Cheers Simo, definitely more to come! I was more pleased with the farmers than the bench, but turns out running around with 180kg in your hands takes its toll, actually feeling proper CNS fatigue today; eating my way out of this hole, finished last night with a large pizza and some cookies, today has started with 8 large eggs, much, much more food to follow.
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Yer heavy farmers can beat you up pretty bad.
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Which program are you following? I like the look of going heavy on a lift, getting some volume in, before a dose of strength based onditioning ala this:
I appreciate there will be plenty of programs of a simple template out there (5/3/1), but I’m intrigued by this. Is the main work percentage based, or going by how you feel on the day?
It’s 45 Masters by Brian Alsruhe, I’ll do a full write up when I finish, but you’ve hit the nail on the head, hit up the big 4 work up to a maximum for the day at a specific rep target (i.e. work up to a top set of 5 squats within 20 mins), volume work based on % of top set - done EMOM. The finisher, which is related but pretty conditioning focused.
There’s a YouTube video, but I bought the program, it’s low price, great value.
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Nice one, sounds right up my street. I would just need to commit to a block without the interference of other sports. I’ve come across his stuff before, may venture down the rabbit hole…
Good on you for buying the program, some really decent guys (and women) in the industry who put out a lot of good content for free, so it’s nice to give a little something back.
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18/11/24 - AM
Weight: 211.25 (a lot of good and a lot of not so good eating this weekend - being up for 24 hours straight gives a long window of eating)
45M W3 B9 D44 (but final session of this run).
Strength
Zerchers: 60, 80, 100, 120, 140kg x 2 - PR
S/S
Hanging leg raises: 10 x 4 sets
Volume
Zerchers: 100kg x 3 x 10 sets EMOM
Finisher
Squat x 10
Lunges x 10
Jumping squats x 10
Jumping lunges x 10
Bw circuit max cycles in 10 mins: x 3 (8 seconds over)
PR is default having just never tried to go thos high, ugly on the second rep because of the lack of brace, I probably should have re-racked, re-braced and hit the second, but I did it, and despite the video evidence to the contrary it didn’t feel that hard. Probably not as upright and clean as it ought to be, and the catchers are too high, but I don’t care it’s a win. Volume was spot on, finisher was horrible.
That’s 45 masters, run 1 and done. Write up to follow.
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20/11/24 - PM
45M W1 B1 D1 - new rum through with my modifications, see how this goes shall we!
Strength
Deficit deads: 60, 100, 120, 140, 160kg x 3
S/s
Ab rollout: 5 x 5 sets
Volume
Deficit deads: 135kg X 3 x 10 sets EMOM
Finisher
Chin ups: bw, 5, 10, 15, 10, 5kg, bw x 5
S/s Dips: 10, 20, 30, 35, 30, 20, 10kg x 5
I wanted this session like a hole in the head, feeling exhausted (very poor sleep despite not being woken from external factors, just a lot of very odd and somewhat stressful dreams) and still aching from zerchers, it’s also near freezing in the garage, still got this done, that’s a win.
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Alright write up time for run number 1 of 45 masters.
I’ll start with the figures - I started this (after a false start) on 19th August, finished on 19th November, this programme can be done in 9 weeks if doing 5 sessions a week or just under 12 if 4 per week, so pretty much in-line for the 12 week mark - good compliance from me here.
Weight wise I think I started around 201/202 and finished at 208/209 so around 7lb gained. Solid pace of a gain here, good compliance overall on diet, quality wasn’t terrible and I wasn’t really pushing hard to gain, so this felt nearly effortless.
Looking at some of my lifts, life time maxes: 180kg conventional deads, 190kg squat, bench 130kg, ohp 77.5kg.
Before starting though looks like I was struggling to deadlift, from back issues but around 160kg at a guess, squat probably around the 150kg mark, bench - I failed 120kg just before the program, and ohp I see 65kg x 4 as the most recent reps before starting.
Finishing out the program - I pulled 180kg from a deficit for a double, hit 160kg for a paused single squat, hit 130kg on the bench and ohp 70kg for an easy 3.
Which means I’ve PR’d deads, matched bench and am regaining on squats and ohp. Also I’d never farmers walked before, and got up to 180kg x 20 metres for 10 reps.
Results wise I’m very happy with all of that, solid results for 3 months of effort.
Program thoughts:
This is a program aimed at the older lifter, I’m a couple years off 40, and don’t feel like an older lifter - so why this program? Time - most of these sessions can be done in 30-45 mins, time is a precious resource I have little of.
This program is minimalistic which generally suits my personality, heavily focused around the big 5 (sbd, ohp and carries), with some extra core work and a a finisher that’s pump/conditioning. Everything apart from the main work is EMOM. Honestly I hate EMOMs, but they’re good for time management and work density.
The program runs in 3 waves and reduces reps and increases “%” - on the mention of % I don’t ever calculate the % for the main strength work, I work up to what I can on the day, I do use the % of the top set for the volume work.
