Injury prevention caused by form breakdown.

[Doug90000]

Coach,

48 Y/O male. I tweaked my back a bit today on my first set, second rep of squats. I've been running the program for 6 weeks making 10 pound progression. Last week my last set of back squats were tough and I feel my form may have suffered on the last few reps of the last set.

I have a history of back issues. Herniated discs from L3 through S1. Prior to Starting Strength, I've injured my back twice before training. Both injuries were from deadlifting with poor form and too much weight.

To today, even though I felt like my form suffered a bit, I counted the reps last workout and moved on to today, with a ten pound increase. Warm ups felt OK, nothing remarkable, maybe a bit of stress on the lower back but I chalked that up to warmups as it wasn't really anything out of the ordinary.

The questions. If my form suffers when finishing reps, should I consider those missed and reset? Once my pain and stiffness has passed and I'm back to lifting, should I be limiting my linear progressions to smaller increments and just sticking to them?

Most importantly, rather than doing nothing, which I've done in the past when my back has flared up, is there a way to start working through this to heal faster with out prolonging recovery or reinsuring my back?

Thanks

[Mark Rippetoe]

Starting Strength: Article

[AndrewLewis]

My word. You've put 180lb on your squat in 6 weeks at the age of 48? What weight did you start out on and why haven't you switched to 5lb increments?

[Doug90000]

I started very light recovering from major foot surgery. First workout was 18 weeks post op at 135 pounds. Before my injury I was doing another program and was squatting 225 but only for two reps. Still holding 17 screws and a few plates in my right calcaneus today.

There's been missed workouts in between due to foot pain, travel, etc. I struggled a bit at 205, missed 225, redid 205 the following week and blew right through 225. It wasn't until this week that I started losing tempo on the way up so I figure I'm at the point that its time to switch to 5. My missed lift was 295.

This one feels like a 3 week injury from my experience. I'll take any advice anyone has on how far to reset when I'm on my feet again.