How soon to start rehab lifting after a lower back injury?

[Logan1]

I am quite familiar with the Starr Protocol. Starr was a brilliant man, and his idea of working a muscle belly tear almost immediately after injury is (still) revolutionary. The Starr Protocol has helped (probably) thousands of people return to training after muscle belly injuries. I cannot say this harshly enough, however, the Starr Protocol is NOT APPROPRIATE for joint, tendon, or back injuries. It is NOT APPROPRIATE for tendinitis, myalgia, arthritis, or other maladies. It is appropriate for muscle belly tears, and, honestly, I think we can do better even for those.

Does the rep range you recommend vary with the type of injury? For example, would you suggest lower reps when rehabilitating a lower body injury than an upper body injury? For a hamstring injury, instead of 3X25 deadlifts, would several sets of 5 or less be better?

I appreciate that you are volunteering your time and I understand that you may not have time to answer specific rehab questions.

[Will Morris]

The rep scheme is determined by the injury or the malady itself. But, as a general rule, my clinical practice has shown me that repeated doubles at higher intensity are observably more effective than high rep schemes with low load. For long standing tendon pain, I’ll use repeated triples but do these with a high eccentric tempo (3-1-2). Since the tempo is slowed, you have to make up for the loss of intensity from the reduced load by increasing the in set volume and time under tension.

[Logan1]

The rep scheme is determined by the injury or the malady itself. But, as a general rule, my clinical practice has shown me that repeated doubles at higher intensity are observably more effective than high rep schemes with low load. For long standing tendon pain, I’ll use repeated triples but do these with a high eccentric tempo (3-1-2). Since the tempo is slowed, you have to make up for the loss of intensity from the reduced load by increasing the in set volume and time under tension.

Thank you very much!