How to avoid making something worse

[BobEwell]

Any suggestions on how to tell when a minor ache or pain is a warning sign or nothing?

I am 63 about 5"10 230lbs(working on slowly reducing) and have found lifting twice a week seems to work for me.

I currently "frankensquat"(bad shoulders that first had me front squatting until it started bothering knees and now low bar
squatting with a rope and handle to hold bar onto shoulders) to a box with 135 3x5 and this is still relatively light, benching 107.5(bad shoulders again limiting) 3x5 and still adding 2.5 per week and deadlifting 195 1x5 and increasing 5 lbs a week.

I have had a hernia for years and just lived with it. Last time I lifted I felt something in the groin area very mildly when squatting and then mildly when bending over to
the bar to deadlift. When I actually pulled it didn't seem to get worse until the last rep of my working set where after the 4th set I noticed it enough to stand up, I stood up, decided it wasn't any worse, and did the final rep.

Two days later I have a minor ache in groin area and a little below but cheek on back of leg. None of these are close to what I would call painful, more just a "I am here" type of thing.

I have had similar things happen with my back, hips, stomache area etc and so my post.

Is there a "safe" way to determine when these what I would call twinges are a warning signs or just part of life? My current approach is just to workout and if I feel something get noticably worse stop, but I have two concerns here: One, what if the jump from say 150-175lbs on warmup set is enough to cause a problem(I can do more warm-ups with lesser jumps, but then I start to feel tired by my working set). Two, it seems I feel stuff several hours or even a day or two after I lift and I don't know if it is possible to cause an injury and not know it for a day or more.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

thank you.

[Dr.B.]

As a general rule, discomfort that appears a day or two after you lift isn't cause for concern, especially if it's in the form of aches, as opposed to sharp pains. As I've gotten older (I'm 51) I've noticed that the sort of thing you describe has become more common. The more I focus on perfect form and not trying to grind out that final rep, no matter what, the less likely I am to have problems a day or two later. (I've abandoned having set number of reps in my workouts. Now I quit when I'm positive I can do one more rep with good form. Yes, it slows my progress a bit, but it's made a *big* difference in the post lifting ache & pains. The tradeoff has absolutely been worth it for me.)

Another good guideline is to move it if movement makes it feel better (moderately at first, especially after any injury). If movement makes it feel worse, either reduce the load until that doesn't happen, or don't move it that way.

Lots of people have had success by treating their "I am here" aches and pains with trigger point therapy. There's a lot of "bro-science" and outright quackery out there about trigger points, but I can recommend two very solid sources: painscience.com and the "Trigger Point Therapy Workbook" by Davies. Both have helped me out enormously for many years.

[Dust Devil]

"Trigger Point Therapy Workbook"

GREAT book and it fixes 99% of the injuries I experience when weight lifting.