Ha! I’m just a guy with stiff hips.
Anyway, back to you.
You’ve got a stiff back, but that’s explainable because you just battled a fire and saved the day.
The “problem” is deadlift from the floor, is painful around your knees?
And it’s confusing because RDLs don’t give you the same problem?
No sorry, didn’t explain that well, RDLs were the problem today, couldn’t get past the knees (hence being more like dimmels than RDLs). The full ROM was ok today, I have a tight spot right hand side of lower back right now but the RDL issue wasn’t that it was across the entire lower back and like it just locked up at that point, but I could do full ROM to get the bar in place and deadlift row and the deficit deads prior to that.
It’s just a bit weird and it made me think, I think my usual point of injury on deadlifts come about that point of transition around the knee cap.
How did the field goal situps feel? Did you have any problems going that way?
Are you trying to get your back to loosen up? would start with the 90/90 Hip Lift. Lay on the ground, feet on wall and try to engage abs and hamstrings to lengthen and hopefully release lower back.
I
If that works, awesome!
If not, and it feels like the left side is relaxed and elongated and flat on the floor, but the right side is still tight and over arched, try reaching up with your right arm. See if that allows the ribs to come down and touch the floor.
If it feels like it’s almost working, but still not quite there, try to push your right knee “up”, higher than your left, and see if that loosens up your lower back.
That’s awesome, thanks I’ll give that a try and report back, like I said forum hero!
25/09/25 - AM
45M W2 B5 D23
Offset carries: 50kg farmer handle and 16kg KB overhead carry - 60ft up drop switch turn x 10 EMOM
Chin ups & ab rollouts: 5/5 x 10 EMOM
Sandbag load: 50kg x 5 x 10 EMOM
Weights were spot on for distance and difficulty for carries and loads, the usual, pouring sweat and finding minutes magically get shorter as 10 min blocks wear on. Adding ab rollout to chins was spontaneous (outside scaffold bar and there’s an ab wheel there) my abs were absolutely gone by set 5, they were partial reps after that, but enough to feel it bad.
Wasn’t sure how my back would feel with offset carries at 630am (I normally avoid training deads or squats at this time of the morning) but held up well and was a good session.
I like the idea of offset carries that you do here . . the Alsruhe program I’m doing has a lot of farmer and single arm farmer carries but I might substitute these once in awhile with offset carries
They’re new to me (had to check one of his video’s) that’s the second time I’d done it, it’s interesting, I’m thinking I can go heavier on the KB (16kg over head and locked in isn’t huge, I’ll try my next bell - 24kg) and probably the farmer handle, I don’t feel it as much on the core as I’d have expected, but it’s a solid conditioning exercise that I’m confident builds practical strength and resilience.
I’m with you there. I felt it before I ever read about it and it just made since. I used to go lift at 6am before heading off to my second police academy. My warm-up jog lap would jar my spine and it was unpleasant. At some point, I read about how the intervertebral discs are full of fluid and stiff first thing in the morning and it just clicked. I try to avoid spinal loading until I’ve been up for a bit. I deadlifted 375 without any warm-up yesterday and then pulled 405 from a deficit about 45 minutes later. I had no problem on either. I feel like I’d break in half if I tried that at 6am. 
I think an overhead carry like that packs the shoulder and would be more of a challenge there than the core. You’re still working the core, but the shoulder girdle is so much smaller and fragile than all the muscles of the core. I would personally have a hard time thinking about my core while doing those which could change how it feels - you know, that mind-muscle thing.
Good point, it’ll be interesting to see how much difference upping the weight makes to the feel of it. In terms of MMC - I’m usually too busy trying to suck enough air in not to die to notice it at the time, might be a contributing factor.
27/09/24 - PM
45M W2 B5 D24
Strength
Paused squats: 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 150kg x 2
S/S
Plate halos: 10kg x 8 x 6 sets
Volume
Paused squats: 120kg x 2 x 10 sets EMOM
Finisher
Front foot elevated lunge: 15kg DBs x 5 e/s x 10 sets EMOM
Pleased with the work tonight 150kg:
Felt comfortable, possibly would have 160kg in there, but happy leaving some runway and my back still isn’t 100%.
Got through the volume work which is massively improved upon last time. Even the finisher went up and felt ok.
So nearly didn’t get out and do this session, very tired and it’s quite late, end of the week, kids had just gone out for a bit and just spent some “quality” time with the wife, so many reasons to call it off, but I pushed through and got the win, and that’s better than lying on the sofa feeling tired for the rest of the evening - which I’ll now do anyway!
28/09/24 - PM
45M W2 B5 D25
Strength
Paused bench: 60, 80, 90, 100, 110kg x 4
S/s
Russian twists: 10kg x 8 e/s x 5 sets
Volume
Paused bench: 72.5kg x 5 x 10 EMOM .
Finisher:
KB row: 24kg x 20 secs right, 20 secs left
DB Floor press: 22.5kg x 20 secs
60 secs rest
Repeat x 5
Considering I wasn’t feeling great coming in, I smashed this, the final rep or two on the paused bench wouldn’t pass comp, the pause was decent but there was butt lift and some slight down movement on the final rep, gave it everything.
Volume was sneaky as always, the pauses really accumulate, but got it all done.
