As I begin this program, I weigh about 214 pounds, only a little less than I did at my most muscular—224 pounds. But I’ve also added a considerable amount of body fat and lost plenty of muscle since I completed my Ironman and ultra-marathon. Now it’s time to concentrate on building muscle while reducing body fat.

I like to work out midday, and I take in a dose of PRE-KAGED about 40 minutes before all of my weight-training workouts. Then I consume IN-KAGED during workouts to ensure I finish my workout strongly. Make sure to consume plenty of fluids with the nutrients in these Kaged Muscle products to better volumize your cells.

Today’s workout emphasizes back and soleus, the calf muscle underneath the gastrocnemius. The soleus provides definition when you look at your lower legs from the sides, both interior and exterior.

But the key to today’s workout is back training, a large muscle group. I’ll be emphasizing the Rest-Pause Principle throughout this workout. The goal is to reach failure at around 6 reps before the advised amount of reps in the chart below. Then you perform rest-pause for an additional 6 reps. To do this, rest for 5–10 seconds before performing another 2 or so reps. Perform as many reps in each of your subsequent portions of this set until you’ve completed the total reps. The Rest-Pause Principle is a good choice when you want to go a little heavier and don’t have a training partner available. You’ll be using this principle for every working set of this workout. Don’t forget to stretch the muscles you’re training between sets.

Perform warm-up sets, especially early in your workouts and when you switch body parts, but remember that these sets don’t count toward your working ones in the chart. Keep rest between working sets to no more than 90 seconds.

Reverse-grip pulldown Sets: 3 Reps: 16-18 Strategy: Rest-Pause
Straight-arm pullover Sets: 3 Reps: 10-12 Strategy: Rest-Pause
T-Bar row Sets: 3 Reps: 16-18 Strategy: Rest-Pause
Bent-over row Sets: 3 Reps: 16-18 Strategy: Rest-Pause
Shrug Sets: 3 Reps: 20 Strategy: Rest-Pause
Seated calf raise Sets: 3 Reps: 30 Strategy: Rest-Pause
HIIT Sets: 1 Reps: 3 Strategy: 4 minutes easy/1 minute full intensity for a total of 15 minutes

POST WORKOUT

After your workout, get in a dose of RE-KAGED ASAP to begin the recovery process. Add Creatine HCl if you have a lot of body mass, and I always add fermented BCAAs to support recovery.

Take a look at my Day 1 videos for more information about how to perform each exercise and my thoughts on why I’ve selected them for this workout. As you can see in the video, I’m pumped for the pump. I’m eager to get started on my new 8-Week Muscle-Building Trainer, and I hope you are, too.