[Matt Jansen]

Question

Jellevdd – What do you recommend post contest to your athletes. Push the pedal a little longer with the PED’s , because the food is going up and you can grow a hell more the few weeks after contest. Or you just step back with PED’s and only take the food up. And go from there.
Im thinking of more 6/8 weeks of pushing the pedal. And after 8 weeks step back and go into cruise phase.
I want to know your view and opinion.

And of course all depends on bloodwork and how the body feels/react.

Answer 

This is how I look at it, you can accomplish a lot by just adding food back in so what I prefer to do is add the food back in and let that carry you as far as you can while keeping hormones stable and then once you hit a block you will have then given your system a break and can bring the anabolics up to create another push. If you push hard with both out of the gates you still are going to hit that same block then what do you do?

 

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Isaac –

I would love that and that is ultimately the goal but I dont have the finances yet to do so. I am assuming you are gathering this idea from JP. Jp has done and incredible job, and JP started added pieces to his team once his membership base was around the 3500 member mark so you can do the math here. I started adding around the 500 member mark. Although I would love to have more I am happy with what has been established so far all thanks to you guys

[Matt Jansen]

Feb 18 – Chest and Triceps

Rotation Number 2 today for chest and things went very well. We filmed this session for you guys so it will be up on the site, last week I talked about focus or lack there of going into my chest training so that was something I was locked in on today and it for sure helped.

Slight Incline Barbell Press
375 x 7 (PR)
315 x 10

Slight Decline DB Press
150 x 5 +1 with help (hard to get these into place but I do feel this chest movement for me is paying off. Two things about this lift is there is zero leg drive and also for me I feel I am really able to fully shorten my pecs well.

Hammer Seated Flat Press
4pps x 6 (ish) did not fully lock out this rep
3ppx x rest pause set 7 – 2 – 2

Pec Deck Fly Rest Pause – 2 second hold at full stretch and full contraction on each rep.
160 x max attempt x 3 (here I am just focused on the form and doing as many as I can I lost count due to focus not due to amount of reps lol

Triceps
2 max sets of each of the following

Single D handle pressdown

Rope overhead extension

Seated dip machine

[Matt Jansen]

Pedro – More or less yes but I will do an update here just to keep it within the flow of the log as well!

[Matt Jansen]

Question

Hey Matt,
Another one for you; till how many days / weeks out you keep Yohimbine in?

Answer

I would cut this out by the saturday prior to the show so 6-7 days out 

[Matt Jansen]

Question

Issac

Isaac Tyndall
Participant
Hey Matt,

Loved your video on BrutalMuscle! I could see the passion and dedication you put into every set which is vary rare nowadays. Couple of questions

There’s a lot of controversy going around at the moment to do with ‘Blood Glucose Monitors’. Are these beneficial? Are they only for the advanced?
Do you have a general rule of thumb for how much water you should consume?
I see a lot of people preach 12-15 or even 15-20 reps for best quad development. What are your thoughts on this and does the rep range differ when training hamstrings?
We often discuss the criteria for what makes somebody a good coach. But in your opinion, describe what makes for a good client?
Have you had any clients you’ve had to drop simply because they couldn’t adhere to the plan? (They’d cave in to a cheat meal, they’d skip cardio, missed meals ect)

1) Do I think its important to be mindful of blood glucose levels yes but a young healthy body should have no issue doing this. A lot of parties are not mentioning the GH use along with the diet that is causing an increase in BG but if you look at Natural athletes who consume a high amount of carbs they rarely if ever have issues if they are sticking to their diet, not eating cake and training hard. The issue is when other things come into play IE GH.

2) I would recommend at least 6 liters a day, remember you are a performance athlete!

3) I think there is merit to hitting 5-20 reps all out with legs for sure, hamstrings the same to be honest. Volume overall higher for quads as hamstrings should be getting worked on a properly performed squat as well.

4) Doesnt need their hand held. Goes above and beyond what is required of them within their day. Training, cardio, stretching, rehab work. Asks the right questions, learns for themselves. Timely.

