How John Cena Built His WWE Body

John Cena represents the holy grail of what most guys want to achieve in the gym.

His hybrid physique combines elements of abominable strength, sleeve-busting muscularity, and a leanness which screams professional athlete.

Today is Cena’s 46th birthday (although rumour has it he kicked out at 45), and we’ve been invited along to Hard Knocks South Gym to witness one of his trademark workouts and discuss his approach to all things fitness and nutrition.

Hit the entrance music!

A Foundation Of Strength

John Cena is a very strong individual.

He’s the type of guy who can probably gargle peanut butter.

His workouts often draw a crowd due to the sheer amount of weight he can lift and the speed he moves, so it makes sense that his chosen career path involved tossing huge humans around a ring six nights per week, but what most people don’t know is that John almost became a powerlifter.

In fact, you can still see many of his personal records from the late 1990s scrawled on the dusty walls of the original Hard Knocks Gym in Massachusetts (including a 480lb bench press and 600lb deadlift).

This background laid the foundation for his time in WWE, and he would return to this training style in his later years, when injuries and a busy schedule began taking their toll. After seeing how The Undertaker adapted his training to allow himself to continue wrestling from 2013 onwards, Cena made a similar move and took his training back to basics to focus purely on strength (so if you think he’s looked differently in the last 5-6 years, now you know why).

Here’s a short video of him nailing a set of 485lb deadlifts in the build-up to his match against ‘Taker at Wrestlemania 34. Perhaps even more impressive than the technique is the fact that Cena put this much effort into training for a match he was scheduled to lose in 8-minutes!

Becoming “Big Match John”

Soon after breaking through the ranks in WWE, John decided to swap out his powerlifting workouts for a classic bodybuilding program.

WWE is the land of big muscles and great bodies, so this move made a lot of sense.

He set up a 5-day bro split where each large muscle group is trained once per week (e.g. chest day), and each workout lasted about one hour. He would mainly focus on high rep sets. This was a useful tactic for steering clear of injury, because it enabled him to add plenty of muscle mass without placing a huge amount of stress on his central nervous system.

(Of course, it’s worth noting that John Cena was able to perform 15-20 reps with the kind of weight most people would struggle to hit 5-6 reps with!)

He stuck to this high volume training program for 15 years straight, only deviating from it when he was rehabilitating from knocks he’d sustained in the ring, and somehow managed to balance it alongside his daily regimen of wrestling (including live shows, rehearsals, and practice), accepting more Make A Wish requests that anybody (ever), and having one of the craziest travel schedules I’ve ever seen. The man is a machine.

You can find the workout program down below.

John Cena’s Classic WWE Workout Program (2000-2015)

Day 1: Legs & Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Seated Calf Raise	10	10-20	30 sec
Bodyweight Calf Raise	4	10	30 sec
Standing Single-leg Curl	4	20-25	60 sec
Leg Press	5	20	60 sec
Leg Extension	4	15	60 sec
Barbell Squat	4	10	90 sec
Hack Squat Machine superset with Single-leg Extension	3	15 10	0 sec 60 sec
Crunches	1	60	n/a

Day 2: Chest & Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Incline Chest Press Machine	4	20	60 sec
Incline Barbell Bench Press	4	20	60 sec
Pec Deck Machine	4	15	60 sec
High-to-low Cable Flye	4	15	60 sec
Flat Barbell Bench Press	3	10	60 sec
Crunches	1	60	n/a

Day 3:Biceps, Triceps & Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Preacher Curl	5	12	60 sec
Standing Barbell Curl	3	10-12	60 sec
Seated Dumbbell Curl	3	10-12	60 sec
Standing Cable Curl	3	10-12	60 sec
Rope Pushdown superset with Single-arm Pushdown	3	20 10	0 sec 60 sec
EZ-bar Skullcrushers	6	15-20	60 sec
Overhead EZ-bar Extension	3	20	60 sec
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Extension	3	20	60 sec
Triceps Dips	4	10-20	60 sec
Crunches	1	60	n/a

Day 4: Shoulders & Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Rear Delt Flye Machine	5	20	60 sec
Shoulder Press Machine	5	20	60 sec
Lateral Raise Machine	5	15	60 sec
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press	5	10	60 sec
Dumbbell Lateral Raise	3	12	60 sec
Barbell Shoulder Press	3	10	60 sec
Crunches	1	60	n/a

Day 5: Back & Abs

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest
Wide-grip Lat Pulldown	5	20	60 sec
Bent-over Barbell Row	5	12-20	60 sec
One-arm Dumbbell Row	5	12-20	60 sec
Barbell Deadlift	4	8-15	90 sec
High Pull	4	20	60 sec
Pull Ups	4	15-20	60 sec
Barbell Shrugs	5	20	60 sec
Crunches	1	60	n/a

Eating Like John Cena

As you’ve probably gathered, Cena doesn’t do things by half.

So if you want to eat the way he ate during his WWE days it’s going to require less of a diet and more of a lifestyle change (or day we say an Attitude Adjustment).

He likes to strip out all of the unnecessary “fluff” from his nutrition plan and stick to the proven basics. The end result is a rigid, somewhat robotic meal plan. But while most people struggle with “old school” nutrition plans like this, Cena actually draws comfort from the struggle, having seen the results it can produce several times throughout his career.

“I prefer to set a deadline for my goals and then just do what needs to be done.