Finisher was spot on. Must say Brian’s programming just works for me, mentally - 45M particularly when I’m not in love with training, it’s easier to see that building up to a top set as fairly relaxed, hard effort in terms of strain on the heavier weights, but I’m not pouring sweat at that point, then it’s only 20 mins after that… 20 horrificly unpleasant minutes, but you can endure suck for just 2 short groups of training, just keep going the moment the timer says go, psychologically it just works.
I see you hit 70 on the press. Almost like a real man.
Haha yup, it’s frustrating as a few years back that was something I could rep comfortably, still I’ll get there again, and beyond and I’m sure when I get anywhere near your OHP you’ll train it again and overtake me!
I’m going to have to archive 45 Masters for somewhere down the road. I like the time requirement. I’m not sure if/when I’ll be mentally ready for sessions longer than 45 minutes. I love EMOM stuff. I’ve been following an Instagram page called gallowglass_athletics and he posts a lot of great workouts. He also includes versions without equipment. One of his recent-ish posts was DT done E3MOM style instead of as fast as possible. I gave it a shot and it wrecked me. I’m out of shape in terms of CrossFit style sessions, but I finished and I was able to use 135 (prescribed is 155 but I can’t get that overhead when I’m out of breath). As a reminder, DT is 12 deadlifts, 9 hang cleans, 6 overhead press (press, push press, jerks, whatever it takes) for five rounds.
Another one of his sessions that I attempted was a 20 minute EMOM. Odd minutes were 7 burpees and even minutes were 5 power cleans with 155. I went 16 minutes and called it a day. The cleans were getting sloppy.
Good on you for getting those sessions done. I don’t know how you do it. If I still had to train in my basement, I wouldn’t get much done. I like being in a different environment. I don’t even train at school very often.
We’re in different places, but I’ve changed my mindset about my training and nutrition. As one may notice with my log, I used to track every detail and make sure I got the sessions done when they were supposed to get done. I used to plan my days around my training. Wife: “Hey, can we go do this tomorrow?” My first thought was always about when and how I’d get my workout done. It was an automatic response every time. I’ve managed to kick that habit and relax more. I might go three days without training and I don’t really care. Sure, it’d be nice to stay on track more, but I think my body is going to do just fine whether I’m training three times a week or five. I should have trained last Sunday, but I didn’t feel like it. I felt worn down, so I sat on my arse all day and watched football.
Could I have done something productive? Sure. Should I have done something productive? Probably. Do I care? Nope. I may not have been spending quality time with my family, but we were all here. It might sound strange, but I enjoy being in my wife’s presence, even if we’re not actually “hanging out”. No one is going to think about my workouts or projects when I’m dead.
True that!
I’m down with a relaxed philosophy on training and eating, I think a lot of us are as T-Nation collectively gets older (a few young-uns joining but forums are a dying medium).
That’s what I love about 45 Masters, it’s 45 session, without a prescription for how many weeks, just get the 45 sessions done, I generally aim for 4 or 5, because I know if I aim for that I’ll probably hit 4 most of the time, occasionally 5, and sometimes 3 and like you said that’s fine, no pressure.
Eating I’ve always been slack on, but that’s because I’m naturally skinny. The only thing I give much consideration to is protein, prioritising hitting somewhere near 200g per day and not eating like a complete slob more than a handful of times per week.
I still have a background moral imperative from the fire service, if anyone ever dies on a job I’m on I want to be 100% sure I did everything I could, and that it wasn’t because I couldn’t lift, drag, resuscitate, break through, whatever, because I was too lazy to hit the weights and blow hard.
Would you believe I completely shut off that part of my brain when I left the police department three years ago? I haven’t even fired a gun since I left. Part of that is my parents selling their 60+ acres of land, but they used the money to set themselves up for retirement and buy a house at their favorite lake. Can’t complain about that.
But here’s a bit of a spoiler because not many people know - I’m going back part-time to supplement my teacher salary. I’ll soon be getting sworn in for a small town department and I’ll basically get to choose my shifts as long as I get 16 hours a month. I did the PT test a few weeks ago and the 10 burpees towards the end turned my legs to concrete! I also hit legs pretty good the day before.
This all brings me back to my wants vs needs inner conversation. 45 Masters looks like it might be pretty ‘functional’ (as silly as that word has become) meaning it checks darn near all the boxes - strength, volume, conditioning, real world application.
But for now, I’m enjoying Best Damn. The sets are few but, man can they be intense. Today was push workout number 3 and it took 25 minutes.
Very nice squats, man!!
That sounds like a great side gig, bit like me and the fire service! Hopefully you’ll enjoy it more if you don’t have to do it full time and pick and choose a bit more.
Enjoying it is great, particularly if it helps compliance, I’ve not enjoyed training for a few years now, which is in some ways liberating, I know I’m not going to enjoy myself so what do I need to get done to achieve the results I want? Then push myself to be disciplined enough to get it done.
I’m probably the closest I have been to enjoying training for a while with 45M, I think because it feels like minimum effective dose and like you identified checks a number of boxes I want/need.
25 minutes sounds good though, might be one for me to check out at some point!
Thanks Koestrizer, appreciate that coming from you big man! I was pretty pleased with them, they’re improving, pauses probably could have been slightly longer, but they definitely had the desired effect and I’m getting back towards what I have in my head as reasonable weight territory, be happier when I’m back at 4 plates!
I did this this morning (just the first part) and it felt really good, will try and make this routine, as I’m usually pretty stiff getting out of bed in the mornings, deadlifts are my next session, so I’ll hit these up first, it’ll be good to see if they have an impact there.