JansenStrength's video training log

[JansenStrength]

Hey thanks for checking out my page.

I'm a 28 year old strongman competitor currently living in the Phoenix AZ area. I've had a multi-year break from competing but I'm ready to get back into the swing of things with Arizona's Strongest Man on February 16, 2019. I'll be posting all of my workouts leading up to the competition here. I've never posted my training online before, any comments or questions are welcome.

In terms of my training I'll be training twice per week leading up to the competition: one day focusing on overhead pressing, one day focused on squats and deadlifts (alternated each week). I don't necessarily have all of the competition equipment to train with so I will be doing my best to get strong on barbell lifts that I think have good carryover to the competition events.

As long as I can keep my weight down I'll be competing in the 181 lb weight class, I'm running in the low 190s right now. The next weight class goes up to 220 so I think I'd rather avoid that. I'm pretty tall at 6' to be competing this light but this hasn't seemed to hold back my progress too much so far. Here are the events:

1. Log clean and press - 230 lbs
2. Farmer's carry - 250 lbs each
3. Head to head car deadlift - Midsize SUV 6" block
4. Bag of bar - 15, 20, 25, 30 lb over 12' bar
5. Atlas stone series - 300 lb, 44", reps

I'll do my best to post videos of my top sets for the day.

That's all I can think of for right now - let's get to it.

[JansenStrength]

Deadlift Workout: 13 weeks out

1. Snatch grip deadlift on podium, monster mini bands, 315 x 3, 5/2/X/0 tempo.

It seems I can't post videos just yet, video is up on my insta: JansenStrength.

Very happy with this, I probably had 6 in me here with this tempo if I really wanted to push it.

Followed this set up with isometric deadlifts alternated with speed deadlifts, deficit romanian deadlifts, and various accessory work.

[JansenStrength]

OHP Workout, 13 weeks out

Standing Overhead Press, monster mini bands, 3/1/X/1 tempo: up to 95 lbs for a moderately hard triple. I mis-grooved the last rep but finished it without too much difficulty.

Video of my top set on my youtube and instagram, will start posting here after first 50 posts.

Followed by overcoming isometrics on the overhead presses alternated with speed overhead presses, Klokov presses, and accessory work.

[JansenStrength]

A little behind on updating, here's my last few workouts:


Nov 24th

Front Squat w/ bands, 4/2/X/1 tempo, 205 x 3. Planning on ramping up to 315+ on this setup prior to the contest.

Followed by speed front squats, back squats, accessory work.


Nov 27th

Behind the neck press, monster mini bands, 5/1/X/1 tempo, 85 x 3

Followed by speed BNP, pin presses, klokov presses, accessory work


Dec 1st:

Snatch grip deadlift 4" deficit, monster mini bands, 4/2/X/0 tempo, 335 x 3

Followed by speed deadlifts alternated w/ isometric deadlifts, deficit romanian deadlifts, accessory work

Later this day I borrowed a friend's 175 lb atlas stone, lifted stone to around chest height 10 times in 10 minutes, was wiped from deadlifting earlier in the day. The stone is going to be 300 lbs at the contest so I need to find some heavier stones in my area to practice before February.

[JansenStrength]

Dec 5th:

Standing overhead press w/ monster mini bands
-LT: 95 x 3 on a 3/1/X/1 tempo
-TT: 100 x 3 on a 3/1/X/1 tempo, was probably good for 105 x 3 here

Followed by isometric overhead press alternated with speed overhead press, overhead pin press, accessory work

[JansenStrength]

Dec 8th:

Front squat with bands
-LT: 205 x 3 on a 4/2/X/0 tempo
-TT: 235 x 3 on a 4/2/X/0 tempo

Upper back continues to "collapse" on these during the last rep, legs are good for more but my upper back can't maintain the proper rack position.

Followed by speed front squats, wide-stance heels-elevated SSB squats, accessory work

[JansenStrength]

Dec 12th:

Behind-the-neck press, monster mini bands and 3" fat grips
-LT: 85 x 3 on a 5/1/X/1 tempo
-TT: 90 x 3 on a 5/1/X/1 tempo

Pressing felt easier than last time, probably had 95 x 3 in me if I pushed it

Followed by speed presses, BN pin presses, eccentric OH DB presses, accessory work

[JansenStrength]

Dec 16th:

My gym was hosting a powerlifting meet on Dec 15th so I had to push my workout back from Sat to Sun, not ideal but I made it work.

Deficit snatch-grip deadlift, monster-mini bands
-LT: 335 x 3, 4/2/X/0 tempo
-TT: 355 x 2, 2/2/X/0 tempo

This was a real grinder, I'm really fast off the floor but seem to be stalling right at the knees when the band tension really kicks in. Was previously doing the isometric deadlifts at low and mid-shin height but will be switching this to just below and just above the knees to help drive this lift up and to better prepare for the elevated car deadlift I have to do in February.

My upper back continues to collapse on these and front squats so I'm going to keep searching for a solution to this problem.

Followed by isometric deadlifts alternated with speed deadlifts, deficit romanian deadlifts, accessory work.

[JansenStrength]

Dec 19th:

Standing overhead press, monster mini bands
-LT: 100 x 3, 3/1/X/1 tempo
-TT: 115 x 2, 5/0/X/0 tempo

Big weight jump here but it felt good, I had a friend work on some adhesions in my subscapularis the weekend prior and this seems to have made a big difference.

Followed by isometric overhead press alternated with speed overhead press, overhead pin press from nose-height, seated overhead press, accessory work.

[JansenStrength]

Dec 21st

Had 5 days between this workout and my last lower-body workout instead of the usual 7 so I knew this would not be an easy workout

Front squat w/ bands
-LT: 235 x 3, 4/2/X/0 tempo
-TT: 235 x 2, 5/0/X/0 tempo (bands choked more - see below)

The squat racks at this gym have those "T" - shaped pins at the bottom of the rack that you can hook bands around and I felt like this setup wasn't generating enough tension at the bottom so I found a way to choke them tighter. With the bands chocked tighter it probably added a good 20-30 pounds more tension at the bottom and at least as much at the top. I didn't get a weight increase on paper but this is probably worth more than the 20 lb weight jump I had in mind.

I managed to tweak my lower back on the second rep of front squats so my speed squats didn't happen. I went right into eccentric SS bar squats using "weight releasers" (these are HUGE for my squat). Used 355 lbs for multiple eccentric singles, should be able to get this exercise into at least the mid-400s by the end of this training cycle.

I've been brainstorming on how to fix my upper back weakness (it tends to "collapse" during front squats and snatch grip deadlifts) and I think I may have found the solution. My gym has a pair of 210 lb DBs - heavy enough for me to do Kroc rows The next lowest DBs are 155 lbs so I'm just going to gut it out with the 210 lb-ers and try to hit rep PRs every couple of weeks. Managed 7 reps on my left arm while kneeling on a bench. The DB was hitting my leg on every rep so I the technique where you stand with your other arm bracing something for my R-side set, managed 8 reps and it felt much better.

Followed by other accessory work.