Recovering from hamstring injury

Howdy

I have been lifting for a little more than a year. Near the beginning of May - I felt the back and inner portion of my thighs very stretched during my squat workout (195 lbs 4 reps; 175 lbs 8 reps; 145 lbs 10 reps). I was actually planning to hit 16 reps on the 145 but stopped due to the pain and stretch. However, I did not have any issue doing anything else and completed the rest of my workout.

The next two days were rest days. On the second rest day, I was cycling to work when I felt something pop in the backside of my left thigh. I limped for a few days (3-4) after which the pain was gone and I could walk normally. I iced it, at the time of injury and as I was anyway going on vacation I did not have any strenuous gym session for about 2-3 weeks. A week after the incident - I started doing stretches and bodyweight squats and DB goblet squats. I did some running and was feeling all better so I decided to get back under the barbell after my vacation.

On the first day back in the gym, I tried deadlifts in 5 sets of 5, adding from 95 lbs to 195 lbs. I felt comfortable but did not add any more weight for the day. After a rest day, I came back for squats but as soon as I got to 135 lbs for a set of 5 - I felt the all too familiar painful stretch in the back and inner portion of my thighs (both). I had to stop again. After a few days, the pain was again gone. I started doing stretches and lying leg curls, cycling, etc.

While running and passing a football around I felt very tight and stretched, this time more so on my right leg but again on the inner and back part of the thigh. It was painful and very tight, but with stretching, icing and rest, it went away. I consulted a PT. He had me do 90-degree band stretches, lying curls with ankle weights, cycling and light leg pressing. I have been icing my thighs after each workout.

I read an earlier post and an answer by Mark regarding muscle belly injuries and wish I had seen it before: https://startingstrength.com/resourc...squatting.html

I had a few questions about this and would have posted it there itself but the thread was closed.

1) I feel my injuries are similar to the one described in the thread linked above but wanted to confirm?

2) In progressively increasing the load on 3*25 rep squats, are there no rest days?

3) Should I only be doing squats till I can do 5 sets of 5 with a weight I could do before the injury?

I appreciate your guidance!

Best regards