Dwayne Johnson Walking Tall Workout

As he transitions into meatier roles that require him to look less superhuman--this spring's gritty remake of Walking Tall; the summer 2005 flick Spy Hunter; and a comic turn in Be Cool, the ensemble follow-up to Get Shorty--his body has needed to transition as well. He's lost 20 pounds and slashed his body fat from 14 percent to 7 percent--all through a program you'll find in these pages. Just another Kafka moment in a pop-culture work in progress? Hardly. The longer we sat in that diner booth with the Rock, the clearer it became that, to him, change is sustenance. Another evolution was at hand--bigger and better roles were coming. It was time to shed the cartoon qualities that work under wrestling's bigtop, and project totally unexpected qualities: human warmth, vulnerability, and humor. That's when the Rock's blue-chip workout program--the one that had kept him primed for years of turnbuckle abuse--failed him. "I'd work out religiously," he recalls, "but my muscles were flat. And I always felt like I was running on empty. Not only was I not seeing any gains, I was barely maintaining." But the Rock has seen and accepted more change than the cheapie slots at the MGM Grand. "I like change," he says, spearing--maybe even bruising--the tabletop with his forefinger for emphasis. "Being on the road with my dad, traveling from state to state and living like a gypsy, man, life made me deal with change. Now, whenever change is needed, I say, 'Okay, I get it. Let's devise a plan and see what I can do.' " For this evolution, the Rock consulted a new trainer, Billy Beck, and with a new plan in hand, slimmed down to 245 and cut his body fat in half in 4 months. The amount of time he spent in the gym didn't change. The amount of food he ate did: He had to eat more.