider. He said he feels great, even after going through a grueling eating and exercising regimen. Webster said he’ll end the pace of his challenge at the end of the 30 days, but will still take the things he learned, like how important nutrition is to exercise, with him as he goes back to leading a normal life. He also said he’ll never eat cod again.