Taller Lifter and Back Issue

[Ocael Honig]

Age: 33
Height: 6'7"
Weight: 255-265

I ran SSLP and took my Squat to 255 and Deadlift to 320. Not anything to write home about, but I'll take it. One night after a set of Squats I cut the training session short because my lower back started to balloon and tighten up. Several hours later I was in pretty bad shape and getting out of bed or standing up was a life-or-death struggle. Wanting to rule out spinal or disc issues, I decided to see a doctor.

Doctor wrote it off as mechanical back pain and told me to take 6 to 8 weeks off.

Friend of mine is a chiropractor (although he's never formally assessed me) and said roughly the same thing, but added I should still find a way to train and that "doing nothing" would be the worst thing to do. He is familiar with Starting Strength, 5/3/1, etc, and casually mentioned that I should find a way to add in additional lower back or hamstring work.

I began fiddling around with arched-back good-mornings and RDLs for high sets with the bar which actually provided some relief. I don't know if this is just from the blood being pumped into the area or this is actually reinforcing the connective tissue. I would like to incorporate RDLs and GMs going forward into my training, and was wondering the best way to do that. I was thinking something like:

Monday and Friday
Squat - 5x3
Bench - 5x3
RDL or GM - 8x3

Wednesday
Light Squat - 5x2
Press - 5x3
Deadlift

Thanks for reading. Thoughts? Suggestions? Am I way out of line?

[Mark Rippetoe]

I don't think the additional exercises are necessary. I think your back just healed up, like backs do. I think you need to make sure your squat and deadlift form is solid, and gain some weight as you drive your numbers up.

[Overbar]

I'm 6'6", 240 lbs (and gaining), 40 years old. I was 200 lbs when I began Starting Strength. I used to have fairly regular low back pain, but that disappeared as I got stronger. Even after reading the book and watching countless videos, my form was poor. And I knew it was poor, which led me to drive 8 hours to a seminar, where I learned my form was worse than I realized. I still struggle with keeping my form in check, which I think is part of being a tall lifter (at least for me). Point being, I would definitely get some coaching or at least video form checks.

[tompaynter]

I am about 6'6" myself. At one point I had some back pain and fatigue that would set in early in my workouts. I started paying more attention to staying tight as I took the bar out of the rack and walked back to to my squat stance. I'd recently widened my squat stance, and I think I was waddling back with my feet wide, causing shifting from side to side (as well as just being too relaxed, i.e., not taking and holding a big breath during the walkout). Paying more attention to how I unracked and walked back seemed to help--though I also missed some days around the same time so I might have just needed a little rest.

Your thing sounds more acute than mine was, but I offer this in case it helps.

[Bestafter60]

6'4 and 67 years old here. On Tuesday I hurt my back while standing a long, heavy timber on end as part of a large project I'm working. I'm sure it was the twisting under load that got me. I had the classic problem that used to lead me to a chiropractor for adjustment. Wednesday my left lower back was in enough pain that l had doubts about doing deadlifts. I did them anyways, of course. During a warm up set at 305 l could feel things just sliding back into place. After my top set the pain had all but vanished into a dull distraction. It's Thursday morning and I'm writing this pain free.
This had been a common occurrence for me over my years of lifting. I believe moving under a heavy symmetrical load forces splinted muscles to give up and let the spine self-adjust back into a painfree alignment.
Changes are good this will work for you.