Matt Jansen's 2011 contest prep

[Leprechauns1021]

Sweet Jesus, are those calves serious? Still looking insane man, straight killing this reverse.

[mattjansen]

Yo matt,

How tall are you? What was your stage weight?

Those stage shots are ridiculous! Keep the reverse going steady, macros have jumped a good amount just on the last page!

5'8 ish shoe less I weighed in every time right at 154-154.25 but got there in different ways, this last show I weighed in at that after a full days worth of eating which was not the case the previous two shows. Very pleased with the reverse up to this point. Hungry all the time but its part of it and I actually enjoy that over feeling nasty full and bloated.

hollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly vascularity

Reverse is definitely going according to plan. Keep going matt, utter inspiration!

Thanks brother! Just taking it one day at a time, tomorrow is a high day headed out with the family to celebrate finishing school and eating haha

whats up with your arms? maybe you should see a doctor, get that stuff checked out

BRB ill get on that

dat dere vein. dat dere other vein. dat dere infinite veinz brah.

Feelsgoodman I dont often walk around the gym with just a shirt on cause I get looks that make me want to leave haha.

Sweet Jesus, are those calves serious? Still looking insane man, straight killing this reverse.

Thanks buddy, Im making it like my Job, the more I stick to it daily the better I set myself up for training...and the stage whenever that might be!

12/9/11

Weight: 150.8

Cardio: 20 min stepmill level's 10-13/ 10 min incline walking

Eating, Resting, Foam rolling.

Tomorrow is Leg day and and High day..Yup definitely planned it that way! Headed to my Favorite Restaurant Ted Montana Grill to get a bison burger with the works on it tomorrow night, found out today I made the deans list which I was pretty stoked about being that it was tuff at times with prep and keeping focus but I was able to stay on task most of the time

[impakt1]

Sounds like a solid day. Enjoy tomorrrow bro. While I smash some weight, youll be smashing some foods with the fam.

Grats on dean's list.

[mattjansen]

12/9/11

Weight: 151.2

Had a great one yesterday! I have always been a pretty quick mover in between sets but I payed extra attention to my rest periods and tried to keep everything right around 90 sec after the heavy squats, it was a fun but challenging change of pace.

On the health front I am feeling great, knee is continuing to feel better I am thinking that will start squatting again the first or second week of Jan. I will finish up this cycle of 5/3/1 the week after Christmas which is perfect timing being that the following week I will be moving to Kentucky. Ill take that as my deload then start to implement squats the following week.

Hack Squats (5/3/1OM week)
225x5
255x3
285x7

5x10 @ 205 (90 SEC REST)

DB RDL
3x10 @ 95

Lying Curl
110x10
120x10/3/3/3

SL leg Press
2pps + 25 + 5 x 12 (2 sets)

Leg Calf press
3ppsx10 (2 sets) Followed by 10/4/4/4/4/4

-superset

Ab roll out 3x12

NUTRITION: HIGH DAY
77/520/212 + some christmas cookies while decorating the tree!

[mattjansen]

Sounds like a solid day. Enjoy tomorrrow bro. While I smash some weight, youll be smashing some foods with the fam.

Grats on dean's list.

I would trade places with you in a Heart beat, my PL meet might have been one of the most fun days I can remember in long time!

[mattjansen]

Weight: 152.6 post high day

Presses when ok today, felt really good but was not completely set so my set of 1OM today I only got for one. Rest of the workout was great!

Standing BB press:
110x5
125x3
140x1

3x10 @ 85

-superset with pull ups 60 Reps total

Incline Machine Press
190x10/3/3/3/3
175x8/3/3/3/3

Kroc Row:
85x10 (2 sets)

Neutral grip T bar machine
1 MYO set

Dips BW + 45: 10/8/6/6

DB pull over:
55x12
60x10

Supinated DB curls
40x5 (4 sets)

Db overhead Ext
30x6 (4 sets)

Nutrition: 25g of carbs added to all days:Adding a good bit of fish oils in as well. Basically just keeping everything simple and dividing up evenly throughout the day. I enjoy going to bed on a big meal but in all honesty I am still going to bed hungry at this point. Usually around 15+/100/45 meal + BCAA in between and during training.
Low: 60-70/375-400/210
High: 70-80/525-550/230

[andimoff80]

matt, you carb cycling every other day?

