The Doomguy Workout

Dan “DaRatmastah” Wallace
4 min readSep 28, 2017

Discuss this post in RPG FitGroup!

This is an awesome moment in Be a Game Character’s history! For those that are unaware, I have a Patreon set up for Be a Game Character. Patreon is an awesome way for people to support online content that they appreciate, and some awesome people have decided to support this blog! Furthermore, enough awesome people pledge enough money that we hit our $50 per month donation goal, which means a free workout for all of you out there! The Patrons got to suggest characters to do a workout for, and out of the available suggestions, I decided to go with Doomguy, AKA The Space Marine, AKA The Doom Slayer, AKA Doom Marine.

I decided to go with him because he’s actually been suggested a bunch of times, but I never felt as though he was fleshed out enough as a character to merit doing a full breakdown. Similarly, a bunch of other characters were suggested by Patrons for this workout (including Nightwing, Leon Kennedy, Reinhardt, and others,) but I felt as though all THOSE characters really deserved a full character breakdown. So, here we are!

Doomguy isn’t super huge, but he is strong, durable, and tenacious. As such, I’m going to classify him as a Brawler, in the Fighter archetype. We want to build a strong, lean, durable body, capable of going twelve rounds with the nastiest beasties from Hell and still coming out on top! Check out Macros and You! for a good introduction to nutrition, and then follow up with The Secret to Building Mass if you feel like to need to pack on some muscle to hit that Doomguy physique, or The Secret to Burning Fat if you need to shed some bodyfat first!

As usual, you should follow my Warm Up Routine before every workout you do, and then Cool Down afterwards, to help recover more quickly, prevent injury, and increase flexibility!

Note: This workout, like most on the site, is split into four tiers in order to easily plug into the RPG Fitness workout eBook.

Equipment Needed:
Pull Up Bar
Dumbbells
Adjustable Weight Bench

Strength:

Style:
Station — Perform all sets of an exercise before moving on to the next exercise. Rest 1–3 minutes between sets.

Level 1 (Beginner):
3×5–10 Dumbbell Incline Presses (5–20 lbs, each hand)
3×5–10 Chair-Assisted Chin Ups
3x5–10 Dumbbell Overhead Presses (5–15 lbs, each hand)
3×5–10 Bodyweight Squats
3x5–10 One Armed Dumbbell Rows (5–15 lbs, each hand)
3×5–10 Bodyweight Lunges
3 Planks (hold for ten seconds)

Level 2 (Intermediate):
5×5–10 Dumbbell Incline Presses (20–40 lbs, each hand)
5×3–5 Chin Ups
5x5–10 Dumbbell Overhead Presses (15–30 lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Goblet Squats (15–40 lbs)
3x5–10 One Armed Dumbbell Rows (15–35 lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Dumbbell Lunges (5–15 lbs, each hand)
5x5–10 Hanging Knee Raises

Level 3 (Advanced):
5×5–10 Dumbbell Incline Presses (40–65 lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Chin Ups
5x5–10 Dumbbell Overhead Presses (30–45 lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Goblet Squats (40–75 lbs)
3x5–10 One Armed Dumbbell Rows (35–60 lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Dumbbell Lunges (15–45 lbs, each hand)
5x5–10 Hanging Leg Raises

Level 4 (Space Marine):
5×5–10 Dumbbell Incline Presses (70+ lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Weighted Chin Ups (15+ lbs, hold a dumbbell between crossed ankles)
5x5–10 Dumbbell Overhead Presses (50+ lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Goblet Squats (80+ lbs)
3x5–10 One Armed Dumbbell Rows (65+ lbs, each hand)
5×5–10 Dumbbell Lunges (50+ lbs, each hand)
5x5–10 Toes-to-Bar

Strength Notes:

We’re going with mostly dumbbell work here to promote serious strength, while boosting proprioception and uniform bodily development. Lifting two individual weights rather than one single bar requires more stabilization and coordination, so while total lift numbers might be a bit lower than with barbell exercises, overall bodily coordination and development remains high. The idea here is high strength, good muscle mass, and overall combat readiness. Feel free to sub in barbell back squats for the goblet squats if you want, though!

Cardio:

Level 1 (Beginner):
20–30 minute Walk/Jog

Level 2 (Intermediate):
30 minute Jog
4x10 second Sprints (rest 20 seconds between sprints)

Level 3 (Advanced):
30 minute Run
4x15 second Sprints (rest 15 seconds between sprints)

Level 4: (Space Marine):
30–45 minute Run
4x20 second Sprints (rest 10 seconds between sprints)

Cardio Notes:

Doomguy goes forever! Regardless of how many minions Hell throws at him, Doomguy cannot quit! So, we’re building a big cardiovascular gas tank to keep him going indefinitely! Being able to go forever isn’t all, though! He still needs to be able to close the distance to his demon foes! So, for that, we’ve added rounds of sprints to the end of every workout, with an ever-increasing period of sprinting, and an ever-decreasing period of rest between sprints! This will build speed, anaerobic conditioning, and a deep hatred for the ending of every cardiovascular workout you do!

Schedule:

Day 1: Strength
Day 2: Cardio
Day 3: Rest
Day 4: Strength
Day 5: Cardio
Day 6: Strength
Day 7: Rest

Schedule Notes:

A straightforward enough schedule, this will make sure you hit every muscle group multiple times per week, while still allowing time for recovery between workouts. If you’re just starting out, you may want to add an extra rest day on day 4 or 5, omitting that strength or cardio workout (depending on which one you go with. Try to work your way up to the full schedule, but always listen to your body! It’s not worth risking injury.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed the Doomguy workout. Remember, if the Patreon pledges stay above $50 in October, we’ll get a bonus one-shot character workout then, too! Thanks again for all your support, Patrons. You people are awesome! I’ll have to think of a cool $100 monthly goal bonus next, I think! Any suggestions?

See you again on Monday! Live boldly, change the world, and continue to be awesome!

The Best Dan Wallace

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