Working out with The Rock must feel like painting with Leonardo da Vinci, but with a lot more strain on your muscles. It’s the equivalent of making sushi next to Jiro Ono, or playing one-on-one with Michael Jordan, or doing anything with Beyoncé. It’s an experience most people will never have, but will dream about, with fear and anticipation in equal measure.
Toronto-born P.K. Subban and his fiancée Lindsey Vonn have had that indelible experience, and it seems fair to say they will never be the same again.
The couple stopped by one of (one of!!!!) Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s home gyms in Virginia, which he naturally calls the “Iron Paradise.”
In the video Subban posted to Twitter — shot by Vonn, and featuring the requisite soundtrack of Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” — The Rock pushes Subban to make one last lift. “Where the work is,” he whispers, equally soothing and driving.
It’s worth noting that in the video, Subban — a 6-foot-tall, musclebound professional hockey player, looks like a tiny baby compared to The Rock, whose biceps are the width of Subban’s entire body.
Subban captioned the video simply: “Today, I became a man.”
And Vonn, an Olympic gold medallist in alpine skiing, was not simply a videographer. She also posted a video of herself on a Stairmaster next to The Rock.
“P.K., where are you?” she calls out. “I can’t see, D.J.’s guns are too big.”
“I’m in paradise, baby!” Subban responds, from a stationary bike on the other wide of The Rock’s giant muscles.
In a 2017 GQ profile, Johnson, whose dad is Canadian and who played in the CFL, invited the reporter Caity Weaver to work out with him at a different private gym, this one in California. She watched in awe as he performed seemingly impossible feats of strength on machines she struggled to figure out.
“He pulls the straps to himself like he is performing a nylon ballet,” Weaver wrote. “The attached weights simply fly off the floor. His triceps are like captive wild horses that have finally been set free.”
Next time you’re struggling during a workout — or anything, really — just picture The Rock behind you, his enormous arms holding you up, whispering support and motivation. It will help.