Dwayne Johnson Shares A Trainer With Henry Cavill, And He Recently Revealed How The Rock Got Black Adam Swole

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam
(Image credit: Warner Bros.)

Dwayne Johnson has always looked like a superhero, but when it came to playing an actual superpowered person in Black Adam, The Rock took things to a whole new level. We saw lots of social media images of Johnson working out hard for the film, and now his trainer has talked specifics about what Johnson did to get even bigger than he usually is.

Dave Rienzi is the trainer for Dwayne Johnson as well as Henry Cavill, marking yet another important connection between the two DC stars, Dany Garcia, one of Johnson's business partners is also Cavill's agent. He recently spoke with GQ about the Black Adam workout that The Rock put himself through. Including not just where the focus of the exercise went, but what the goal of it all was.

The Black Adam training process was chest and triceps, back and biceps, shoulders, arms, then chest and back – one of those groups a day – but focused on getting lots of blood into the muscle as opposed to training really heavy. Day six is normally on Sunday, so there's a day off beforehand, and that'll be leg day.

When Dwayne Johnson began preparing to actually play Black Adam, after agreeing to the role years ago, it wasn’t simply about staying in shape. The Rock wanted to look every bit the superhero without any sort of help. This meant not simply doing more of the work he was already doing, but changing things up. It’s not just about building the muscles but doing it in a way that will make Black Adam look a certain way on camera. 

Of course, in addition to the workouts, Dwayne Johnson needs to eat to build his body. Like with his workouts, we see a lot on social media about what The Rock eats, though that’s usually on his cheat days. But it turns out that The Rock ate even more during his normal workouts than he usually did…  

For Black Adam we actually increased the food to seven meals a day, as we were really pushing his physique – trying to get the abs on point while getting those quads to really fly out and cap the shoulders. He was getting close to 500g of protein daily, and we’d add carbs and fats while looking to gain mass, cutting them when leaning out.

Needless to say, that’s an incredible amount of food for Johnson to consume, and eating seven meals is a lot for anybody, even if you have a workout that burns an incredible amount of calories every single day.  

The good news for Dwayne Johnson is that the work appears to have been worth it. Black Adam has won the domestic box office for two weeks in a row, and fans are excited not only for him but for the return of Henry Cavill as Superman. It would seem that as a trainer Dave Rienzi has a lot more work ahead of him, with two clients that need to be kept in Superhero shape.  

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.