[Matt Jansen]

Question 

Matt, off season in period ON you recommended how much training per week? Same question in period OFF  how much training per week?
Do the workouts change when you are OFF or ON?
Thanks Matt

Answer 

Hey FrenchBB – my split does not change in either phase I just pay more attention to my rest and recovery. If I do not feel recovered I take another day off. For example was supposed to hit hamstrings yesterday but was still very sore from quads on Wednesday so I took off yesterday and will hit them today. Today being my typical day off.

[Matt Jansen]

Wanner – Yes eventually I can do that, possibly work hands on with someone in a prep phase the next time we are together!

[Matt Jansen]

Question

Hi Matt
For someone who is stuck in a rut with training and eating and needs something to work towards what would you recommend sitting about 12-15% body fat would you tell them to cut it down for 8-12 weeks then to build from there or build for a couple of months get some more muscle then tidy it up?
Thanks Dylan

Answer 

Hey Dylan – I think the bottom line is you need to figure out why you are in a rut and work on that. Maybe change your training time, wake up earlier, find what got you back into this in the first place. Setting a goal is great but if you dont address why you are stuck in a rut first the goal is going to be there and possibly un reached because a few weeks in if the problem still exists you are not going to be accomplishing your goal as best you can.

[Matt Jansen]

Question 

Diepo –

Hey Matt,
i know you are a big fan of progressive overload and the dorian training,
what is you opinion in this type of training with the push, pull, legs split like jordan peters or John Jewett do?

Answer 

Hey Diepo – It obviously works and there is merit to it, its just not my preference. I just dont enjoy it and I want to enjoy what I am doing in the gym. Also something else in terms of how I look at it, I think Dorian did what he did with less “genetics” than his competition and dominated. I believe the blue print he laid out is very sound so why try to reinvent it. The heavier I get and more muscle I have the more need I have for recovery but within that I love to train and really get locked in with a body part until until its done. I dont like being locked into two or three exercises max and I also dont like being in the gym for 2 hours. Not that I cant handle it but I dont feel its beneficial I cannot perform at the same level for that long with set after set of all out effort.

I also just answered something very similar on my personal log so you can check there as well for my response a bit different but along the same lines as this.

[Matt Jansen]

Quads – Dec 6

I honestly hate to have to keep bringing up my leg because its annoying and the last thing I want is to be whoa is me but at the same time if I am not keeping you guys updated on it I feel I am going greatly against my own coaching strategies in terms of training so I want to be transparent. When it comes to my leg training I am trying to do whatever  I can to stimulate and not make my injury worse or have a set back. Typically what happens is if I chase poundages I will have a really good week and then the next two – three weeks will be worse as I have caused inflammation and pain to the area. So this week I really slowed down my reps, one of my issues I think is load + force. When I try to explode as hard as I can against a heavier (over and over again) load that is when i get worse. So this week I went in and did all slow reps, and it worked. I was more sore than I have been in a long time and I know soreness is not an indicator of muscle size but it does tell me that I have hit a greater amount of muscle fibers in my leg because my injured leg is rarely sore outside of pain sore post legs.

Something I have been thinking a lot about lately is there is a big difference between “the muscle being worked through an active range of motion” and “working the muscle through the active range of motion.” I am going to do a video about this explaining myself in more detail.

On to legs…

SUPERSET

Leg Extension
Working up to a hard set of 12 with hard contractions

INTO

Leg Adduction
Working up to a hard set of 12 with hard contractions

Power Squat
(Here i did a very controlled eccentric / pause / then drive but not 100% explosive more so just hard contraction)

Worked up 1 plate at a time to 6 pps x 8

Hack Squat
(These were some of the hardest single sets I believe I have ever done fore legs, also this was brought to my attention by Milos as he has been in touch and trying to help me with my leg issues and how to be as effective as possible within what is going on. These were performed slow slow eccentric / pause / slow slow concentric. Milos came back to me afterwards saying I needed to slow down the concentric further.) I literally am just trying to move the weight through a hard hard contraction not letting off the entire time and also not pausing at the top.

Worked up to a set of 4pps x 7-8 reps failed then was pulled out of the bottom on the last rep.

Leg Press w/ feet low on platform

Constant tension reps
3pps x 30
5pps x 25
7pps x 20
7pps x 20

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Dean

I think you need to do what you feel is best for your long term health. I am using my script now from the Dr – I have had a script since 2012. I currently work with Revive Medical for my HRT needs. I do my blood work ect through them.

Even when I increase things on my own I do this in addition to my script so I am keeping my base HRT in at all times.

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Lauren –

That is a good question. First and foremost this is not once size fits all, this is more so my personal beliefs based off of the progress I see in others as well as myself.

The thing is for those who train under me we already train low volume so to speak and the progress is there within the current approach so why change it / if we pulled the volume back further to be able to increase frequency I think we would be getting our sessions short in terms of truly impacting that muscle group? That is my reasoning its working and working well. Another thing and this is just personal for me I really struggle mentally with going into the gym knowing I have to train 3 bodyparts in one day. Not to say its not beneficial, and its not a mental weakness thing on my end but I have always struggled connecting with second and third bodyparts on a given day.