5) I have never dropped a client, all it takes is getting stuck into them as any good coach would once or twice and they drop themselves. 

[Matt Jansen]

Question
Hey Matt,

What do you prefer when you need an Ai. During prep the way to go is Arimidex right. But in the offseason when you need an ai. Its better to switch to Aromasin? Because its less harsh on the lipids ? Is it possible my HDL is dropping because of the Arimidex ?
Thanks

Answer

Jellevdd – Aromasin is better for lipids for sure and you can also run it just fine in prep, HDL will for sure drop from arimidex use.

 

[Matt Jansen]

Question 

Hey. How do you combat Tendonitis.

I have severe Tendonitis in my forearms and tried to train through it.

Not it’s stopping me trainjng back with my usual weights.

Mans can’t train as frequently as what I was trainjng.

I was previously doing legs push pull. Everything twice over 8 day period.

Now im doing

chest/shoulder

rest

quads/calves

rest

back ( but slower and lighter. More pump type stuff to not aggravate tendon )

hams and glutes

rest repeat

 

does this look okay. And what would you do or take to get rid of this Tendonitis.

 

Thankyou

Answer 

Hey Alex

You are going to have to allow more rest in order for the inflammation to heal, thats exactly what is going on is its an inflammation isssue. Look at the big picture I would suggest taking two-three weeks off of anything that hurts it and letting it heal rather than continuing to train through it and causing inflammation on top of inflammation. Your new split however following rest looks good!

[Matt Jansen]

Question

KB –

Hey Brother, 2 questions.

1) I read an article about you incorporating hitting every body part twice a week as you have been current on recent studies and believe in higher frequency. What do you believe is best, particularly for offseason growth? Also how many days/week were you training on higher freq?

Thanks Matt

Answer

1) Hey KB – Here is my honest answer on your first question. Its all about what you can recover from and how you set up your off days (which in my opinion are very much needed) Have you maxed out making progress training everything once a week? Chances are no and before you try to increase frequency if what you are still doing is working then why abandon ship and train something different. I more or less have trained bodyparts once a week since late 2014 and since that point I have gained about ~40 lbs of stage weight. I hate to use Olympians as examples but I really feel that Dorian laid out such a good blueprint.  I would work to learn how to properly maximize a set and get the most out of training everything once per week before increasing your frequency to twice per week yet still not maximizing much of anything. 

2) do you believe in mini diets after say 12 weeks of pushing good and gaining just a bit of fluff in order to increase insulin sensitivity by getting back to lower BF levels and in return priming your body for growth again? Mini diet as in 3-4 week cal deficit?

2) I honestly would rather be a little more conservative and string together periods of growth that are sustainable without having to enter into a deficit 4x a year as you have laid out. I dont think what you are saying is bad in theory but I just think there is more than one way to skin a cat and allowing yourself a sustainable growth period without having to re enter into a deficit is very much do able. 

[Matt Jansen]

Matt definitely salt your meals for sure, if you have high blood pressure address that issue but its not the salt I am assuming this is what you mean by internet confusion!

[Matt Jansen]

Feb 13 – Back training

Good session this morning with Justin that we filmed for you guys. Justin and I are training first thing in the morning so I am waking up and having 1 meal then I drink half of my intra on the way to the gym, the other half at the beginning of training and then water throughout the rest of my workout. Training in the morning is new to me for sure but I am excited to have a partner to train hard with and push so I will get used to the timing of it.

Hammer Pullover
2 plates x 8
4 plates x 8
5 plates x 8
4 plates + 2 – 25’s x max set DROP off 1 25 – max set DROP off 1 25 – max set

Barbell Row
315 x 3 last warm up
365 x 5 (failed on 6th) really aiming to be as strict here as possible)

Incline DB high row
90 x Max Set
85 x Max set

Single Arm DB Row
100 x 6
125 x 9 + 2 partials
125 x 7 + 2 partials

Hammer Low Row
3p + 10ps x 8
3pps x 7

Wide Lat Pulldown
2 sets @ 160 lbs with 1-2 forced reps

[Matt Jansen]

Bar – Keone has expressed to me that he is natural as well and that dates back now to 2017 Arnold Classic I trust him at his word.

