WWE fan pumped to workout with John Cena

WWE fan pumped to workout with John Cena

Hector Pagan anxiously waits inside Gold's Gym in Dallas with his wife Lisandra. Soon, the 29-year-old Brooklyn resident is met by WWE Champion John Cena, but before he can say, "the champ is here," Pagan is bombarded by WWE and CW camera crews who have come to capture every moment of the next hour of his life.

This is probably not what Pagan had envisioned when he learned he won the Gold's Gym "Win a Boot Camp Workout with WWE Superstar John Cena!" sweepstakes. While Cena changes in the locker room, two cameramen, a soundman, a lighting technician, a producer, a still photographer and a WWE.com reporter go into action. Even Pagan's wife whips out her video camera to document what is happening.

"He's really been looking forward to this," says Lisandra. "My husband buys tickets to every live show that's in New York and every meet and greet that John Cena has in Long Island. He always goes to it with the kids."

Pagan sits on a bench in the corner of gym to do a quick interview before the real workout begins.

"I'm expecting the worst since it's a boot camp workout," laughs Pagan. "I hope he doesn't take it easy on me."

The Champ emerges from the locker room and bangs out a couple of shots for the cameras. Finally, it's time to get the workout underway as Cena leads Pagan over to the free weights. The guys are going to workout Pagan's favorite muscle group: the arms. Cena starts by doing a set of lying triceps extensions, explaining his exercise philosophy as he goes.

"I hate cardio, so if you can move quickly between sets, you don't have to deal with that crap," Cena says as the whole crew chuckles. The Champ finishes his set and hands the weight to Pagan. The men trade off and work through three sets each before taking off across the gym.

Cena demonstrates the next triceps exercise, cable pressdowns, and the men start working through their sets. When Pagan's muscles start to get fatigued, Cena cuts the weight in half and has him do 10 more reps with the lighter weight.

"It's not about how much you lift, but how good you feel afterward," Cena tells Pagan.

The two men go back across the gym to the free weights, camera crews in tow. Cena, who actually worked at Gold's Gym while pursuing a bodybuilding career, rearranges the benches so Pagan can go right from seated overhead triceps extensions to triceps kickbacks.

Next Cena takes him to do dips. Pagan looks at him skeptically since he has never done them before.

"Do as many as you can," The Champ tells him. "If you crash and burn early, that means you're working hard." Pagan makes it through eight dips on the first set and Cena predicts he can do four on the next, but challenges him to prove him wrong. Pagan grinds out five.

For the second half of the workout, Cena focuses on the biceps showing Pagan several variations of biceps curls. The intensity of the workout is really catching up with the sweaty Pagan, but Cena's inner personal trainer comes out to encourage him along.

"He's looking like a champ," says Cena. "You're looking bigger with every set. We're going to take a break soon… after a few more sets," Pagan and the crew all laugh.

The workout is over and Pagan looks relieved.

"It was a great workout," says Pagan whose arms are already sore. "I'm going to continue the workouts he showed me and like he said, to workout fast to get the whole body done instead of coming in, doing a couple of things and not really getting anything done."

"Hector did awesome," says Cena before leaving. "I think today was really good for him. I think he's like everyone else in believing that if you lift weights you have to go heavy and you have to do low reps to get strong. That's not necessarily the case. You can cut down on your injuries a lot and stay healthy not only strength-wise, but cardiovascular-wise just by altering your training a little bit," he says

"You can print this: I don't do any straight cardio. I hate the treadmill. I hate the Stairmaster. I hate bikes. I hate it. This is my message to anyone out there looking to get in shape, wanting to know what to do: don't do anything you don't like because this should be fun. I enjoy being in the gym. I enjoy working out," says The Champ. "If you want to get stronger, but you don't like lifting weights, don't F'n lift weights. If you like to play hoops, play hoops. If you like to golf, go walk 18 instead of getting in a cart. You don't necessarily have to workout in a gym to get healthy."

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