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John Cena Split Machine (VAN DAMMES!)

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John Cena hands Sheamus the crank on a machine called “Van Dammes” — and by the end, Sheamus is groaning about childbirth.

Sheamus’s fitness channel, Celtic Warrior Workouts, has built a following by pairing pro wrestlers with brutal training sessions, and the clip titled “John Cena Split Machine (VAN DAMMES!)” is one of its funniest entries. Filmed inside Hard Nocks South, John Cena’s private gym, the video catches the two WWE Superstars wrapping up a joint workout with what Cena calls the “last stretch, best stretch” — a crank-operated seated split machine the pair nickname “Van Dammes” in tribute to Jean-Claude Van Damme.

• The session was shot at Hard Nocks South, John Cena’s private training facility, and posted to Sheamus’s channel, listed as S. Farrelly Workouts.
• The machine is a standard commercial split-stretch unit with a manual crank wheel — it has no digital gauge, which Cena addresses directly when Sheamus asks how far is too far.
• Sheamus taps out on tolerance almost immediately, cracking, “Is this what childbirth feels like?” while Cena talks him through the discomfort.

Technical Specifications of Van Dammes Machine

Despite plenty of online chatter crediting Cena with inventing or manufacturing the apparatus, the video shows nothing more exotic than a commercial seated split-stretch machine — the kind found in flexibility studios and physical therapy clinics. It works mechanically: the user sits with their back flat against a pad while turning a hand crank that slowly forces two leg platforms apart. Cena and Sheamus simply gave it a nickname, “Van Dammes,” as a nod to Van Damme’s famous onscreen splits, and the name stuck enough to become the title of the clip.

Cena’s Technique Breakdown

Cena treats the machine like a coaching drill, not a stunt. He tells Sheamus to sit fully upright with his back flat against the pad before touching the crank, then walks him through the mental side of the stretch: “Get into that mode where you can feel it, then just relax through it.” His method is simple — breathe through the initial tightness, turn the wheel a notch further, hold at the new limit, then release slowly rather than snapping back.

Because the machine has no digital readout or progress dial to measure the split angle, Sheamus presses Cena on how he’s supposed to know when he’s pushed far enough. Cena’s answer becomes the line that carries the clip.

“Don’t worry about it. You know when you know.”

Sheamus Finds His Limit Fast

When it’s Sheamus’s turn on the machine, the instructional tone gives way to comedy. He hits his pain threshold well before Cena expected, wincing and groaning through the crank turns before landing his now-quotable line comparing the sensation to childbirth. The exchange is what turns a hip-mobility demonstration into one of Celtic Warrior Workouts’ more replayable segments — two heavyweight in-ring performers reduced to bargaining with a stretching machine over a few extra degrees of range of motion.

For viewers looking to build the kind of lower-body flexibility Cena is demonstrating without a commercial split machine on hand, the mobility principles line up with the stretching and recovery work covered in 10 HIIT Exercises to Lose Belly Fat FASTER, and Sheamus’s own approach to training between matches echoes the kind of gym-floor discipline shown in I Trained Like “The Rock” For 30 Days.

Celtic Warrior Workouts has made a habit of dragging fellow WWE Superstars through exactly this kind of session, and Sheamus has said as much on camera — the “Van Dammes” segment is the payoff of a full training day at Hard Nocks South, not a standalone bit. Cena walks away having barely broken a sweat on the stretch; Sheamus walks away with a new go-to line for describing hip flexor pain.