John Cena's Athletic Program

The WWE superstar John Cena is starring in “12 Pounds” which will appear in theatres on March 27. He will also be on the cover of next months’ issue of Men’s Fitness, where secrets of his childhood are being revealed. John is the top name in the WWE and weights 250 pounds. How did it all start?

When he was 16, he has gone from 155 to 215 pounds. "To counteract, strictly for self-defense, I wanted to get bigger. I figured if I worked out three times a week, I'd get big. If I did it seven days a week, I'd get huge,” he says. Some said he was taking steroids, but John denies all accusations and says working hard it what he’s made a living out of.

"Train with me for just a week, and you'll see that I'm the guy who drives 250 miles between shows but will be at the gym tomorrow at 10 a.m. when most people are still sleeping in. I'm the guy who'll fly to Australia, find a gym, fly back, and the first thing I do off the plane is work out, before I even shower or eat,” explains John.

His program includes multi-joint movement and core-strength exercises. “I do a lot of balancing stuff, one-leg Romanian deadlifts, a lot of exercises done on the Swiss ball like shoulder presses and dumbbell presses. I use chains and bands to vary resistance. With bands you can lock out the top of a movement or overload the bottom of a movement, depending on where you attach them,” explains John.