Over the course of the program the top sets always felt right (the joy of working to hit a daily max for whatever reps, it’s self regulating) the volume mostly felt challenging but doable, often getting close to failure on the last 2 or 3 sets, a lot of just about grinding through. The finishers usually felt hard either on the lungs, the muscles or both, but they aren’t the sort of thing that usually taxed heavily.
The ebook is as mentioned previously great value for money, 3 months of zero thinking, just doing and subsequent gains, for the price of a few fancy coffees.
I’m going for a re-run with a few tweaks, as mentioned this is stripped back training, so by necessity it doesn’t really feature arms, my arms suck, so that’s a change for me, and unusually for a program by Brian, there isn’t a huge amount of rowing, and I noticed my shoulders getting cranky with 2x a week pressing and very little rowing, so that’s my main change, I’ll be keeping the finishers to a similar format of short sharp and challenging just changing the focus.
Overall it’s a great program, that’s less demanding than most of Brian’s other programs, but no less effective. As a plus it would be much easier to run in a commercial gym as it doesn’t feature giant sets only supersets, which again is unusual for a Brian program.
As you can probably tell from the fact I’m running it again, I would 100% recommend for someone who is looking for expedited sessions that get you stronger and fitter - whilst I got bigger, it isn’t a hypertrophy program, but that clearly isn’t the focus (even if I’m trying to shoe horn a bit of that in my second run, we’ll see how effective that is in 12 weeks time!).
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Great write-up, mate—and even better gains! Looking forward to what another run does for you.
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Great write up!
Regarding the lack of rowing: I believe you own a rower IIRC. Any consideration to including that in your conditioning? Might be a way to recover some lost volume.
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Thank you both - I enjoy reading other people’s write ups, so thought it’s only fair to do the same and give Brian some more props.
I do indeed and that’s a very sensible suggestion.
I’ll confess that I’m still very lax on conditioning, picked back up on daily walking, 30 mins minimum per day - definitely influenced by you on that one as well, but actual conditioning is currently zero.
I guess I don’t have a strong enough why and need to do some thinking there (as an aside I tried finding that article for my wife the other day but a brief scan of your blog and I couldn’t find it - probably not helped by using my phone).
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Bloody awesome write up and very nearly made me want to run this. I just need to wait until I am old enough 
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45M W1 B1 D2 - Evening
Ohp:
20, 40, 50, 60, 70kg x 4
S/s
Russian twists: 10kg x 8 e/s x 5 sets
Total brain fart, this was meant to be axle
Volume
Axle press: 53kg X 4 x 7 sets, 53kg X 3, 48kg x 3, 48kg x 4 - done EMOM
I’d guess basing my % on my BB press and just applying it straight to the axle was a mistake, this was heavy going, to the point of failure quite far before the end of the EMOM. Also I’ve not axle pressed in a long time, this was hard on the wrists and because there’s not knurling or marking on the bar I grabbed it off-centre probably more than once, but once very far off - I gutted those reps out without adjusting, cos that’s the smart move…
Finisher:
Gorilla rows: 25, 30, 35kg x 8
DB bench: 25, 30, 35kg x 8
Wgpu: 5, 5, 5
Done as a giant set. Had me blowing hard and not insignificant work for chest and back, in another session with this finisher I’ll probably pyramid back down, but the last 72 hours has been crazy (the wife said “this is the craziest thing we’ve said yes to”) - can’t say much about it, it relates to the fostering we do, it was wild, exhausting (very little sleep) and deeply sad (I’d say not on a personal level but there is definitely a personal impact). Still got this done!
Weight is down a bit due to just having about zero time to eat, threw in a few shakes and grabbed a couple of McDonald’s, but can’t be helped.
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Dude, I’m so honored that you want to share something I wrote with your wife. Here’s the link
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I am a bit confused by the wording but congratulations are in order, are they not?!
Haha, sorry the wording is because we are foster carers (we look after children that are removed from parents by the state, either for neglect or abuse or both). I’ve had a vasectomy so no more biological babies for me!
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Fantastic that’s really helpful, and your writing is definitely worth sharing, you put into thought some of the more intangible elements of training and nutrition, I think it’s your background in philosophy blended with your real life experience and experimentation that makes your writing applicable and relatable, not to mention thoroughly enjoyable - definitely helped by the fact we’re nigh on the same age and your references are always stuff I grew up with and love.
It’s also good to remind myself - need the why for the cardio that I keep neglecting and I think I’ve found it. Will follow up post on that at some point soon.
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Just a note on this I know it’s tongue in cheek, but in all seriousness it’s also great for when you’re in a really busy period… Or just feel old beyond your years, but you look like you feel about 20 so I’m sure you’re good for another couple of decades before hitting this one!
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Ah yes I remember you were foster carers, I just didn’t know that also included babies! I imagine that to be very difficult. All my respect to you and your wife.
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+1 on this, quite amazing. I find fostering dogs challenging enough!
Enjoyed the write up on the program. I noted Brian programs a lot of giant sets, I just don’t have the space or enough kit in my garage for that, but super setting would be fine. One to consider in the future…(under 40’s can apply, right!?)
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