Tight Back & Crack

[kayno]

Gday mate, cheers for the great info in the books, got SS 2nd, and PP. Been doing it, love it, am in your debt. Practiced what you preached for 4 months and put on 16kgs even though weight gain wasnt a goal (strength is), strength has improved out of sight and nothing fits anymore. I'm not exaggerating i even have to get a new watch strap.
I'll give you some background to better help you with my query.
Age- 34
Weight- 88 kg
Height- 5' 9
Training- Texas Method, spent 3 months learning Oly Lifting at a state association.
Fexibility- crap
Injuries- never
So, i found that my lower back was becoming increasingly tight at rest, not sore as such but just really tight. If i went for a run for a warm up before training then it just got unbearably tight and would have to stop about 3 min in. So i saw a physio who told me i was a tight arse in so many words, and tight hammys too so gave me stretches for those aswell as the hip flexors. My query is:
1-that with all the movements being done with a lower back locked hard under load particularly with pulls why does there not need to be a counter balance with some more torso flexion built into these type of programs. The only one i can think of is sit ups which dont seem to rate terribly high in the programs hierachy.
2- what do you think is an effective way for me to avoid this problem in the future.
Thanks again mate hope you dont slam me like some of the other drop kicks but if you do i'll still have a laugh.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Here's the deal: when you are experiencing your early growth spurts, it is frequently reported that the lower back becomes "tight" as you describe upon exertion that involves postural muscle isometric contraction, like running. It happened to me as well. My theory is that it is a form of muscle compartment syndrome, where the muscle belly has grown faster than the fascia around it can accommodate. It will go away eventually, but a myofascial release might help. I didn't know about MF release when I was in this phase, so I just dealt with it. Find a massage therapist and give it a try.

[kayno]

Thanks mate that could be it cause another time the pain gets real bad is when i do the dishes (hips in slight flexion).
-On a related topic, since i have already made those initial increases in body weight and strength, am on an intermediate program, is GOMAD still the best way to go?, my nutrition quality and amount of calories has never been a problem.
My body weight 88kgs-deadlift 3RM 150kgs -squat 3RM 125 kgs -press 3RM 65kgs -bench 3RM 105kgs -clean 60kgs / 3rep
-And an unrelated topic, you say in PPST pg.149 that "focused abdominal exercises may be the most important assistant movements to include". So if we give the trunk musculature a stimulus while doing all of our functional compound movements with a decent load, why is it then necessary to do isolation exercises for the abs?
Thanks again mate, stoked for your input.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think that at 5'9" you can carry quite a bit more than 88 kg. I'd try the milk for a while and see what happens to your numbers. If you're intermediate and find you're getting too fat, back off. And I don't think it will hurt to do an occasional set or two of knees-to-elbows or weighted situps. It is true that heavy pulls, squats, and presses keep your abs strong, but it still won't hurt.

[kayno]

re: abs, sorry to be persistant on this one rip but "why not" was the response i got when asking another friend who i regarded knowledgable. I'd like to know what you think are the actual benefits to adding isolated ab work to this type of programming. I've been doing the program to date without any ab stuff, and i was just wondering if i could get added benefits by bringing them in to the routine or could they be a waste of time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Try them and see. People have been using heavy brief ab work quite productively for a long time because a little extra ability to stabilize the spine is never a bad thing.