[mattjansen]

matt, you carb cycling every other day?

No man, it's 6 moderate days followed by 1 high day.

[mattjansen]

I meant to touch on this over the weekend but forgot, being that I am feeling great, basically de loaded several times within a few weeks due to peak weeks I jumped right into my second wave of 5/3/1. Progression wise I just did what was recommended adding 5lbs to upper lifts and 10 to lower. My goal on the wave like the last is to at least double the recommended reps for the specific week...so far so good!

I also am beyond excited to say that I free squatted today for the first time since my injury on Sept 16. Up to this point it has been mainly just leg presses that transitioned into hack squats when I started Wendlers. At this point I do not know if my knee will ever be 100% but I figured I would not know until I tried and was feeling really good today so I went for it. I chose Fronts for my five sets of a quad dominant exercise and every set I felt better and better like riding a bike Speaking of which another reason why I am keeping the maxes lower and going for more reps instead of seeking and training closer to a true max is to continue to correct and re train some of the habits that prep creates. Not pulling or squatting for sometime can tend to create bad habits when you get back to those exercise and that is something that I dont want starting fresh this off season so I feel that retraining early on will correct and only help improve in the long run. Today that meant really focusing on my lats and keeping them tight during my pulling.

Weight: 152.0

Deads:
205x5
235x5
265x10

5x10 @ 175

Pull Throughs
160x10 (3 sets)

Front squats
145x8 (5 sets)

Occluded leg curl
4xfailure 95lbs

SL calf press 4x6

Weighted Crunches

Nutrition
70/400/210
Berto added in a good amount of fish oil over the weekend, 2g DHA and I just got done telling him that I feel like gold ever since we made that adjustment. Not sure if its just in my head but ill take it either way!

[CHRIS925]

Nice work here Matt. I was able to really find a home for my squats after dropping the weight down to 135-225 max and evaluating my form. After I did this I broke past a plateau I had like a hot knife through butter. Glad your knees are feelin' better and you're gettin' into your groove

[impakt1]

Berto did the same for me a few weeks back for me as well & I think it was the best decision. It's been about a month & i can definitely feel improvements. less achy joints!

[mattjansen]

Berto did the same for me a few weeks back for me as well & I think it was the best decision. It's been about a month & i can definitely feel improvements. less achy joints!

Yeah man i definitely feel a difference and its just been since friday, finishing up my scivation efa's right now so that puts me at 24 pills a day but so be it lol

[andimoff80]

well good to hear that things are progressing nicely. didn't know you were working with berto for post contest. good to hear buddy!

[mattjansen]

Day in the life food edition

weight: 152.0

Being that today was a total off day I thought it would be fun to just take pics of my meals throughout the day and throw them up here. I have been enjoying my time in the kitchen since school has let out and also embracing the time that I have knowing that I will be hitting the ground running next semester around 4:30am and wont have much time for cooking. I have also been on a big fruit kick lately and adding them in as much as possible!

Egg scramble quesadilla (hash browns, peppers, onions, spinach, topped with and egg over easy)

Toast, cream of rice, broc, squash, tomato, onion, beef and evoo

Proats: pumpkin, banana, blueberries, whey and PB


Nutrition:
70/400/205

[mattjansen]

Had a great one today, really feeling like I am finding my groove and I am still below stage weight so really happy about that! Being that I am running everything in a liner fashion weight on my assistance lifts have dropped back down a bit from last week with the goal of progression over the month now just weekly.

