Last updated on June 29th, 2021 at 02:24 pm

For guidelines on how we write these programs please see our Disney Copyright information.We started with a villain (Gaston) and made our way to Mulan, but now it’s time for us to hit the open water.

Starting with Moana and now landing on Maui!

I LOVE Maui’s character, and I LOVE Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, so he’s a perfect mix for me.

By the way, for the start of these articles I would like to say this: I linked to the guidelines above, but in no way is this workout and diet plan that of Maui’s. This is simply a plan inspired by his character and I will be citing all the information I can in order to show where the inspiration is coming from.

So, for anyone who isn’t familiar with Maui’s character, I’ll be talking about all the things you need to know as to why I’m building the routine the way I am.

Maui Possible Stats:

**Normally we’ll be using height ranges that Disney looks for when getting actors for these roles. But I couldn’t find any for Maui!**

Height Range: 6’4+

Movie: Moana

Alignment: Hero

Powers: No

Being that Maui is only the second male, we don’t have enough Disney Inspired characters to compare her to, so I’ll be naming other men we’ve seen below.

For Gaston I named characters, but I think for this one I want to show you where I think he would fall in a range among women celebs we’ve seen.

By the way: I used 6’4+ because that’s the height of his voice actor, and actual Demi-God, Dwayne Johnson.

The average height falls in the range of 6’1-6’3 with celebs like Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Adam Driver, Stephen Amell, Clive Standen and so many more.

Guys around 5’10-6’0 are dudes like Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Jason Statham, but the ACTUAL shorter range is filled with guys like Mark Wahlberg, Zac Efron, Kit Harington, Tom Holland and more.

Even taller than them are guys like The Mountain, Joe Manganiello, Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Winston Duke, Alexander Skarsgard and a few others.

But, don’t worry either way.

We write these routines to be utilized by any shape and size.

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Maui Inspired Diet and Nutrition

**Keep in mind: this section will be nearly identical for each character, but I will add in something special for the Disney Inspired Characters if possible**

Every hero (or villain) needs to still have a good diet.

Unfortunately we can train like them, but I don’t think any of us are suddenly getting their powers, or the ability to magically stop caring about nutrition.

You can’t out train your diet, so I want to still give some pillars for nutrition.

You can start by checking out The Nutrition Pillars on the site, but I’ll break down some more information for you guys as well.

Guys like Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart incorporate 80/20 dieting with big weekly cheat meals, Hugh Jackman, Tom Hopper, Benedict Cumberbatch and Terry Crews utilize intermittent fasting (something I use daily as well), Ariana Grande, Mustafa Shakir and Madelaine Petsch are vegans, Brandon Routh and Frank Grillo opt for paleo, and tons of others utilize their own variations as well.

It’s all about sustainability.

AND, there are a thousand different ways to reach your goals, so finding the most sustainable way is what’s important.

Which is why our Academy utilizes multiple different Nutrition Classes (Greek Gods, Vikings, Spartans, Hunter Gatherers, Monks, Samurais, Minimalists, SuperHumans) to allow people to choose what is right for YOU!

THE MAUI SECTION:

Maui is HUGE!

So while we’re going to be eating Polynesian food like Moana, we’re also going to have to stress eating A LOT of it!

But, sometimes you have to make sacrifices…like eating a ton of good food….

As I said in Moana’s article, if you guy’s haven’t eaten at Disney’s Polynesian Resort, you are missing out.

That’s Brandon’s (Younger Brother, Private Coach and YouTuber) FAVORITE place to eat.

The “Ohana” Breakfast, to be precise.

Either way, here’s some Polynesian cuisine we can add to our diet to be more like Maui:

• Coconut (as we see in Moana)
• Taro and Poi
• Kalua pig (this pained me to write – sorry Pua…)
• Sweet Potato
• Pork
• Poke
• Lomi Salmon
• Pineapple (Polynesian Breakfast Bread from Ohana Breakfast anyone…!?)

And, Disney even shares a fun recipe for us which they call a “Wayfinder Sundae” to host your Moana Movie Night!

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Maui Inspired Workout Routine Research

We’ve made it to “the fun part”.

This is the part when I get to tell you about the “how” and “why” of the workout we’re about to build.

So let’s start by grabbing some information from Maui’s Wiki Fandom page.

Right off the bat we should know the Maui is based on:

Māui, a God in Maori and Hawaiian mythology

And pulling from his Wiki, we find out:

Māui (Maui) is the great culture hero and trickster in Polynesian mythology. Exploits of Maui tend to fall more into the category of folklore rather than religion and myth. Very rarely was Maui actually worshipped, being less of a deity and more of a folk hero. His origins vary from culture to culture, but many of his main exploits remain relatively similar.

If we jump over to our Disney character Maui’s fandom we can find out some of his powers and abilities.

You know, aside from being half human, half god.

They list them as:

Shapeshifting and Super strength

I will not be teaching you how to shapeshift.

Oh, and they also make sure we know he utilizes his magical fish hook as well!