Matt – I actually went over this today in the new back training video that will be up in the next week so be on the lookout for that, if it does not address your question then please follow up. In short though yes their is some things that are constant and then a few as you say that are freestyle which just comes down to a love for training and making things hard and challenging.

As far as your question on the leg press I think you are overthinking it a bit. If your foot placement is the same the load should not be shifting that much and if you are recruiting more muscles to me this is not a bad thing at all hence why I am such a big fan of the squat and hack squat for true mass development. At max weights you are for sure going to recruit max muscle but to me this is the entire point.

[Matt Jansen]

Feb 11 – Chest and Biceps

A bit miffed that my Barbell bench press is not to where i expect it to be, after thinking over the session today I think I left some error in terms of being mentally locked in so I am going to try to correct that first before doing anything else. When you are using max weights for max reps you have to be mentally locked in any slight error will take off a rep. I want to be hitting 455 x 5 by this summer and I need to get on it!

Flat Barbell Bench
405 x 7 Reps (slight help on rep 7)

Hammer Incline Press (Full pause at chest on each rep)
5pps x 8
Set 2 – Rest pause set
4pps x 8 / 3 / 2 RP set

Decline Barbell Press (Full pause at chest)
aiming to maintain arch on bench to keep chest open vs caving in. I really feel a lot of activation and stretch in this movement
315 x 7
275 x 6 DROP 225 x 4

Pec Deck Double Drop + Stretch
– 2 second hold on each rep at both the stretch and contraction
It goes like this making sure you do the pause at full stretch and 2 count at full contraction. Keep your arms straight at peak contraction.
160 x max reps – I believe I got 8
145 x max
130 x max – 30 second stretch hold
Only dropping one pin on the stack for each attempt

Stretch chest again

Biceps for biceps we worked up to a max set of 10 then held that weight for an additional 2 sets. 3 sets total on each movement keeping max weight from set 1 on each movement

• Hammer Preacher Curl
• Rope Hammer curl
• Cable standing drag curl

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Bar Pharma – Good question man! So if I was at that point and was not making progress I would really nit pick my form. If someone is moving those loads and not growing something is probably off in the execution so I would start there. If there was not an execution issue I would still slow down my reps and find ways to make the reps harder IE slow eccentrics contracting all the way down, pausing in the fully stretched position under load, making sure to fully contract the load through the muscle being worked and not place the load on and off the joint constantly IE knees, lower back ect.  If at this point I was not growing still I would look to then add more volume because chances are if I had checked all those boxes and nothing was happening then I would be still be training under my threshold for recovery hence my body seeing no reason to make a change.

Nick – Let me know how it goes!

[Matt Jansen]

Feb 7 – Arms

Hard arm session recommend you guys to try this if you are in a rut with your arm training.

Cambered Bar pressdown
– work up the stack until you hit a max set of 15 reps all out. This will serve as a warm up as well as 1 working set

Cambered Bar Slight Incline Skull Crusher
100 x 8
110 x 8
135 x Max set DROP 110 x max set DROP 100 x max set
Done here

Machine Dips
Find a weight you can hit for the hardest set of 10-12 you can get and hit a total of 12 sets at this weight, Rest pause the second set until you reach the same number of reps as the first set.
(I used the stack here)

Single Arm D Handle Pressdown
Sets of 10 leading up to a max set where you fall short of 10 and with this set drop set it by dropping 1 pin and hitting failure again.
I used 50 – drop – 42.5 here.

Leaning Single Arm DB Curl
I lean back slightly and put the middle of my back into a pole, keep my shoulder back and complete all reps on one arm before doing the other arm.
I worked up to a set of 45 lb x 8 here

Lying D handle Drag Curl
worked up to a max set of 6-10
then two back off sets at the same weight. Hard contractions with a full pause – slow eccentrics – pausing at stretch which with this variation you will have tension on your biceps.

DB Hammer Curl (alternating arms)
Worked up to the following – did sets of 8 with hard contractions all the way up
45 x max set DROP 30 x max set

[Author]

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