Dwayne Johnson explained his rules for the gym—and life in general—in a new video.
As one of the most booked-and-busy actors in the entertainment industry, with a family and about a dozen side hustles, Dwayne Johnson might be forgiven for occasionally skipping a workout. But as the wrestler-turned-movie-mogul explains in a new video on his YouTube channel, committing to consistency in his workouts every day actually helps him to achieve his goals and solve problems elsewhere in his life.
“I don’t just load these bars with metal plates. I put everything on them,” he says. “My anxieties, my fears, my hopes, my dreams, and my responsibilities as a provider, a father, a husband, a businessman. And some say, even a leader. Whatever I’m dealing with out there, that’s what I’m working through in here.”
“In the gym, as in life, raising the bar isn’t always about putting on a big show,” he continues. “It’s the small quiet promises you make to yourself. The ones you could break, and no-one would know, but you don’t. You show up every day and meet this gym on its terms; with humility, gratitude, and respect. Through struggle, through pain, through sweat. Through the little voice deep in your gut that says you could quit any second, but you don’t. You raise, and raise, and raise again.”
Johnson further clarified his philosophy in a recent Instagram post, in which he explained how reframing things enabled him to approach his training from a new perspective.
“When it comes to hard work and things I’m passionate about – years ago, I stopped saying ‘I have to’ and started saying ‘I get to,'” he wrote. “Big psychological shift on how you approach the daily grind of shit we gotta get done… I ‘get to’ train hard and push myself to the breaking point. I ‘get to’ get my ass kicked and come back stronger. I ‘get to’ be the hardest worker in the fucking room. Because when you ‘get to’ do the things you love – it’s a privilege.”
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