I’ve always achieved my best results that way.

So I’ll typically commit to a nutrition plan for a few months at a time, and then give myself a few days off, then get straight back on the horse for the next project.

It probably sounds strange to a lot of people, but I don’t really partake in “cheat days” or having weeks off, because I think they can be the start of a very slippery slope. I mean, I’ve known guys in the business who took a few days off when they didn’t feel in the mood, and then those days turned into weeks, and before they knoe w it, they were completely out of shape. Believe me, I like pizza and donuts as much as the next person, but you have to make a choice.”

– John Cena

Breakfast:

Oatmeal with applesauce and raisins.
2 whole eggs with 6 egg whites.

Mid-morning snack:

Protein bar.

Lunch:

2 chicken breasts with brown rice and vegetables.

Mid-afternoon snack:

1 can of tuna with a whole-wheat pita bread.

Pre-workout:

1 scoop performance pre-workout.
1 scoop pump pre-workout.

Post-workout:

1 banana.
3 scoops of whey protein.
2 scoops creatine.

Evening meal:

Chicken/fish with pasta/brown rice, vegetables, and salad.

Late night snack:

2 scoops casein protein.
Low fat cottage cheese.

Which Supplements Does John Cena Use?

Cena has used Performix Nutrition supplements throughout his WWE career, and eventually announced a business partnership with them in 2019.

You can see his WWE supplement stack below.

• Performix Whey Protein
• Performix Creatine Monohydrate
• Performix SST V2X Pre-Workout
• Performix Supercharged Pump Pre-Workout

How John Cena Trains Nowadays (2015-)

Cena ditched the bodybuilding-style approach and reverted back to a strength program in 2015.

He did this in order prolong his wrestling career alongside his hectic travel schedule and ever-growing list of work commitments, after watching The Undertaker make a similar move two years earlier.

It turned out to be a wise decision, as he was able to balance his acting career alongside frequent returns to the ring, while steering clear of most of the old injuries which had dogged him throughout his late 30s.

Reverting back to a strength program meant that Cena carried significantly less muscle mass during his later years, but he retained all of his raw strength (he even set a new deadlift PR of 650lbs at age 43) and gave him a chance to get back to doing what he does best – picking up very heavy things!

His program now consists of a series of 6-week blocks which stay in the lower rep ranges. He’s also reduced the total umber of workouts, and takes longer between sets in order to maximize recovery.

And finally, he’s started placing extra focus on developing his hamstrings, as he’s considered them a weak point throughout his whole career.

You can see his modern day training program below.

“We can easily get caught up in trying to do everything, all at once.

You can make that mistake when you’re younger, but not when you’re older.

Nowadays I just do what I must do in order to be the best I can be at my job. Part of that is to focus on my weaknesses, which for me is my hamstrings. If you have disproportionate hamstring strength, don’t ignore it. Face it and prioritize it by making it a focal point of your plan. It’s not hard to do. My modern day training isn’t flashy (anyone who isn’t a fan would probably think it’s boring AF), and that’s fine – as long as I get to perform at my best for WWE I’ll do whatever I have to do.”

– John Cena

Day 1

Exercise	Week	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Squat (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	3 3 3 4 4 –	8 6 5 3 2 Max	120 sec
Barbell Front Squat (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	3 3 3 3 4 –	8 6 5 3 2 Max	120 sec
Lying Leg Curl Barbell Squat (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	All	3	6	90 sec

Day 2

Exercise	Week	Sets	Reps	Rest
Flat Barbell Bench Press (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	3 3 3 4 4 –	8 6 5 3 2 Max	120 sec
Barbell Pause Bench Press (Use the same weight from the previous exercise if possible, and do these as singular reps with a 2-second pause at the bottom)	1 2 3 4 5 6	8 6 5 3 3 3	1 1 1 1 1 1	45-60 sec
One-arm Dumbbell Row superset with Incline Dumbbell Bench Press	1-3 4-6	4 4	8 each 5 each	90 sec
Pull Ups superset with Dumbbell Pullover (In weeks 4-6 switch to weighted pull ups)	1-3 4-6	3 3	10 each 5 + 10	90 sec

Day 3

Exercise	Week	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Snatch (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	4 4 4 4 2 3 –	3 (at 75%) 3 (at 80%) 2 (at 83%) 2 (at 85%) 2 (at 90%) 1 (at 95%) Max	120 sec
Barbell Power Clean (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	4 4 4 4 2 3 –	3 (at 75%) 3 (at 80%) 2 (at 83%) 2 (at 85%) 2 (at 90%) 1 (at 95%) Max	120 sec
Barbell Front Squat (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1 2 3 4 5 6	3 3 3 4 4 –	8 6 5 3 2 Max	90 sec

Day 4

Exercise	Week	Sets	Reps	Rest
Barbell Push Press (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1-3 4-6	3 3	5 3	90 sec
Close-grip Barbell Bench Press (Perform as many warm-up sets as necessary, then these working sets)	1-3 4-6	3 3	5 3	90 sec
Tri-set: Dumbbell Skullcrushers Cable Backhand Seated Dumbbell Curl	All	3	6 10 8	90 sec
Tri-set: Bradford Press Barbell Reverse Curl Barbell Shrugs (Switch between 6 and 12 reps each week on the third exercise)	All	3	8 8 6/12	90 sec

Further Reading:

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