Weight: 153.2

DB Bench
75x5
85x5
90x6

Superset

5x6 pull ups 2 sec squeeze at contraction slowly lowering down feeling the lats and pausing at bottom

DB bench
3x10 @ 55's

Superset

RG pulldowns 3x10 @ 130

Barbell shoulder press
95x10 (3 sets)

Hammer neutral grip row
2pps + 5 x 8 (3 sets)

Hammer wide grip standing row
205x 10/9 (2 sets)

Standing french press
70x12 (3 sets)

DB curls
30's x 15, 15, 12

Nutrition:
70/400/210 of pure goodness

[jpfaherty]

Nutrition:
70/400/210 of pure goodness

Damn brah. You gaining much weight on those macros? How much freakin higher can you go? lol

This is how you reverse.

[mattjansen]

Damn brah. You gaining much weight on those macros? How much freakin higher can you go? lol

This is how you reverse.

Its moved a bit this week but I am still approx 1-2 lbs away from stage weight. I have been tight on hitting my numbers, this weekend will be spent with the girl friend apartment hunting and some dates thrown in which are much needed after her putting up with me dieting for the greater part of the year so I will be tracking but it will be off of restaurant nutrition so we shall see what happens but I will just over shoot a bit and should be good! Carbs are already where they were at the peak of my off season last year and fats are close but I was at a hefty 195 so I am very happy with where I am sitting slow and steady!

[jpfaherty]

Its moved a bit this week but I am still approx 1-2 lbs away from stage weight. I have been tight on hitting my numbers, this weekend will be spent with the girl friend apartment hunting and some dates thrown in which are much needed after her putting up with me dieting for the greater part of the year so I will be tracking but it will be off of restaurant nutrition so we shall see what happens but I will just over shoot a bit and should be good! Carbs are already where they were at the peak of my off season last year and fats are close but I was at a hefty 195 so I am very happy with where I am sitting slow and steady!

That's crazy! Would you welcome higher macros or are you comfortable where you're at? I'm at 50/400/180 right now and I feel like it's plenty of food, never hungry.

[foodpr0n]

Long time lurker. Very nice progress from the start Matt! Who'd have though ~45lb loss would need to be accumulated.

In saying that, do you plan to stay much lighter this off-season. I mean being 5'8, contest weight at least is nevere going to be too high on the natty road. Maybe 165-170ish this time around?

Agreed with the above too - those macros are heavenly for your body weight, do you have an active job or something that keeps you on your feet? Regardless,it sounds like your metabolism isn't hampered right now and you're still freaky lean!

Love the routine too.

/Lurk

[Frankdaddy]

What do you owe credit to being able to eat more. I ended up weighing 10lbs less from 2008 offseason to this offseason ] and eating around 1500 calories less and I done a slow reverse and HIIT for up to 1.5 years post show 2x per week. Maybe my metabolism just sucks. I am much leaner 1500 calories less and bigger, but im just curious.

[foodpr0n]

What do you owe credit to being able to eat more. I ended up weighing 10lbs less from 2008 offseason to this offseason ] and eating around 1500 calories less and I done a slow reverse and HIIT for up to 1.5 years post show 2x per week. Maybe my metabolism just sucks. I am much leaner 1500 calories less and bigger, but im just curious.

Has your daily activity significantly dropped since the 2008 period?

Did you end up getting a desk job or something? HIIT 2x/week won't do much at all to total calories burned. But say you were walking around campus, had a retail job and you switched to doing a lot more study/driving/sitting on your bum most of the time; then there's your answer. Metabolisms do not vary to a large degree between people. Their NEAT (spontaneous activity NOT exercise related) is where differences will occur.

Here is a little info on it btw;

Metabolic Rate Overview

The Energy Balance Equation


Role of Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis in Resistance to Fat Gain in Humans – Research Review

[mattjansen]

Long time lurker. Very nice progress from the start Matt! Who'd have though ~45lb loss would need to be accumulated.

In saying that, do you plan to stay much lighter this off-season. I mean being 5'8, contest weight at least is nevere going to be too high on the natty road. Maybe 165-170ish this time around?