The bottom line to all this to me is that we need to be getting stronger and we need to be recovering. If you are recovering and you are getting stronger you are going to grow. What I see often times is that people are recovering to produce the same amount of work over and over and not recovering to be able to improve that level or quality of work (in terms of loads / volume ect)

[Matt Jansen]

Current Diet

This is what I am doing daily with the occasional Sushi meal or chipotle thrown in. For example this week  I had sushi monday night all clean rolls no sauces added, last night I had chipotle normally I ask for plain white rice last night they were out so I had normal rice, chicken, mild and corn salsa.

***All trifecta meats

Meal 1
280g Jasmine Rice
250g Chicken

Meal 2
100g Cream of rice
250g Turkey

Intra
50-75g Cyclic Dextrin
30g AD aminotaur (love the new grape flavor)
20g AD Nitrox

Immediately Post
30g AD Aminotaur

Post Meal
120g Cream of Rice
30g Honey
10g PB2
70g True Nutrition Isolate

Meal 4
2 Brown Rice Tortilla (54g Carbs)
110g Jasmine Rice
250g Steak

Meal 5
100g Cream of rice
250g Turkey

Meal 6
250g FF Greek Yogurt
50g Whey Isolate
10g PB2
60g Granola

OR

2-3 whole eggs
10 egg whites
5 slices Ezekiel bread

[Matt Jansen]

Caidin – in terms of my volume I would think some of you might say my volume is quite high. The only volume I really count is top end volume, everything else is form practice haha. For example on the last chest video I posted here I did
135 x 8
2225 x 8
275 x 8
315 x 8
Then started my drop set set at
365

So much like a rest pause, a drop set to me is just a way within that one single set to get more out of it. I cannot replicate top end sets for multiple sets, its just how I train its not there for second and third sets anymore I think because I am getting more efficient at getting the most out of the top end sets – or more than I used to be capable of. I think this comes with training age, muscle mass ect.

[Matt Jansen]

Luki – For sure man you look very good right now! Just continue to monitor your bg as you are working your way up in weight

[Matt Jansen]

Chest Training – Dec 4

One of the things that I have noticed since adding Flat DB presses in that I am getting much more fatigued having them in vs other pressing variations so this tells me two things one that I am getting a greater amount of stimulation which is causing fatigue – secondly its a weakness and I need to be keeping them in and improving my strength and endurance here due to the stabilization.

Something else to note as well for you guys when you are doing DB presses make sure you bring down the BAR of the DB as close to your chest as possible, when I watch a lot of people on social media press they are just bringing the bottom of the DB to their chest which in reality is leaving the bar 3 inches or so off of their chest.

Warm up with Cable Fly

Flat DB Press
100 x 8
120 x 8
150 x 7
120 x 8 – 80 x 8 drop
(strength definitely took a hit following this based off of me doing barbell or machines – more stabilization, more fibers used)

Plate Loaded Machine Press
(here I was trying to contract my chest throughout the entire range rather than just forcing contraction at the top of the movement)
3pps x 8
4pps x 6
3ppx x 8

Incline Smith Machine (30 degree incline)
185 x 8
225 x 8
275 x 8 Drop 225 x 6 Drop 135 x 5 (as i dropped the weight I slowed the eccentrics and concentrics even further)

High to Low Cable Fly
60 x 10
60 x 8
70 x Max seat

Rope cable Crunch
130 x 2 challenging sets

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Ty – I prefer to make changes directly from the off season diet. I do not make drastic changes to start a diet. So for example if you were taking in 60g of carbs in 5 meals I would bring that down to say 40g of carbs in all meals. I would never go from very high food intake to very low food intake.

Hey Wade – As long as it is not negatively impacting digestion or leaving you bloated its not really that big of a deal!

[Matt Jansen]

Hey Luki – You are still very hard man I would continue to push this is not fat at all by any means, in order to make changes you do need to push your body weight up. I agree 100% that we do not want to get overly fat and lessen out bodies ability to add quality tissue but you are far from that this is still very good condition. Keep your off days as they are now you do not need to go zero carb on your off days

[Matt Jansen]

Back Training – Monday Dec 3 

I filmed this workout it will be up tomorrow so I do a good bit of explanation there but I am continuing to hit my back in order of importance from weakest developed areas to strongest. Pullover – pullover – pulldown and then on to the fun stuff that I enjoy being Rowing. For Rows I am doing normally two self assisted movements and one machine assisted movements. One of the things I firmly believe in is when you are supporting your own bodyweight on rowing movements and holding the weight in a stretched position that time under tension is one of the best things for lower back and overall errector development.

Cable Supra Bar pull over
(lots of warm ups here to get my shoulders warm as well for the DB pull overs to follow these)
190 x max set

DB pull over
60 x 8
80 x 8
90 x 8
100 x 8
(keeping constant tension on the lats not pulling too far and slow eccentrics throughout)

Standing Supra Pulldown
3 working sets
2 final sets at 150 for max reps until they were only partials with full holds on the partials

Extended V grip T bar Row
Max set with 9 – 25’s on the bar

Seated Plate Loaded Row for mid Back (elbows driven out not tucked)
3pps x 8
3p+25ps x 6

DB Bi Lateral Row
90 x 10
100 x max set

[Matt Jansen]

With high high amounts of carbs like where you are at as well as GH usage this is going to happen. Are you getting a lot softer? If body comp is not changing and you are waking up at 90-95 within where you are at food wise I would say this is acceptable short term.

If you are wanting to reset but not really diet you could also really pull back and just do pro / fat meals on your off days and monitor how this impacts your BG.

For 1100g of carbs you are doing well man!

[Author]

Posts