Tweaked my back last night

Rip.
On Oct 1 2019 I started back on SS LP. 60 y/o started squats at 85 lbs and to date Im at 225 lbs, Im doing all this with a shitty arthritic right hip and 2-3 full days of recovery between training sessions. Last night, on my work sets, I tweaked my lower middle back...Im pretty sure I slid to one side favoring the the bad hip... the weights felt HEAVY last night for the first time. I have phone appt today with my Dr. to see if we can get a picture of my back. If everything looks ok on x-ray can you please recommend a rehab protocol? I looked at Bill Stars here on the forums but these youngsters are doing 25 and 50 reps everyday...Im pretty sure that might kill me. I would think the rep count and sets could be modified some how. maybe? any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Gary

The Starr rehab protocol is thought to be good for muscle belly tears, which your back tweak most likely is not (unless you have a huge bruise near where it hurts). I don't really know what back tweaks are, but they don't show up on x-ray, so that will probably not be a helpful test, and will just give your doctor an opportunity to tell you that you have arthritis in your back, or loss of disc height, and maybe you shouldn't lift heavy things. If so, he or she will be wrong about that.

The general recommendation is to drop down to a weight where you can do the movement without limiting pain, and basically work your way up gradually from there. Will M or others may have more detailed suggestions.

I have trained through a number of back tweaks this way. They suck, but over the past two years since I started lifting and following SS more or less, they (tweaks) have become much more rare and brief with this approach.

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Originally Posted by jfsully

The general recommendation is to drop down to a weight where you can do the movement without limiting pain

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Just saw what I wrote last night and thought it might not make sense. What I meant was reduce your lift to a weight that you can do with good form. It might still hurt a bit, but the pain will not limit or prevent you from completing the lift and set with good form. You don't have to reduce to a weight low enough to get totally pain-free. Pain is not an indicator of damage, it's a warning signal. If you can train through it your tissues and brain will learn that the warning was not needed. This is a ridiculous oversimplification of pain theory, of course. The main thing is that you don't have to baby or totally rest these tweaks. It won't help and is often counterproductive.

The latest post by Dr. JFSully is nails. He is absolutely right, and oversimplification or not, it is the right message.

Thanks Doc.
Sorry for the late response, In my trying to figure out why the hell the weight felt so heavy I decided to weigh 2 of 45lb plates I was using, one weighed 49.2 pounds and the other weighed 47 pounds... coupled with feeling tired may have been part of the the prob. I'll lower the weight as you suggest and go from there.
appreciate your reply.

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Originally Posted by Will Morris

The latest post by Dr. JFSully is nails. He is absolutely right, and oversimplification or not, it is the right message.

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Thanks Will.

Repeated last workout, belted up this time, 225 was easy. thanks gentlemen.

Awesome. Appreciate the update. Happy hunting.