Agreed with the above too - those macros are heavenly for your body weight, do you have an active job or something that keeps you on your feet? Regardless,it sounds like your metabolism isn't hampered right now and you're still freaky lean!

Love the routine too.

/Lurk

Thank you bud ive been lurking in yours as well. YES to answer you about my off season plans I plan on getting to 165-175 and staying there but closer to 170. I plan on having a long off season so I feel that where I am currently at with my macros I will be able to easily maintain that weight rather than fooling myself into the 190s and thinking that I had to be eating muscle like I did in the past. After A high day yesterday I have gained 4 lbs this week but it was honestly needed, I am still experiencing many of the physical and psychological effects of a long prep like weird sleep and libido issues as well as still being food focused just from being so hungry and having everything planned out day in and day out for so long. I am really starting to feel good though, yesterday on my second wave of 5/3/1 week 1 I hit 20 reps on my set of 5 or more on squats

[mattjansen]

New Gym, New City, Great Workouts = Growth is gonna happen!

Sorry for the lack of updates the last few days, its been a crazy week! Packing up my life for the past 4.5 years of undergrad and finishing my last week of work at a job I have had since my sophomore year. Needless to say I have started to move and am now in Lexington, I will be here through this week head home for Christmas and be here for good after the new year. It still seems so sereal that I am actually here this is something I have been dreaming about since middle school. The opportunity I have up here to work with D1 athletes is going to be incredible my desire is to just be a sponge and soak up as much knowledge as I can. Last night I was able to go to the basketball game against UTC and stand in the Eruption Zone and for any of you that are familiar with Kentucky basketball you know what I am talking about!

On the training and reverse front things are going well I am up 4-5 lbs this week and although at first it made me worry a bit just from such a long prep its abnormal seeing the scale move like that it needed to happen. I thought I was feeling good before but I am really feeling good now. I am focusing daily more on nutrition and being the best for the gym and performance and getting away from the mentality of being the best for the stage. The stage is in the past and now its about improvement, thats not going to happen with fully striated glutes.

I also got my first membership to a gym which I know for many would seem like a weird thing but I was actually very excited about it! I have been blessed to be under my parents membership in high school and then with college and working at a gym ever since I have never had to get a membership. So after arriving on Thursday I took my girlfriend out to eat, Bison burgers FTW then we headed straight to the gym to get a membership! I was excited like a kid on Christmas. The gym is a bit corporate but cant be beat from an equipment and atmostphere standpoint. Great selection of weights, free motion, hammer, nautilis and lifefitness equipment. One of the things they said that sold me is that they buy equipment by who is the best maker of that product rather than having everything uniform so I liked that! TONS of leg equipment, and a cardio room that us meatheads eat up. No standard equipment but its filled with prowlers, KB's, heavy tires and ropes. I will try to get some pics of it today!

Fridays workout
Wendlers 5/3/1 Wave 2 Week 1

Ok I told you guys that my hack squat was extremely heavy its the old bodymasters and I was not kidding, I used a Flex machine with the handles on the shoulder pads which is one of my favorites and even with adding 30 lbs to my goal weight for the day it still was a joke so I will be adjusting my 90% max

Hack Squat:
235x5
260x5 (This was my original 5+ for the day)
290x20

*90 sec rest periods on all assistance work
225x10 (5 sets) This was adjusted as well

GM's
185x10 (4 sets)

Lying Ham curl
90x10/3/3/3/3
70x15/4/4/4/4/4

SL leg press
3 pps x 12 (2 sets)
strength is progressing well on these!

