Pain & Gain: How Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson Bulked Up

Do you smell what The Rock is cookin’!? Well, Marky Mark sure does. Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson go back to their roots to prepare for their recently released film, Pain & Gain, where the two play drug-abusing bodybuilders.

“Once I signed on for doing the movie, I was committed to getting as big as possible. That just meant going back to doing what I used to when I was really young, lifting as heavy as possible and eating 10-12 meals a day.” – Mark Wahlberg tells bodybuilding.com

This action comedy is based on a true story about a group of bodybuilders known as the “Sun Gym Gang” who, in the pursuit of the American Dream, commit to murdering, kidnapping, or torturing anyone who stands in their way.

Attention all men: this perhaps is not the GREATEST movie choice for a first date…

“For a movie like this, that revolves around the world of bodybuilding and the culture of bodybuilding—that we love, by the way, and that we

grew up on—the prep was a good 8-10 weeks, six workouts per week, training twice per day. I did my cardio in the morning.” – The Rock
Wahlberg told E! News, “I was eating 10 meals a day and drinking mass gainers…It was a lot of work. A lot of getting up at 2:00 in the morning to eat another meal and I was still full from the meal at 10 o’clock.”

So, how did Dwayne Johnson and Mark Wahlberg prepare for the role of two bad-ass bodybuilders? Let’s take a look shall we….