Back pain and another unrelated question.

[Albert987]

Hi Coach

Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving. I'm sure I gained 2 lbs yesterday.

I've been doing the advanced novice routine outlined in PP, alternating power cleans and deadlifts each week.

A couple weeks ago, my back started having this pain. It was my day of front squats, presses, and power cleans. Everything was fine during the workout. But before I went to bed, my lower back started having this sharp pain. It hurt whenever I twisted my torso, leaned forward, or even tripped on something. It bothered me quite a bit for the first few days.

Two days later, it was back squat day. I really didn't want to give up on increasing my back squat, so I kind of just ignored the pain and went for it. It didn't hurt during the sets, and actually got a lot better when I finished.

Another back squat day three days later, and the pain got even better.

Two days later, the workout included deadlifts. My back still hurt a little, but I figured since it was ok with squats, it should be ok with deads. I went with the deads and got an increase, and my back felt better.

The pain is pretty much gone now, but I'd like to know what caused it and how I can avoid it again.


Also, is my body disproportionate? My lifts right now are:
bench- 165 3x5
squats- 275 3x5
dead- 405 1x5
press- 125 3x5

It seems like my upper body is really weak compared to my lower body, is this ok?
I have lots of trouble increasing my presses even with microloading and lots of milk/food, and two sets of dips. Should I try adding in more assistance exercises, or do you think intermediate programming would show better improvements?

Thanks
Albert

[Mark Rippetoe]

You can't avoid it. Injuries are a part of training heavy. But now you know that injuries heal, and that training through them is almost always the thing you have to do. Your deadlift does seems very strong relative to your other lifts, and without being there I can't say why. Could be anthropometry, or it could be programming/training problems. You're sharp enough to figure out a way to train through the injury, so you'll figure this out too.