Superset

Standing calf raise
220x10, 10, 12/5/5/5/5/5

Hiit 10 - 15 sec sprints on bike

Nutrition: high day
80/550/230

Saturdays workout

Standing Barbell press
100x5
115x5
125x5

Superset

CG pullups
6x6

Barbell Press:
85x10 (3 sets)

Hammer Incline Press: 2 MYO's
225x8/3/3
185x12/4/4/4/4

Iso Lat pull down (loved this machine)
185x15
205x10 (2 sets)

Seated Cable row
140x8 (2 sets)
120x12

CG bench pause 1 in from chest
145x12/10/8

Sup curls + lateral raises
40x6 / 25x12 (2 sets)

Sup curls + DB overhead ext
35x8 / 30x6 (2 sets)

Nutrition:
60/400/210

[Frankdaddy]

I see your main vein bro new gym looks nice in the background!!

Has your daily activity significantly dropped since the 2008 period?

Did you end up getting a desk job or something? HIIT 2x/week won't do much at all to total calories burned. But say you were walking around campus, had a retail job and you switched to doing a lot more study/driving/sitting on your bum most of the time; then there's your answer. Metabolisms do not vary to a large degree between people. Their NEAT (spontaneous activity NOT exercise related) is where differences will occur.

Here is a little info on it btw;

Metabolic Rate Overview

The Energy Balance Equation


Role of Nonexercise Activity Thermogenesis in Resistance to Fat Gain in Humans – Research Review

Actually yes my activity did drop a lot. I use to be a park ranger/maintenance worker and sometime (during summer/during prep) we would have to walk 2.5-5 miles give or take weekly or cut grass all day 2-3x a week. At that point was my lower calories, but winter times I still got around more than I do now, which I work a desk or drive around a lot. It worries me a bit, even though my body composition is 100% better than 2008 offseason, I feel like when I start prepping it will be a hard task to keep losing weight now that I dont normally do stuff besides sit around. I lost 43lbs in 08-09 and lost easily 1.5lb each week, but thats with HIIT 2x a week and liss 2x a week + working all summer in the heat. SO now that I wont be doing the excess daily activiy, what the hell will I have to end up doing as tourturous cardio, lol. Scary thought at this point!

[mattjansen]

New Gym Pics and some conditioning



Bad lighting but you get the point. Sitting in a good spot!

Dorian Socks

[jpfaherty]

Damn son, new gym is impressive. Almost as impressive as the pics of you (no homo). Good sh!t up in herrrr.

[impakt1]

mind = blown. looking great Matt.

Don't know what's better looking, new gym or you. Yes homo. Wait, I mean no homo.

btw, I applied to U of Louisville so maybe we'll get to train together soon bro

[mattjansen]

mind = blown. looking great Matt.

Don't know what's better looking, new gym or you. Yes homo. Wait, I mean no homo.

btw, I applied to U of Louisville so maybe we'll get to train together soon bro

Haha thanks buddy! A bigger congrats needs to go out to you for your news today, you would be a great representative for 3D over the next year!

I don't know if I can associate with you if you go to U of L but seriously that would be great!

That's one thing I am wanting to find up here is a consistent workout partner up here who is like minded in their goals. If not I'm cool with continuing to roll solo, can't have anyone slowing me down

[The Solution]

Wait till you see what I just sent you in the mail Chef Bob delivered the goods!

Gym looks dope, Tire Flips are a must for HIIT Cardio, get after that.
Pics are on point man, you are looking better and better in the reverse. Just out of curiosity what do you find better from switching to 3DMJ from working with Jason? Anything you feel you could share or have found to be working more in your favor as far as diet/training goes?

Great work as always Matt. How did the Scivation Demo go the other day?

That's one thing I am wanting to find up here is a consistent workout partner up here who is like minded in their goals. If not I'm cool with continuing to roll solo, can't have anyone slowing me down

Find me a teaching Job at the new place, and ill move down. Would not be a bad training partner would i? Be a good time, but nobody could keep us out the damn kitchen haha

[andyboi]

Your gym looks sensational! Everything is just so spaced out. My gym is so cluttered! Sucks ass.

You still look phenomenal bro. Absolutely phenomenal. Those quads are just mind blowing, big and shredded beyond belief.

Keep smashin' it, I come here for straight out motivation