But let’s take this a step further and read the full breakdown of his powers/abilities:

• Godly Strength: Maui possesses extreme superhuman strength in both his arm and leg muscles. The latter allows him to jump significant heights that end with damaging land. Maui’s incredible superhuman strength allowed him to perform impossible feats such as singlehandedly dredging up islands, lassoing the sun, and even pushing up the sky. His strength also lies in his lungs, as he can produce massive gusts of wind to clear a path before or surrounding him; he apparently uses this ability to harness the breeze in the world’s air.
• Immortality: Since becoming a demigod, Maui is virtually immortal, looking the same in the present as he did one thousand years ago. This immortality is likely how he survived on a desert island in that length of time with little or no food or freshwater, and allows him to survive attacks from monsters and other deities that would greatly injure or kill a normal person.
• Fish Hook proficiency: Maui’s most powerful abilities come from his mighty fish hook, which allows him to shapeshift into a wide array of animals, from insects to whales. This proves to be an extremely useful asset, as Maui’s quick changes from massive to pint-sized creatures prevent his enemies from keeping up and laying an attack. The fish hook glows with a blue (purple, if broken) energy when in use, and is strong enough to shatter stone and cause severe damage to deities. Because it was created by the gods, however, it can be just as easily destroyed by a deity. Fortunately, it will take more than one extreme blow to completely destroy the weapon. Maui tends to combine the strength of his muscles and his hook to perform acts such as pulling islands from the sea and lassoing the sun. Without his hook, however, Maui cannot shapeshift. He must also swing the hook a certain way to transform into the desired animal, as evidenced during his fight with Tamatoa. Although he would still have his strength, Maui is considerably less powerful when stripped of his magic weapon, and therefore vulnerable to enemies.
• Shapeshifting: With his hook, Maui is able to shapeshift into anything he can imagine, though mostly just animals. He has been shown to transform into a hawk, an iguana, a beetle, a fish, a shark, a reindeer (resembling Sven from Frozen), a pig, a starfish, a rooster (resembling a larger version of Heihei), and a whale.
• Sentient tattoos: Another significant trait of Maui is his animated tattoos plastered throughout his skin. The tattoos depict Maui’s various exploits and accomplishments. New tattoos magically appear moments after a new milestone has been reached; as Maui explained, they must be earned. All of the tattoos are animated, but one stands out from the rest: Mini Maui. Mini Maui is a tattooed depiction of the actual Maui and acts as the latter’s conscience, biggest supporter, and best friend. They communicate with each other often, and share a loving bond, though their conflicting levels of morality causes them to clash on occasion (with Maui being mischievous and Mini Maui being completely benevolent).
• Master sailor: Even without his powers, Maui is an expert seaman and navigator, able to sail an outrigger canoe with relative ease and use the stars to plot the quickest way to any destination. After successfully escaping the Kakamora using these skills, Maui would later teach them to Moana, albeit paralyzed and not by choice.

We’re going to need to lift a ton of weight….

Do you think you’re up for it?

It’s Maui time!

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The Maui Inspired Workout Routine

Training Volume:

6+ days per week

Explanation:

We are training to be a Demi-God. A Fish Hook wielding, Demi-God. Maui doesn’t have to train. He was born a Demi-God. But we do. So you’ll be seeing inspiration drawn for strength straight from pulling it out of Dwayne Johnson’s workout (AKA Maui and actual Demi-God living among us), and also some Maui Inspired tie-ins.

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Maui Inspired Workout Monday: Chest and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Chest

Barbell Chest Press:

4×12

Incline Dumbbell Press:

4×12

Cable Crossovers (we’ve seen this picture of Johnson before!)

4×12

Dumbbell Flyes

4×12

Dips (The Rock would do these weighted, naturally…)

4×20

Push Ups

4×20

Maui Inspired Workout Tuesday: Shoulders and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Shoulders

Barbell Overhead Press

4×12

Cable Front Raises (Alternating Arms or Straight Bar)

4×12

Dumbbell Arnold Presses

4×12

Barbell Shrugs

4×12

Rear Delt Cable Raise

4×12

Pull Ups

4×12

Maui Inspired Workout Wednesday: Triceps and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Triceps

Skull Crushers

4×12

Overhead Tricep Extension

4×12

One Arm Reverse Grip Tricep Extension

4×12

Tricep Push Downs

4×12

Close Grip Bench Press

4×12

Cable/Dumbbell Kickbacks

4×12

Maui Inspired Workout Thursday: Back and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Back

Deadlift

4×12

Wide Grip Lateral Pull Downs

4×12

Close Grip Lateral Pull Downs

4×12

One Arm Seated Cable Rows

4×12

Hammer Strength Rows

4×12

Wide Grip Pull Ups

4×12

Maui Inspired Workout Friday: Legs and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Legs

Squats

4×12

Calf Raises

4×12

Dumbbell Weighted Lunges

4×12

Leg Press

4×12

Hack Squat

4×12

Box Jumps

4×12

Maui Inspired Workout Saturday: Biceps and Cardio

Cardio

Cardio can be done separate from your workout if you’d like to do a two-a-days.

For cardio you’re either going to be swimming, rowing, or sailing.

Sailing might be difficult for some, so I’ll program you some of the other two.

Swimming:

Full full programming located at the end of this routine.

Rowing Options:

Long and Steady = 20-45 min of long, steady paced row machine

HIIT = 1 min high intensity, then 1 min low/average intensity for 20-30 minutes

Biceps

Preacher Curls

4×12

Dumbbell Hammer Curls

4×12

Spider Curls

4×12

Overhead Cable Curls

4×12

Zottman Curls

4×12

Chin Ups (The Rock would obviously do these weighted as well…)

4×12

Maui Inspired Workout Swimming Day

Okay. Moana is like a dang fish. 

So what do you think MAUI is like!?

For this one we’re going to be utilizing a training program that we saw Nathalie Emmanuel utilize.

It’s the same one I shared for Moana, and it’s good for beginner’s and intermediate level swimmers.

She (Nathalie Emmanuel) mentions a program from Annie Emerson that is shared on Speedo.  It’s a beginner program you can utilize to get you started!

It’s pretty in depth and fun. So get out there and swim.

You can find that here.

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